White Space Is Your Friend!

I was working with some of my classmates from my Opening the Money Flow Class (www.heartofbusiness.com) yesterday. We’ve all been working on our websites which means writing web copy. I found myself saying to one person something like “this is great copy, but it needs to be broken up – you don’t want a huge block of text on the web.”

This let to a discussion about how hard it still is to read on the screen (will we ever have screens that really look like paper, or paper that is still like paper, but behaves like a screen?). I realized I actually have a sort of switch in my head. When I’m writing for the web I tend to write short paragraphs, use bullets, headlines and subheads – anything to leave lots of white space so it’s easier to read.

The same thing is true of brochures and flyers. The reader needs to be able to tell in an instant if they’re interested enough to read more closely.

And, in fact, lots of white space has also become acceptable, even necessary, for many books, particularly non-fiction books. On the printed page devices like call-outs can be used in addition to bullets, headlines, etc. to break up great swatches of grey type. So can illustrations, although anything other than line drawings in black and white can get too expensive.

The way writing looks on the page, be it a web page or a printed page is an important part of the whole writing process.

Write well and often,

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