Writing Isn't Magic, It's Design: A Creator's Guide to the 27 Patterns Framework
My accessible interpretation of Michael Dean's framework to help you diagnose, refine, and elevate your content with self-editing superpowers.
Unlocking Your Writing's Potential: A Creator's Guide to the 27 Essay Patterns
These 27 Patterns are the smallest recurring design problems that occur across every essay. - Michael Dean
Ever read your own writing and feel like something's… off? You know it could be better, more impactful, but you can't quite pinpoint why or how? Or perhaps you admire other creators' work but struggle to deconstruct what makes it so effective? You're not alone. Many writers and content creators face the challenge of moving from a vague sense of "good enough" to consistently producing work that is clear, engaging, and truly resonates.
This is where Michael Dean's 27-Pattern Framework for essay writing comes in. Michael Dean, is an architect + writer, who developed this system by analyzing classic essays, focusing on the kind of timeless, meticulously crafted pieces that stand as works of art. His original (and partially published) framework offers a deep dive into the "architecture" of great writing.
Making an Advanced Concept Accessible for Creators
While Dean's work often leans towards literary analysis, this post is my interpretation, designed specifically for you – the modern content creator. If you're aiming for writing that is:
Clear (ELI25 - Explain Like I'm 25)
Engaging and Easy to Digest
Value-Packed and Actionable
... then this breakdown is for you. My goal is to make this powerful, sometimes complex, framework accessible. I'll be sharing my understanding and speculation on these patterns, adapting them to the kind of content that busy, potentially burnt-out creators (and their audiences) appreciate: direct, impactful, and immediately useful.
The differences here:
The OG framework for evaluating essay writing developed by Michael Dean, is focusing on crafting high quality proper essays. The kind of essay that is timeless. The kind that writers painstakingly redraft, read to their families to work out how it sounds, and then finally publish this shining work of art for the world to appreciate. The subtext will have it's own subtext. The goal here is to be a bit mysterious and lead the reader to think the questions that are never stated.
This is not what I focus on. I focus on very readable essays, and optimize for 'clear (ELI25)', 'engaging' and 'easy to digest' with a side goal of 'value-packed' and 'actionable'. I optimize for my readers, who are possibly tired, burnout content creators that don't really have patience or time for literary works of art. Based off my reading preferences, I have found that now I like shorter content that is more direct. So my interpretation will be colored by my writing goals.
Why This Framework Matters for You
This isn't just another "how to write" guide. Instead, it’s a powerful toolkit for analyzing writing – your own, and that of others. We are approaching the problem of how to write by improving your tools of analyzing your own writing and the writing of others. By understanding these 27 recurring "design problems" and their solutions, you'll develop a critical eye and gain self-editing superpowers.
This framework is a way to think about writing, and then from there on, deliberately practice by critically evaluating.
You'll be able to move beyond a simple "I like this article" to a much more insightful "I like this article because the author masterfully builds tension here, or because their use of microcosm makes a complex idea incredibly tangible." or maybe in simpler words: "because the author is very good at being clear, and they could improve the impact by evoking more imagery". It is not about the fancy terms, but understanding writing on a deeper level.
Think of this framework as a highlighting editor for your writing. It helps you see the underlying structures, identify weak spots, and make deliberate choices to improve your craft.
Read this, if you are the kind of person who wants to form an opinion on the craft of writing.
Read this, if you want to unlock new levels of clarity and impact in your own work.
[Prep Work] Understanding the Framework's Architecture: The 3x3x3 Structure
ELI25: Picture this framework as a well-organized toolbox.
It has 3 large Trays (Dimensions).
Each Tray holds 3 specific Tool Sets (Elements, like a screwdriver set or a wrench set).
And each Tool Set contains 3 individual Tools (Patterns, like a Phillips head, a flat head, and a star bit).
This gives you 3 Trays x 3 Tool Sets x 3 Tools = 27 specific tools to analyze and fix your writing.
At its core, the 27-Pattern Framework is built on a clear hierarchy:
Dimensions (Top Level Category): These are the three broadest categories for analyzing writing.
Elements (Second Level (Levels)): Each Dimension is broken down into three more specific Elements.
Patterns (Third Level): Each Element, in turn, contains three distinct Patterns. These are the most granular parts of the framework.
So, the structure unfolds like this:
Dimension → Element → Pattern
This systematic 3x3x3 structure (3 Dimensions x 3 Elements x 3 Patterns = 27 Patterns) isn't just for neatness. As Michael Dean states:
These 27 Patterns are the smallest recurring design problems that occur across every essay. - Michael Dean
The Power of Three?
Doesn’t this reminds you of the Rule of Three in Greek Philosophy (Pythagoras) "Three is perfection"
There is a common "rule of three" in writing and rhetoric, a memorable way to organize complex ideas.
1 Dimension has 3 Elements.
1 Element has 3 Patterns.
Visualizing the Structure
Michael Dean uses various visualizations to explain this framework. The key is understanding how the Elements nest within Dimensions, and Patterns within Elements.
Beyond the Basic Structure: Deeper Layers of Organization
There are a lot of ways to add categorization to this, for example, coloring the patterns as he does in explaining this framework to David Perell in this video (specific timestamp here).
This color coding highlights how different patterns contribute to different reader experiences and the roles that the writers take on.
You can see the way that elements (2nd level) are used to organize the patterns (3rd level) better with this graphic:
There is so much depth to the structure here, and they can be organized in different ways.
Another way to view the 9 Elements is through the lens of classical rhetoric (Ethos, Pathos, Logos). This connects the framework to timeless principles of persuasive communication. Here is my annotation of one of his images from this article about pattern language.
Interconnectedness of Patterns
It's crucial to remember that these patterns aren't isolated silos. They are deeply interconnected. For example, "Imagery" (which we'll discuss later) isn't confined to one spot; it can be woven into almost any of the 27 patterns to enhance its effect.
