This email has 6 single-line paragraphs. Here's why.

_{Day 249/100}

Hey—It's Tim. 

Today we're talking about B in VIBE: Beat.

How it looks on the page. How it sounds in your head as you read.

The research all pointed to one thing:

Give your words more space.

Why white space matters

Humans don't like to feel rushed.

When text is crammed together, your brain sees work. A wall of grey.

When there's space, your brain sees room to think.

Same words. Different experience.

Space governs how you read. You pause where I want you to pause. You feel the weight of important lines because they sit alone.

That's Beat.

And it turns out, it’s pretty damn important to making content people want to read.

Skimmability (finally scored)

I've written about skimmability 100+ times.

Now we actually score it.

VIBE checks:

• Paragraph length (3-4 lines max)

• Header frequency (every 150-200 words)

• Sentence variation

• Visual breaks

If you squint at your content and it's one grey block? Your Beat score tanks.

Burstiness: The most human thing you can do

Here's what AI struggles with most: burstiness.

Sudden. Shorter. Sentences.

Could be like that. Shorter than your usual sentences.
Or the opposite, a nice long one in there to make your other sentences feel shorter.

The trick? Contrast.

Short sentences hit harder when they follow long ones.

Example:

"I read 200+ research papers to figure out what makes content resonate. I analyzed sentence structure, readability scores, engagement patterns, semantic density, all of it. Took me four months. Want to know what mattered most? A view"

See how that works?

The long sentence builds.
The short one lands.

What VIBE catches

When you run your draft through Beat scoring:

• "Paragraph 4 is 8 lines. Split it."

• "You haven't had a header in 340 words. Add one."

• "All your sentences are 15-20 words. Vary it."

• "This section has no visual breaks. It's exhausting."

It's not "make it pretty."

It's "make it feel like someone actually wants to read this."

Your weekend test

Pull up something you published this week.

Squint at it.

Wall of text? Add space. Break paragraphs. Vary sentence length.

Read it out loud.

Does it have rhythm? Or does it drone?

That's Beat.

Wave 2 drops in 7 days.

See you tomorrow.

✌️ Tim "Ba-dum-tss" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. This email took 3 revisions.

First draft: 647 words, no rhythm.
Second: 521 words, better but still cramped.
Final: 398 words, every line earns its space.

That's what Beat scoring catches.

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