In an age saturated with information, the ability to communicate clearly and effectively has never been more crucial. Writing matters — and when it comes to fiction and screenwriting, you have to be so engaging on the page that no one wants to look away to any of the countless distractions at their fingertips.

Doing that is easier said than done.

In a recent interview, Harvard professor Steven Pinker dug into just what makes great writing and how you can command attention in the modern era.

Pinker is a distinguished linguist and cognitive psychologist. He has also written a ton of books. In this captivating 40+ minute conversation, he shares his golden rules of writing, dissects common pitfalls, and even weighs in on the role of AI in the future of communication.

Let’s dive in.

Unlocking the Secrets of Great Writing: A Glimpse into the Mind of Steven Pinker

When it comes to writing in the modern era, Pinker identifies the primary culprit behind opaque, confusing writing as a cognitive bias he calls the “curse of knowledge”.

This is the inability to remember what it’s like to not know something that you already know.

To illustrate this, Pinker shares a powerful anecdote about a molecular biologist at a TED conference. The biologist, a brilliant researcher, began his talk with a slide full of complex diagrams and technical terms, completely losing his audience from the outset. He was so immersed in his own world of knowledge that he couldn’t bridge the gap to his listeners.

Storytelling is a lot like that.

Often, we know our stories so coldly that communicating them to the people who know nothing can be really hard. We need to think about the audience as we unpack our stories and unfold them in a way that lets them engage.

Before you send your work out into the world, as Pinker says, “have flesh-and-blood people read your work”. There is no substitute for a fresh pair of eyes to tell you where your writing is clear and where it’s confusing.

The Power of Concreteness

“Good writing helps readers form mental images,” Pinker emphasizes. The human mind doesn’t think in abstract terms; it thinks in pictures.

He urges writers to favor concrete, specific language.

I think this will really help storytellers. What is happening on screen? What are people actually doing? Don’t be vague, tell us in simple terms.

We want these blueprints for movies to allow us to see them in our minds. So be clear and tell us what’s happening in ways that allow others to see.

The Writer’s Solitary Challenge

Have you ever wondered why expressing an idea feels so much easier when you’re speaking than when you’re writing?

Pinker explains that conversation has a built-in support system. We share a physical context with our listeners, we get immediate feedback from their facial expressions, and we can clarify our points in real-time if we see a “furrowed brow”.

The writer has none of these advantages. You have to anticipate your reader’s every question and misunderstanding without any direct interaction.

Plot can get confusing — really work on laying it out in a way that makes logical sense. I use Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s “Because” trick, where you list scenes that happen because the one prior happened. That way, your story makes sense.

The Music of Prose

Writing is also finding your own voice. What do you have to say to the audience? And how does a person like you say it?

For Pinker, writing is not just a technical skill; it’s an aesthetic one. He is a firm believer in the importance of euphony, or the pleasing sound of words. He advises writers to read their prose aloud to catch awkward rhythms and clunky phrases.

Pare it down until it sounds smooth and inviting.

The Future of Writing

Pinker doesn’t mince words when it comes to the state of academic writing. His general idea is that if you write for an audience that doesn’t understand you, then you have no audience.

Now, I don’t think that’s quite applicable to us because we aren’t writing for academics, but I do think you should keep this in mind if you’re writing film criticism or even screenplays. You want to talk about things in a way that has an audience. That doesn’t mean dumbing it down.

It means establishing your voice and knowing who you are talking to.

Once you’re confident in those two things, you can move forward.

The good news is that AI and LLMs cannot be you. It cannot take away who you are and what your unique perspective brings to the table.

It can only homogenize stuff.

Pinker acknowledges that AI can produce grammatically correct and logically structured text, but he finds their output to be “generic and prosaic”. He speculates that the ability of LLMs to abstract patterns from vast amounts of data might even influence his own approach to writing, giving more weight to this power of abstraction.

And I think they’re a waste of time in screenwriting. It has no reward and no soul.

The only way your words will connect with people is if you’re leaving a little bit of yourself behind.

Summing It All Up

This interview was a rich exploration of the art of writing. It’s a reminder that good writing is not about following a rigid set of rules, but about understanding the psychology of your reader and using language with precision, empathy, and a touch of a human being.

Let me know what you think in the comments.