Side note: I am working off the version of the diagram that he was showing David Perel because I think this is the most recent version. But if you look through his notes, you can actually see that he rearranges some of the elements sometimes. See:
This does add more information that I'm going to try and decipher. But it is also going to be a bit confusing. So keep in mind, I'm going to be using this image as the basis for everything.
The Three Pillars of Great Writing: Exploring the Dimensions
Now that we understand the 3x3x3 structure of the framework, let's zoom in on the first level: the three core Dimensions. These are the broadest lenses through which we can analyze any essay: Idea, Form, and Voice.
Think of these Dimensions as the foundational pillars upon which every compelling piece of writing is built.
We are starting with the top: Idea. Form. Voice.
Dimension 1: IDEA – The "What" of Your Writing
ELI25: "Idea" is simply what you're writing about – the core message, concept, or story that sparked your desire to put words on the page. It's the raw substance of your piece.
This is the simplest of the 3. It's what idea do you have that made you want to write something?
The "Idea" dimension is arguably the simplest of the three to grasp conceptually. It all begins with a thought, an observation, or a question that you feel is worth exploring and sharing. This is the fundamental reason your essay exists.
Dimension 2: FORM – The "How" It's Structured
ELI25: "Form" is the shape and structure you give to your idea. Think of it as the container or blueprint for your message – are you building a towering skyscraper (a long-form essay) or a concise, impactful tiny house (a tweet)?
Form dictates how your idea is presented and experienced by the reader. It encompasses everything from the overall architecture of your essay to the arrangement of individual paragraphs.
Form is the structure that you are going to put your idea through.
Are you going to condense it into a short tweet that has to fit within a certain number of words or characters? In this case, you would have to cut out a lot of the details and the purpose of the writing might just be to point out that there is this problem and direct people somewhere else to read the full essay.
In comparison, the full essay would want to give a more gentle introduction to the problem and really get people to relate to you on this.
Think of this as the confines of a box, so you can't dream all over the place and also scaffolding for you to build your idea onto. Confines are actually really good for getting a writer to start working. The blank page is too intimidating, because when you have too many possibilities, you don't really know where to latch onto to anchor and start building from.
Summary of Form:
Constraints as Catalysts: Brief condensed tweet vs Detailed exploration & nuanced arguments of a full essay? These confines aren't limitations but rather creative springboards. A blank page can be intimidating due to endless possibilities; structure provides an anchor and scaffolding to begin building.
Guiding the Reader: Form helps you lead your reader through your thoughts in a logical and engaging way. The purpose of your writing (e.g., to quickly inform, to deeply persuade, to entertain) will heavily influence its form.
Dimension 3: VOICE – The "Who" Behind the Words (Dressing)
ELI25: "Voice" is what makes your writing sound uniquely yours. It’s the personality, style, and distinct flavor you bring to the words, ensuring it doesn’t sound like it could have been written by anyone else (or an AI!).
I consider ‘voice’ to be all the things that make this piece of writing sound like you are the one who wrote it instead of any other writer. Michael Dean explains 'Voice' as the facade of a building, and I like the analogy of this where this is the part that dresses up all the good insights that you have to attract people over here.
This is like the nice packaging of your ideas and usually you want the voice to be prevalent throughout your writing but it is sort of like the extra bonus cosmetic makeup for your article.
I actually experimented with a few different personas, fictional character personas, in order to get this kind of effect in my writing. And I actually really like this snarky CARROTA (AI Overlord) persona.
Summary of Voice:
Authenticity: It's the nice packaging for your ideas, but it's more than just cosmetic. A strong voice should be prevalent throughout, adding an extra layer of connection and appeal.
Personality: This is where your unique style shines. For example, I've experimented with different personas in my own writing, like my snarky AI Overlord, CARROTA. This kind of experimentation can help you discover and refine your voice.
Breaking It Down Further: The 9 Core Elements (Second Level)
Alright, so we've got the three big Dimensions: Idea, Form, and Voice. Now, let's get into the next layer – the Elements. Each Dimension is made up of three Elements. Think of these as the main ingredients or components that bring each Dimension to life.
Elements of IDEA (Material, Thesis, Title)
For idea, I think of material, thesis, and title as the steps of refining that you go through from a raw thought to something ready for the world.
Here's how I see that flow:
It starts with a fleeting thought, an idea. You build upon this, and that’s how you get Material 📚.
You write down your own experiences, developing the idea more fully from your perspective and life.
Then you might go out and research other people's experiences and theories.
Next comes the Thesis ☀️.
After developing the idea with these materials, you try to summarize what you know into a single argument you want to discuss. This is what your article is about; it's your main argument.
With a thesis in hand, you'll likely filter your materials to best support it.
Finally, the Title 👀.
Often, after you've written the article, you craft the title. Or maybe you're a title-first kind of person!
The title is the first (and maybe only) thing people see. If it doesn't grab them, they won't click. This is where you craft the hook – to invite readers in, be unique, self-explanatory, and memorable enough for them to recommend.
Now, let's look at each of these Elements a bit closer with an ELI25 lens:
Element 1: MATERIAL 📚 – Gathering Your Building Blocks
ELI25: "Material" is all the stuff you gather and generate about your idea – your experiences, research, notes, and initial thoughts. It's the clay you'll use to sculpt your essay.
So, you've got this flicker of an idea, right? A fleeting thought. The "Material" stage is where you start to build on it.
Your Personal Angle: You jot down your own experiences, dig into how this idea connects to your life. This is where you develop the idea from your unique perspective.
Looking Outwards: Then, you might venture out. Research other people's experiences, theories they've cooked up, data, stories – anything that fleshes out the landscape around your idea.
