How to transmit feelings in a technical book writing?
For example, in Skype conversations you use emoticons. I might use (headbang) after a phrase to express frustration, or I can have a (facepalm) moment, or I can write a joke and add (rofl), etc.
But how do you do this in a technical book (not an animated book)? Not all people might understand what (rofl) stands for. So what alternatives are there, or what techniques to use to express feelings or emotions in a technical book (not one with characters where you might make the characters behave in a certain way that express the feeling/emotions)?
Just an example: a project management book or something. Where you might describe a techniques that drives everyone crazy and never gives good results, but somehow doesn't stop people for using it again and again. For that I might use (headbang).
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1 answer
Just don't. Unless you are writing one of those nutty Dummies books, don't put emotion of humor in a technical book.
The reason is not that technical subjects aren't funny or that technical people don't have a sense of humor, it is that audience selection is different for technical books than for other kinds of writing.
For a novel or an essay or even a history, the reader selects the book in large part based on the writing, whether they like the way the author writes or not. In other words, they primarily select the writer. If you decide to tell jokes or show emotions, you will attract readers who like those things. If you are serious, you will attract readers who like serious, and all that is perfectly fine.
But readers of technical books do not choose the book based on its author. They choose it based on its subject matter. The readership is the set of people who care about its subject and that will include people with no sense of humor and people who don't agree with your emotional reactions to things. If you put those things into your technical book, you will be actively hindering those readers from getting the information they came for. This is why most technical books are written very plainly. Because it is not about the writing, it is about the subject matter.
There are exceptions, of course, like the dummies books, but those books are written about very popular subjects for which there are already many books available. Therefore they can segment the readership by the style of writing they prefer and it does become about the writer again.
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