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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/45753
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I have given multiple things I have written to a friend of mine, who is something of a writer himself, to get feedback on them from him. One of these was a piece of mystery-style fiction, and the other was an article about gaming. I have noticed multiple times where he will start reading something, and then, after a minute or two, start zipping down the page, apparently not really taking much of anything in.

He has told me that many people will do something similar, where they will maybe read the beginning and ending of paragraphs, but skim / skip over the middle.

1. Is he correct? Do most people actually do this, or is this more a sign that what I've written has not been good enough to keep his interest from beginning to end?

2. If he is correct, how does a writer handle this? That is, how do you make sure that your readers will get what you intended out of your writing, even if they are skipping parts of it?

P.S. I hope these tags are on point; I am not 100% sure, as this is my first post here. If there are better ones, please let me know.

Original score: 38