Element 2: THESIS ☀️ – Your Core Argument, Distilled
ELI25: Your "Thesis" is the main point or central argument of your essay, boiled down. It's the "so what?" of your piece – what you really want to say.
Okay, so you've gathered all this Material. Now what? The "Thesis" is where you sift through it all and figure out the single, core argument you want to make. It's that "aha!" moment when you can say, "THIS is what my article is truly about."
Summarizing Your Knowledge: You take what you've learned from your materials and crystallize it into a central claim.
Filtering and Focusing: Once you've got that thesis, it acts like a magnet, helping you filter your materials and decide what truly supports your main argument in the final piece.
Element 3: TITLE 👀 – The All-Important First Impression
ELI25: The "Title" is your essay's handshake and invitation. It's the very first thing (and sometimes the only thing) people see, designed to grab attention and make them want to read more.
This is where you craft the hook. The title might come last, after the whole essay is written, or maybe you're the type who starts with a killer title and writes to answer the question it poses. Either way, it's critical.
The Gateway: If your title doesn't catch attention and spark curiosity, readers might just scroll on by. No clicks, no reads. Sad!
Memorable & Clear: A great title invites readers in. It needs to be unique, intriguing, and self-explanatory enough that people can actually remember it and tell their friends about your awesome work.
Elements of FORM: Shaping the Reader's Journey (Paragraph, Structure, Tension)
Alright, next up is FORM. If "Idea" is what you say, "Form" is all about how you shape it and present it. Think of it as a guide of how to write your essay, from the smallest building blocks to the overall craft of guiding your reader through the essay, in the form of telling a story.
Even if you're writing an essay, you are still building it like a story.
All of good communication is like storytelling. We have the same goal here where you want to build up the information that you are giving the reader so they can understand it and so they will remain engaged in what you are telling them as you go.
Even in an essay, you're building a journey for your reader, and Form is your map and your vehicle.
The three Elements of Form are Paragraph, Structure, and Tension.
Paragraph (Atomic Unit) 🧱: This is your basic building block. How do you organize ideas within these smaller chunks? Michael Dean’s model (which I’ll detail below) suggests each paragraph should tackle one idea with a clear setup, development, and payoff.
Structure 🗺️: This is the overall organization of your entire piece. How do you arrange your paragraphs and sections to create a logical, easy-to-follow flow that effectively delivers your message?
Tension (or Story) 🎣: This is about keeping your readers hooked! How do you create curiosity, manage expectations, and make them eager to find out what's next? It's about pacing the release of information to maintain engagement.
A little tangent here, if you have ever tried to write a fictional story, you probably have heard of plot arcs or like seven point story structure or even the hero's journey. I think this is actually a very good way to think of how to pace your article. So you want to have the counterpoints, the twists strategically spaced out in a story. In an article, you want to make sure that you control the pacing so that you can present counter arguments and either defeat them or integrate them into the narrative only once your reader has understood the main argument being made. Gently introduce in the beginning. Leave them questioning so they curiously read on.
Element 1: PARAGRAPH 🧱 – The Atomic Unit
ELI25: A "Paragraph" should be like a mini-essay, focused on one single idea. It needs a clear point, some explanation or examples, and a satisfying little conclusion or punch.
How do you organize this? The paragraph is the basic unit which you start with and if you are structuring according to his recommendation, then each paragraph represents one idea and only one idea.
Paragraphs are structured such that:
👋 The main point frames what is going to come next so that the reader is clear about what's going to happen. The main point also needs to make you feel curious about something. "Why are they saying this?"
〰️ Elaboration is where they have arguments to support this main point. They are answering the questions that came up because they made that statement in the main point. This is both explanation and examples.
🤯 Punchline can just be the last example, the most impactful example. And here the goal is to get the reader to feel a strong emotion. And he recommends that you do this with subtext. So when you read the statement, something occurs to you inside your head that makes you feel a strong emotion.
Your main goal with a paragraph? Don't bore your reader! Seriously. If they're not engaged or they get confused, they'll bounce. Convincing them of your point is crucial, but it's secondary to keeping them reading in the first place.
Element 2: STRUCTURE 🗺️ – The Blueprint for Clarity
ELI25: "Structure" is how you organize all your paragraphs and sections into a coherent, logical flow. It's the roadmap that ensures your reader doesn't get lost and can easily follow your argument from beginning to end.
Think of Structure as the overall architecture of your essay. It’s about presenting your information in a way that builds understanding step-by-step.
Don't Overwhelm: We often overestimate how much readers can hold in their heads. They're new to your specific take on these ideas.
Logical Flow: Like a mathematical proof, make sure you've explained any jargon or necessary background before you build on it. Explain the problem before the solution. Lay out the old way before introducing the new way.
Visual Cues: Things like clear headings (maybe even sticky ones online!) help readers know where they are and what's being discussed. This is super helpful for breaking up big chunks of info.
Element 3: TENSION (or Story) 🎣 – Keeping Readers Hooked
ELI25: "Tension" (which Dean often uses interchangeably with "Story" in this context) is the art of making your reader need to know what comes next. It’s about creating curiosity and a sense of unfolding discovery.
This Element is all about reader engagement. You want to dole out information strategically, keeping them curious but not confused.
The Balancing Act: If Structure is about clarity and giving readers a solid footing, Tension is about making them lean forward, eager for more. You need both. Too much "structure" without tension can feel dry. Too much "tension" (mystery) without clear structure can be frustrating.
Pacing is Key: It's not just what information you give, but when and how. You want to raise questions in the reader's mind, then satisfy them, then raise new ones. It’s like leading them on an intriguing trail.
