I decided to learn the ins and outs of Excel because, well, I don't know much about it and I have time to do it. And it has always intrigued me. So I signed up for an online course. When I got to the part about making charts, I found these principles emphasized: First, strive for clarity and simplicity; mazimize impact and minimize noise; if it doesn't add value or serve a purpose, get rid of it. Second, focus on creating a narrative; don't just show data, tell a story; communicate clear insights clearly, quickly, and powerfully. Third, strike a balance between design and function; selecting the right type of chart is critical; beautiful is good, functional is better, both is ideal. I would suggest those same principles can and should be adapted to writing.
I don’t understand. How do any of those principles apply to a program designed primarily for accountants?
Well, it's not aimed at accountants, really. Or rather only. It's intended to analzye data of any sort, and to identify trends or relationships or whatever. Excel is a lot more than spreadsheets -- I suspected that, now I know it has a lot more to it. So, perhaps more to the point, the particular part of Excel I'm talking about here uses software to translate raw data into visual representations. So the point of the intro is that while one can do easily all sorts of fancy things with the software, it's easy to get sidetracked into being fancy, and to lose sight of the aim of communicating or discovering something about the data. Lest I sound like some sort of software wonk or accountant or such, I was a philosophy major as an undergraduate, and my eyes glaze over at principles of accounting etc., and all I previously knew about Excel was how to do simple spreadsheet and maybe to sum the data in a column.
Accounting's a form of writing. After all, the purpose of accounting is to communicate. Whether it is the quarterly report and its supplements or simple settlements. That aside, the guiding principles the OP listed apply greatly to writing. Those three points are worth far more than any "show don't tell" and "just write" advice usually thrown about. The famous "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery re-phrased in a way. I hate to state it but ... urgh. Let me - draw a breath. Brush off shame - yes. This is the same as "Show don't tell". It just carries a clearer message because it doesn't highlight "showing" but more focuses on insight and power. Now this is a more complex one to comprehend with regards to writing but it's what glues the whole thing together. Choose the right POV for the right story. Choose the right presentation, the right style and the right voice.
