Vertical Writing
Writers build a piece step by step, moving through each scene in the order they discovered it. Readers arrive from above, scanning for the part that serves them. When those directions cross, attention leaks. Horizontal prose retraces the author’s trail. Vertical prose meets the reader at the destination.
A support email can open with “We escalated your ticket and checked warehouse logs,” or it can start, “Your replacement headset ships today.” A weather update can lecture on forming pressure cells, or say, “Heavy rain after 3 p.m.; carry an umbrella.” A product note can detail months of refactoring, or simply, “The app now opens twice as fast.”
Draft freely, then keep only the sentences that stand like pillars for the reader; cut the side-notes that sprawl like fallen logs.