Like Fiction: Think about how a good novel or movie paces itself. There are setups, build-ups, reveals, and turning points. Even non-fiction essays benefit from this kind of thoughtful pacing to maintain interest and make the argument more compelling. My tangent earlier about plot arcs, the seven-point story structure, or the hero's journey? That's all relevant here. You want to strategically place your points, counterpoints, and twists.
Structure vs Story / Tension
Quick Clarification: Michael Dean tends to use the word story and tension interchangeably to represent the same element here.
He tends to frame structure and story as opposing sides because if you're trying to add curiosity to keep the reader reading and to dole out information in small parts so that they can slowly follow along, you're not really giving them the top-down overview that would bring more clarity. But you need to balance both of them because you need to ensure that the reader can actually understand what you are writing about and yet, you would rather not stuff them with information at top speed. So I tend to think of it as pacing how much information you're giving them.
It is more than just how much information you're stuffing them with. It's also how you choose to arrange the information so that they are still going to keep reading because it feels like there is more to learn, and yet, they have enough that they're not frustrated by the confusion.
Elements of VOICE: Making Your Writing Unmistakably Yours (Spirit, Sound, Sight)
Voice is what every writer should have because this is why readers read your work instead of other writers who are also writing in the same space.
Here I am actually very opinionated. You don't want to sound like you're doing technical writing to the point where you strip out all of your personal voice and your personal experience from here because then you can just get AI to write it for you and nobody reads the fucking manual.
You can think of these elements (Spirit, Sound, Sight) as being slightly separate aspects for this dimension (Voice).
Element 1: SPIRIT 👻 – The Tone and Soul of Your Writing
ELI25: "Spirit" is the underlying tone and personality in your writing. It's the sum of your choices that makes the piece feel distinctly you, like your authorial fingerprint.
👻 Spirit or tone is the biggest influence here, yet also the most subtle thing. These are the editorial decisions that you make when you're writing.
It comes through in all those editorial decisions you make:
How you structure your text.
What kind of examples you choose.
The overall feeling your words evoke.
This is how you can tell who is speaking. It’s the soul behind the words.
Element 2: SOUND 🗣️ – The Musicality of Your Words
ELI25: "Sound" refers to how your writing flows and resonates when read, either aloud or in the reader's head. It’s about rhythm, pacing, and the pleasing arrangement of words.
🗣️ Sound: Basically you want to read your text aloud and maybe get somebody else to read it to you and listen to see if it sounds beautiful. Would it be something that would sound nice if it was set to music? Look at how people write poetry.
Why it Matters: People often have an inner voice that "reads" to them. So, how your writing sounds is actually super important.
Practical Benefits: Reading aloud helps you spot awkward phrasing or sentences that drag on forever (especially if you take a break between writing and editing this way).
Emphasis: Sound also plays into which parts of your text you want to emphasize, helping to make your argument clearer and more impactful.
Element 3: SIGHT 🎨 (or SENSES) – Immersing Your Reader
ELI25: "Sight" (or more broadly, "Senses") is about using vivid language and imagery to paint a picture and make your reader feel immersed in your world.
🎨 Humans are visual creatures, which is why "Sight" gets the name. But it's not just about the imagery you craft with your words. You could also literally add visuals to your piece.
This will actually probably be better named as Senses because you want to be like ASMR, tingling the senses and making the other person feel like they are immersed in the world you are painting around them. What you see, what you hear, what you feel → Invokes mood. Makes your writing memorable.
Diving Deep: The 27 Individual Patterns
This is where I get to decipher about what could possibly be implied by the name of each pattern because he hasn't written about most of them, and yet the names themselves are quite descriptive, especially when you see how he groups them.
We'll explore these pattern by pattern, grouped under the 9 Elements we just discussed (remember, each Element has 3 Patterns).
MATERIAL – The Raw Ingredients for Your Idea (Patterns: Experience, Argument, Reference)
You have an idea and from there you need to start to develop the idea with material.
Experience 😭: You start by adding on your personal experience and whatever feels strongest to you is usually a good impactful example, hopefully relatable to other people so that they can feel this pain point. Realistically, you are usually talking about a problem, a pain point, and so you usually have a personal, emotional example that evokes feeling.
Reference 📊: Next you will find references! Do some research and here you will look at other people's experiences which might or might not be as credible, or convincing to you. This is also where you look at numbers, at theories that other people have come up with, and essentially this is looking at related ideas in the same field. You also want to analyze the existing research critically, to inform your own opinion.
Argument 💬: You will use both your personal experience and the data that you have found in references to inform your own argument. And this is where you start shaping your arguments. And then you can think up counter arguments that other people could have to your argument and you need to form a response to them.
If 😭 Experience is looking at your personal experience and evoking feeling, at 📊 Reference you are looking at the numbers, the theories, the logic and invoking order. An argument is the synthesis of both, and forming an informed opinion, if not a balanced opinion. You can feel strongly about something, but you should be able to refute other people when they criticize your argument.
THESIS – Nailing Your Core Argument (Patterns: Microcosm, Response, Catalyst)
Recall: The thesis is a one-liner of your main argument.
🌋 Microcosm: A representative example
The word microcosm is actually so rare that I did not understand what it is and had to look it up in the dictionary.
Michael Dean also writes:
Microcosm : make your thesis tangible through a scene or symbol;
From the talk, we have the quote:
If you struggle with scope creep, “pick one volcano.” This is a term used by writer Umberto Eco. A student once told him he wanted to write a thesis on volcanos. Eco told him to zoom in. The student came back with “volcanos in Mexico.” All 48? Get as specific as possible. The student picked the Popocatépetl Volcano in Mexico, because it has some extraordinary details that reveal truths about many volcanoes. Making your thesis a “microcosm” is conceptual arbitrage. You have a single, tangible, emblematic example that explains things beyond itself.
TLDR: Be specific. Don't talk in general, pick a specific example that represents other things in the same general category.
