Writing in two registers

This site has a toggle: Essence shows the short version of everything, Everything shows the long one. Building it changed how I write.

The two-sentence version isn’t a summary of the long one — it’s a different act. Essence is what you’d say standing in a doorway; Everything is what you’d say if asked to sit down. Most writing fails by doing the doorway speech at sitting-down length.

Now I draft the essence first. If the long version doesn’t earn the chair, it doesn’t ship.