A Strange, Extraordinary (and Secret) Story (Ep. 18)
There's a great story behind everything, including the history of a language.
The words "history" and "story" share a common etymology—you'd never have guessed! They're derived from the Latin historia, which was used to mean both "a narrative of past events" (history) and "a narrative of connected events" (story). In English, the two words were used interchangeably until the 14th century or so. In other languages, the same word is still used for both meanings.
So why is history often communicated so boringly? Fact after fact after fact with dates and people's names and places and wars and treaties and…you get the idea. Stories are engaging. History is a story. Why isn't it narrated like one?
Well, sometimes it is. I just finished reading an exceptionally entertaining, immensely informative, enormously engaging story of the history of the Maltese language. Yes, I used both "story" and "history" in that last sentence. Deliberately. Even though it doesn't sound great. But hey, this is Breaking the Rules, so who cares?
If you're sufficiently fluent in Maltese, you can (and should) get a copy of Mela … l-istorja stramba, straordinarja (u sigrieta) tal-ilsien Malti kif ma jgħiduhilekx fil-klassi by Antoinette Borg (Merlin Publishers).
…and this article's title is inspired by the book's subtitle.
Yeah, I'm not writing about Python programming today • This Substack is about "narrative technical writing", but two of those three words can have broad definitions. I usually define "narrative" as the use of stories and storytelling techniques, but you can read the previous 17 articles for an, ahem, more detailed take on the topic.
As a scientist who now writes about programming, I usually define "technical" as science-y, maths-y, programming-y, if you know what I mean. But history and linguistics can also fit well into the technical domain. And they're also subjects that are traditionally conveyed in a rather—how can I put this politely—dour tone. Yes, bo-ring is what I really mean.
So, what can we learn from this storytelling masterpiece that we can use when writing about whatever "technical" subject we write about?
A story isn't just a sequence of events • The caricature of learning history paints the subject as a sequence of dates, each associated with a factual description of events. 1066: William the Conqueror lands in Hastings. That sort of thing.
However, what's more interesting is what happens in between those dates...and why it happens. This reminds me of the South Park storytelling framework, which I wrote about a few months ago: The South Park Technical Writing Manual (Ep. 14). There's a video you can find on the web where the programme's creators explain how they ensure that events are connected using "but" and "therefore" instead of "and".
The history of a language is full of "buts" and "therefores", and Mela's author takes the reader through this weaving journey. I knew many of the facts I read about in the book from my history lessons as a school child. But the "whys" were mainly missing. I knew about the pillars of the Maltese language–the counterparts of Shakespeare and Milton and Dickens–but their life stories, which I didn't know, put a whole new layer of context to their work.
A programming tutorial can easily be written as a sequence of facts. That's the easiest way to write a tutorial. But just like with the history of a language, or any history, it's what happens in between those facts that's key—and why it happens.
Language • How often do you read out aloud (excluding if you have young children)? Not often, I know. But if you did, would the language used in the book sound like the language you use with your mates when you're chatting in a coffee shop or down the pub?
Sure, there are instances when the language needs to be more formal. But can you justify writing a tutorial about [insert topic] in a formal tone—a tutorial whose only purpose is to inform and teach your reader about the topic? Which tone is likely to help your reader learn the material effectively? I know you know the answer!
The reader • Do you know who one of the main characters in the story of the Maltese language was? Yours truly! Or so it seemed as I read Mela. I was even entrusted to be the detective in a murder mystery involving one of the early pioneers of the Maltese language.
And this is something I want to do more of in my own writing: involve the reader explicitly and directly. Sure, modern style guides recommend using the second person singular you when writing tutorials rather than the first person plural we or, worse still, the passive voice. I also use you in my articles on The Python Coding Stack to show I'm talking to the reader. But is that enough? Just switching to using you, while definitely beneficial, may give the author the impression they've done enough to include the reader.
We can do more. Oops! I meant "You can do more". My journey through the history of Maltese encouraged me to actively participate in the book by prompting me to stop and think about an issue, answer questions, figure out which historical anecdotes may be true or false, and, yes, become a detective in a centuries-old murder mystery!
Conciseness • I promised to keep these musings brief, so I'll stop here, even though there's more I could write. And that's another thing we can learn from this book. History books, like programming tutorials, can sometimes go on and on, meandering through every (in)significant detail. But, as the cliché goes, sometimes (often), less is more.
Afterword • Breaking the Rules is breaking out of the confines of these words and sentences, bits and bytes here on Substack. There's already a Discord forum set up (1. It's brand new. 2. Yes, I don't like Discord, either. But it's the least bad of all the platforms to create forums/fora and communities. 3. Thanks for asking, here's the link to join.)
The technical article review club will start soon. It's like a book club, but for technical articles, and it focuses on technical writing rather than the articles' content.
And I'm starting to record video lessons for a course on narrative technical writing. I'll start releasing this course soon.
No, no, this won't be a course that will teach you how to set up a publication, make $$$ per month from your writing, or tell you all the useless/boring stuff you can figure out for yourself. This course, the Breaking the Rules course, will take you on a journey through storytelling, convincing you that humans need stories, they thrive on stories, and they learn best from stories. I'll present evidence from history (all of humanity) and science. We'll talk about cognitive load and how to reduce it, how the brain visualises what we read, and why all this matters when we write, and lots more. And, of course, I’ll discuss how to apply all of this to your technical writing.
So no, this will most certainly not be one of those follow-these-seven-steps-to-success self-help cr--ash courses (phew, I was about to write something else there.)
And this is not just theory. I practise what I preach, so you can have a look at my experiments with narrative technical writing at The Python Coding Stack.
Join the Breaking the Rules forum or stay tuned here to find out more (or send me an email to tell me you're interested.)
--End of promotional message. Sorry!--
"History"and "Story" are still in use interchangeably in French.
Ex: Lies (stories) are often called histories (Des histoires).