Based off the talk + this definition, I would say, microcosm involves finding a specific example, that has the characteristics of a lot of the examples you want.
Think of yourself as a photographer. You don't just want to take a picture of a garden with thousands of flowers. You want to take a picture of a specific flower, frame it, and then use it to explain the anatomy of a flower that has similarities to the anatomy of other flowers.
🔗 Response: Engaging with Existing Ideas
Response: put your thesis in context and show us how it’s different;
This is both a review of existing works in the same field, like what other related ideas are there, what other writings did people have on the same topic, and then you want to look at the existing work out there and then point out how your work is different from theirs.
When you're relating ideas to each other, they can be responding differently than just agree and disagree. You could say that this idea is the origin of the other idea or that one is actually opposing the other idea.
Idea Compass
My favorite way to think of these is actually the Compass of Ideas by Vicky Zhao and Fei Ling Tseng (Original Video):
NORTH: “Where does X come from?”
What is its origin?
What group/category does X belong to?
What exists an order of magnitude higher?
What gave birth to X?
What causes X?
Zoom out.
WEST: “What is similar to X?”
What other disciplines could X already exist in?
What other disciplines could benefit from X?
What are other ways to say/do X?
SOUTH: “Where can X lead to?”
What does X contribute to?
What group/category could X be the headline of?
What exists an order of magnitude lower?
What does X nurture?
Zoom in.
EAST: “What competes with X?”
What is the opposite of X?
What is X missing?
Its disadvantage?
What could supercharge X?
Thought Flower
There are other versions of this kind of thinking compass. An example is this thought flower over here which I've added to the main compass of ideas to show
Truth (Supporting Evidence): Are there arguments for its truth? Is there empirical evidence for its truth? Is it free of self-contradiction?
Relevance: To whom is the thought important? To whom is it not?
Usefulness: What problem can be solved by the thought? Can it become a tool?
Beauty: How does the thought promote harmony and elegance?
Simplicity How can you make the thought simpler and easier to understand? Can the thought be used to simplify something else?
Original Author - Michael Dean
Michael Dean's responses can be further broken down into these different ways to respond to ideas. His methods focus more on how you can manipulate the idea while the idea compasses above focus more on finding related ideas.
💥 Catalyst: Writing Changes the Reader
Catalyst: reach through the page to change the reader.
Your writing shouldn't just be explaining an idea but it should be changing their ideas. - Larry McEnerney, 📚 The Craft of Writing Effectively
Michael Dean's naming choice here is, because Catalyst = Agent of Change.
I actually really like the way he names this because you're not really forcing people to change. You're not the sole cause of the change, it has to already be something they were inclined towards. You are giving them an accelerant to a change that they were already receptive to. A catalyst lowers the activation energy required, which makes change possible.
Practically, this means, your writing should change their outlook or actions. This can be done, by giving the essay a sense of relevance and urgency.
Relevance: Make it relatable (this is a problem they have) and important (why you should fix this problem)
Urgency: Why you need to fix this problem asap.
TITLE – Crafting That Crucial First Impression (Patterns: Mystery, Target, Phonetics)
Recall: Title is a hook to draw readers to check out this piece of work, ideally makes them curious, is unique, memorable and self-explanatory.
Mystery ❓: Generate Curiosity. Have an unanswered question in your title that makes readers click for answers.
Target ⛳: Your title should be self-explanatory. It should give the readers a glimpse of what your article is about and what value you will provide them if they read your article. The goal here is to set up expectations that you can fulfill.
Phonetics 🧠: Make it sound catchy, memorable and unique. so that when people recommend your article to another person, they can actually recall what it was named, and it won't be confused with countless other articles that are written by other people.
He doesn't really have any writing breaking down this specific element, so I'm going to decipher based off my understanding of titles. And that is that these are hooks which are crucially important for catching the reader's attention. And this is basically the door to your work. If it does not look nice, if it does not appeal, and if people are not curious what is behind this door, they are not going to go through it. If they never open it, they never see the rest of your work. So you should put at least 80% of your efforts to crafting this hook.
As a YouTuber and as somebody who writes tweets, I would also say that it's very important to think beyond just the words of the title and to make visuals. It is very easy nowadays to make visuals and this is a visual scroll stopper that will get people to click on your work. If there is no thumbnail, you have not put in enough effort into this article because if the outside dressing is horrible, then people assume that the inside is not worth their attention.
If you have not really looked into this, and you don't get as many views as you like. I recommend checking out: Why you need a Hook + TLDR on how to craft one
There are a lot more elements than just curiosity for crafting a hook. A very good writeup of the 10 fundamental elements that I use is Neal O'Grady's 10 Ways to Write Hooks (with examples).
PARAGRAPH – Building Strong Foundations, One Idea at a Time (Patterns: Main Point, Elaboration, Punchline)
The explanation breaking down the paragraph above is already perfect. I will simply add details here.
Paragraph: An atomic unit. Each paragraph represents one idea and only one idea
Paragraphs are structured such that:
👋 The main point frames what is going to come next so that the reader is clear about what's going to happen. The main point also needs to make you feel curious about something. So why do they make this statement?
〰️ Elaboration is where they have arguments to support this main point. They are answering the questions that came up because they made that statement in the main point. This is both explanation and examples.
🤯 Punchline can just be the last example, the most impactful example. And here the goal is to get the reader to feel a strong emotion. And he recommends that you do this with subtext. So when you read the statement, something occurs to you inside your head that makes you feel a strong emotion.
Your main goal with a paragraph is to ensure that your reader doesn't get bored as they are reading. And then the secondary objective is to convince them of what you're trying to argue. Thank you. This order of priorities is really using the same reasoning as the title. If your readers are not engaged, if they don't understand what they're reading and they get frustrated, they are going to stop reading and at that point, the most beautifully crafted work is pointless if nobody is willing to appreciate it.
