Manners

This is a short treatise on good manners.

I've noticed that the people with the best manners remember them whomever they're speaking with. I've noticed they treat everyone much the same. They're never obsequious, nor are they gruff, or not for long. They have a sense of humor, and they seem perfectly natural and at ease in every kind of company — as though this is how you'd catch them just being themself.

Good writers are like that on the page. They are well-mannered, not mannerly. Nothing they say feels like affectation. They are naturally civil and frank, kind and careful and precise. Every reader matters to them equally, but only as much as is relevant. They privilege no one in particular; they address each of us as a kind of everyman or everywoman.

You have a reader; don't forget her. Treat her with respect, but not too much, no matter who she is.

Treat her as an adult (unless she is in fact a child), and write as if you were having with her the best conversation you've never had with anyone.