STRUCTURE – Organizing Your Essay for a Clear Reader Journey (Patterns: Modularity, Sequence, Cohesion)
Assuming that we're looking at the structure of the entire essay.
Structure is all about using order, logic and thinking through how your writing is presented to improve readability. We want to make sure that we're not stuffing too much information at the reader at one time, and we can do this by breaking up our writing into smaller sections and just giving visual markers of where the reader is.
A good example of this are: headings that are sticky noted. This plugin exists because people like to be able to work out where they are by reminding themselves that, "Okay, right now I'm looking at the framework, the analysis part of the framework, and specifically I'm looking at the patterns instead of just the dimensions."
We often overestimate how much our readers will put in their head because when we're writing, we know exactly what we're thinking, but the readers are new to these ideas. They don't have the same background knowledge and it's always necessary to go back as if you're doing a mathematical proof.
See if everything that you're using, every jargon (new term) has already been explained before
All the assumptions of the field:
Why is this important before you get to how to do the thing
Why we should do new way instead, you should say what is the original solution first. You have to explain the problem well before you get to the solution.
Here are the three parts:
Modularity 🧩: Split it up into smaller digestible sections with self-explanatory headings
Sequence 🪜: Organize these sections to make sense, ensure you have it layed out like a proof (explain all background necessary)
Cohesion 🌲: Put connected points together. Prune ruthlessly.
Modularity 🧩: Breaking It Down for Clarity
Modularity: Do you have parts of your essay that can stand alone by themselves? Content that you could repurpose as notes or just section off with headings so that people can make logical sense of your content. This will help lighten the cognitive load (how much the reader has to keep in their head) to understand your writing, especailly if the section headings clearly indicate what it is about e.g. (Big Idea, Problem, Consequences).
Sequence 🪜: Guiding the Reader Step-by-Step
I would say that sequence would be the logical flow of the points so that you have what you need to understand the later part of the essay explained earlier. Anything that has to be defined, anything that has to be clarified or argued to build to your thesis.
Cohesion 🌲: Making It All Stick Together
Along with this, cohesion would be does everything in your essay work together well? Are the points next to other points that connect well with them?
This is more interesting if you think about wiki style idea connections, the way we do it in a Zettelkasten. The topic would not have a linear flow but in order to explain to another, you need that linearity. So work out a way to present it such that people can understand without breaking the connections between the ideas or at least emphasizing and picking the strongest connections so they can keep it all straight in their head.
TENSION / STORY – Keeping Your Readers Hooked 'Til The End (Patterns: Conflict, Hook, Threads)
This was actually explained briefly in the video so I'm going to link the timestamp here.
The core idea of tension is for you to motivate your reader to keep reading because they have unanswered questions. They are curious, so they are engaged. The opposite side of this is the reader becoming too confused or frustrated and they can't understand so they stop reading. It is a balance of how to pace releasing information.
This pattern is best understood with a look at how we tell stories. How we write novels.
Conflict: The Engine of Engagement
To start with, we usually understand conflict arising from two characters have different goals. Here we are saying that there is the one character and the other side doesn't have to be another character with opposing goals. It can just be an obstacle, challenges, difficulties or just things that make it hard to achieve what they want. The story is what happens when the character with this goal meets the obstacle. It could be that they successfully overcome or they unsuccessfully overcome. It could be more complicated than that. What is the end result? The consequence.
Conflict is composed of these 3 components: Intention. Obstacle. Consequence.
Intention: Desire, Goal. Something that you want. Which makes you decide or do something to get it.
Obstacle: Why you can't get what you want easily. Challenges, difficulties, or impediments. This can be internal (mental) or external (other people, the circumstances)
Consequence: What happens when you try for this goal and you are met with the obstacle? Success, Failure, the decision afterwards to pivot to another goal or try another way.
Hook: Setting the Core Conflict Early
The first conflict that you introduce in your essay is the hook, and this should be a strategic choice because it will set the tone for the rest of your essay. It should be the core dilemma of your essay that helps to define all the other conflicts in relation to it.
I believe this should also be the conflict that takes a little bit longer for you to resolve so you can build other conflicts based off of this one but you want to make sure that this one is significant enough that the reader is reading on and trying to understand how it's solved for quite a bit of your essay so that they have something to stick to Thank you.
Threads: Weaving Multiple Narrative Strands
You should have multiple conflict plot lines carried throughout your essay and at any point in time you should be able to identify the multiple questions or warring narratives that your reader is wrestling with.
This is best explained by Dan Wells (writer) timestamp. When writing a novel, you want to make sure that you have this seven-point story structure. He goes into depth about how you should line up the plots and the subplots, spreading out these key events to create good pacing so that the reader has ups and downs and they feel the character development, the story development. That is one of the most important things whether or not you're writing a novel or an essay. There should be a change. And so in order to convince the reader, you need to show development of how you go from one state to another.
Side-note: Dan Wells explains try-fail cycles and that really unlocked a realization in me that we can't just assume that their reader will be convinced because we are convinced by this one argument this is why we need to have multiple points that are convincing. Not necessarily because any one point, is going to be the best argument, but because it makes the reader care, and adds to the magnitude of the problem, even if they aren't convinced.
SPIRIT / WRITING TONE – Letting Your Writing's Personality Shine (Patterns: Tone, Perspective, Subtext)
👻 Spirit or tone is the biggest influence here, yet also the most subtle thing. These are the editorial decisions that you make when you're writing. Like the way you craft your writing in terms of deciding how you want to structure the text or just like what kind of examples you want to put in. This is how you can tell who is speaking.
Spirit is how we know, you are the author of this essay. Your unique voice. How you craft essays.
Tone: The Overall Feeling of Your Writing
Tone could be 'friendly', 'aggressive' and even 'gentle' writing tones. This reflects how you usually write. This has been widely debated but general advice is that you should write how you would speak to another person. Which is why voice first creation is something that if I support so strongly. Make it sound like you.
It is not just the mood and the feelings of your writing tone, but also whether or not you tend to be more wordy, whether or not you write for your audience in simpler words, shorter sentences, and the kind of metaphors that you use. It could indicate how intellectual you are and also who you are writing for.
For example, here is the analysis of a few author's writing styles by AI & Me:
Dan Koe: Philosophical, Assertive, Aspirational, Aggressive, Direct
Ali Abdaal: Enthusiastic, Friendly, Practical, Upbeat, Genuine
Elizabeth Filips: Reflective, Vulnerable, Thoughtful, Honest, Methodical
David Perell: Curious, Intellectual, Encouraging, Enthusiastic
Tim Ferriss: Analytical, Curious, Pragmatic, Thorough, Adventurous
Anne-Laure Le Cunff: Scientific, Calm, Curious, Clear, Mindful
Dr. K (HealthyGamerGG): Empathetic, Calm, Clinical, Direct, Grounded
Alice Gendron: Gentle, Authentic, Practical, Empowering, Neuro-divergent focused
Perspective: Your Unique Viewpoint & Experience
Perspective is your voice colored by your life experience and how you interpret things. Whenever we take in information we are actually perceiving it in a biased way because you can only understand something based off what you already know about the world. You cannot escape the bias if you want to understand anything. You can try to be logical and consider other opinions, but this is not truly bias-free. We can only relate to what we already know, so even the other related ideas that you're considering, even the opposing viewpoints, those are from within your bubble of understanding. There are ideas you will never even imagine for you have not encountered them.
The solution to this problem is actually very simple. You need to talk to other people. David Perell talks about this a lot. You don't just create in isolation, you can create in the company of other writers. You can converse with people in your life that don't really look at this topic and have more thoughtful conversations. Your writing should begin long before you sit at the table. You should develop your ideas in forums. On walks. Talk to people.
Dan Koe gives a more formal way of doing this, where you have a lot of 'test' tweets to send your ideas out into the world first. And those that do well, you can bring deeper into the content funnel by writing a newsletter about them. And if the response is good, you can finally try to make more permanent evergreen content with it. The focus here is more on directing your attention towards what would move the needle. But there is also the idea of developing your ideas, learning in public, and getting feedback from other people who are not in the same thinking space as you.
Subtext: Reading Between the Lines
A lot of storytelling is having a coherent set of implications and ongoing motivations behind what the character directly does. The subtext is what makes the reader think and keeps their interest.
Subtext should be:
What are you implying without directly stating it?
What is being hinted at when you relate your perspective?
What questions come up in your reader's head as they go through?
Because if I talk about being tired, and struggling with conventional success, I may not have directly said I have burnout, but people may interpret that just by reading between the lines.
SOUND – The Musicality and Flow of Your Words (Patterns: Repetition, Rhythm, Rhyme)
Sound is about emphasis. It is still about technique, you want to think about just how long your sentences are. You want to vary the pace.
But above all, sound is about the music of your writing. It is not just how you put information on the page, but how somebody's inner voice would read, whisper, or maybe loudly declare what you're writing. Don't think of this as monotonic speech to text. Imagine how the reader would read it if they were reading aloud with emotion.
When we read text aloud, especially poetry or well-crafted prose, certain techniques make it resonate more deeply and sound more beautiful to the ear. The three key players in this are: Repetition, Rhythm, and Rhyme.
Repetition: Emphasizing Through Recurring Elements
[Definition] Repetition: Using the same sound, word, phrase, or even line more than once.
Repetition helps to create emphasis because when you repeat something, your voice naturally tends to stress it. It builds anticipation because by repeating a pattern, we create a sense of expectation, we anticipate the return of this familiar idea, and we build importance for it. Since it has to be important if we're repeatedly bringing up this idea. It also adds a bit of a musicality because repetition creates a kind of chorus similar to the song. So it gives your writing a sense of structure and flow that is pleasing to the ear, and it can also help to create a feeling.
For example:
Simple Word Repetition:
"Home, home, I want to go home." (Emphasizes the longing. Try reading this aloud. Does your voice sound different on the last word? )
Line Repetition:
From Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening": "And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep." (Creates a lulling, almost hypnotic rhythm, emphasizing the journey ahead).
Repetition of Sounds (Alliteration/Assonance - related concept): Even repeating initial consonant sounds (Alliteration like "Sally sells seashells") or vowel sounds (Assonance like "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain") creates a beautiful sonic texture through repetition.
When you read repeated lines or words aloud, feel how your voice naturally gives them weight. It's like a melody you come back to.
Rhythm: The Beat and Flow of Your Prose
[Definition] Rhythm is the pattern of stresses (emphasis) and unstressed syllables in language. It's the beat, the pulse, the musicality. Think of it like walking – some walks are slow and steady, some are brisk, some might even skip. Language has a similar movement.
This is the pacing of your writing and here you want to vary the length of your sentence but you also want to vary how to read the text. Rhythm guides the reader on where to place emphasis, creating a natural flow and it also establishes mood. So if you're doing a fast set of short sentences, you're creating excitement, you're creating tension and if you are doing long elaborate sentences, there's this academic intellectual flow to it and people know that they have to slowly deliberate.
Example of varying your sentence lengths by David Perell:
Example of rhythm in a sentence:
Lines from Shakespeare often follow an iambic pentameter (ten syllables per line, alternating unstressed/stressed - da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA da-DA).
"Shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmer's DAY?"
This strong regular rhythm, resembles a steady heartbeat. It makes the line feel balanced and natural when spoken aloud.
Rhyme: Creating Musicality and Memorability
[Definition] Rhyme is the repetition of similar-sounding words, usually at the end of lines in poetry. The most common type is perfect rhyme (cat/hat, blue/shoe), but there are others like slant rhyme (room/storm) or eye rhyme (read/lead - where the spelling matches but the sound doesn't necessarily in modern pronunciation).
This adds musicality and it also helps to link ideas because words that rhyme, because they're linked by sound, often feel like they're linked in meaning as well. This is a way to subtly reinforce connections between ideas in those lines, but generally this is about musicality and memorability. Because if text is rhyming, it is often easier to remember, which is why it's so common in songs, nursery rhymes, and jingles. You want to make your writing easier for people to read, remember and experience.
Example (One of my favourite poems, The Eagle):
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Tennyson uses a very simple and strong rhyme scheme for this poem: AAA BBB. The first three lines are strongly connected and then there is a new strongly connected sound in the next three lines. So this consistent end of the line rhyming helps to create musicality and they add structure to the poem because each stanza is a solid unit of three lines linked by the sound. It feels very satisfying to hear the expected rhyme at the end of the line. This sounds pleasing to the ear, it feels right and it emphasizes the final word.
SIGHT / SENSES – Painting Pictures and Evoking Feeling (Patterns: Motif, Words, Imagery)
Sight is the appeal to human senses that makes people feel immersed in your writing. Here we break them down into three parts: imagery, words, and motif.
Motif: Your Recurring Core Beliefs & Themes
Let's start with the most interesting.
[Definition] Motif is a dominant or recurring idea in an artistic work. It can be the central theme of your work.
As a content creator, I think of this as my main message / core beliefs that are often espoused in my personal brand and so shows up in my work.
If you look at various content creators, you will see that they are often repeating the same core message.
Dan Koe is all about the one-person business. Entrepreneurship, creating a life that is yours by breaking free from the 9-5 grind and building a business that aligns with your passions.
Ali Abdaal talks about passive income, productivity hacks, time management techniques, the importance of finding joy in what you do.
David Perell talks about the importance of creating content and leveraging the internet (+ your writing) to build a personal brand. He is big on conversation and writing (prep) away from your desk.
Going more specific, if you look at creators such as the Mini ADHD Coach (Alice Gendron), A lot of her writing is about ADHD and the struggles that people with ADHD have, but she also has common motives of her cute artwork and the idea that you should be gentle with yourself.
Words: From Jargon to Coined Concepts
Words can come in three stages:
Stage 1 (Knowledge): Using the correct terms, so people can understand you without a great deal of explanations. Knowing the jargon and key phrases in the field that tells intermediate people, you are an expert. For example: "Indent with Intent" is a phrase that people in the outliner (roam research) community would be familiar with.
Stage 2 (Simplification): When beginners new to the field can read your writing and understand what you're without previous knowledge of the field. when you can explain the key concepts so simply and concisely that your writing is what beginners come to read.
Stage 3 (Coined Concepts) When you use a phrase so often in your work that it is a motive of your work and it is catching on to other people so that when they think of this phrase, they think of you. For example, "Tiny Habits", "Atomic Habits (James Clear)", "Tiny Experiments", "One Person Business (Dan Koe)"
Imagery: Appealing to the Reader's Senses
Out of the 3, I think imagery is the one that speaks for itself the most. Here you want to evoke the reader's attention by talking about how you hear things, how how you smell things, how you see things, give them a familiar reference to latch onto and you don't want to overdo it because then it turns into overly long purple prose. but there is a reason that we appreciate poetry.
Example 📚 The Song of Achilles
So in English, we say, "I miss you"
But in poetry, we say, “I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
It is not just describing what you sense but how people experience things through their senses and making your writing more show than tell.
The End
Phew! Okay, if you've made it this far, high five! We've officially waded through all 27 of those patterns. I'll be honest, putting this mega-post together was a bit of a marathon for me – probably one of the biggest deep dives I’ve attempted to map out and share. My brain feels like it's been doing olympic gymnastics trying to make sense of Michael Dean's framework and figure out how we, as everyday creators, can actually use this stuff without getting totally overwhelmed.
Honestly, a lot of this was me thinking out loud and trying to connect the dots as I went. My hope is that by sharing my own wrestling match with these ideas, and how I'm starting to see their potential, maybe it's sparked a few new thoughts for you too. It's not about suddenly having all the answers, right? I definitely don't! For me, it's more like finding a new trail map for a landscape I thought I knew, with cool new landmarks to check out.
So, please don't look at this as another checklist of 'must-dos.' Maybe just one or two patterns caught your eye, or you thought, 'Huh, I could try that.' That's perfect. That's the whole point – sparking a bit of curiosity, giving us some new language to talk about why some writing just works, and encouraging a bit of playful experimentation.
If you're the kind of person who also geeks out on this stuff – pulling apart how good content is made, figuring out the mechanics behind the magic, and generally trying to get better at this whole writing thing alongside other curious folks – then I'd genuinely love for you to stick around for more of these explorations.
One Last Thing...
If there was even just one idea, pattern, or 'aha!' moment in this whole odyssey that stood out to you, I'd be incredibly grateful if you'd consider sharing this post with your network.
And here's a little twist: when you share it – whether that's a "restack" on Substack Notes, a tweet, a LinkedIn update, or wherever your people hang out online – try highlighting that single thing that caught your attention.
It's a great way to pass on a specific nugget of value, and it helps others decide if they want to dive into this (admittedly long!) exploration too. Plus, seeing what resonates with you all really helps me understand what's useful as I tackle future deep dives.
Thanks so much for reading, for thinking alongside me, and for helping spread the word if you feel inspired to!
Marathon indeed! 👏 for the organization + visual comments!
Thanks for this one Pam!