“Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader.” – Joseph Joubert, Born May 7, 1754. Maybe Joe here was only intending to write things that gave people pleasure. In which case, I would agree with the first part of his statement. But is […]
Write From a Place of Emotional Truth, and Transfer That Emotion to Your Reader Read More »
“I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.” – Edward “Duke” Ellington, Born Apr. 29, 1899. Hey, guess what? Everyone has problems. Big whoop. What do you do about your problems? Take them? Endure them? Or do you put them to work? As motivation. As fuel. If you’re not yet
Failure and Bad Feelings Can Be Burned as Fuel – and They Produce Powerful Work Read More »
“All the best stories are but one story in reality – the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.” – A. C. Benson, Born Apr. 24, 1862. We tell stories. Stories about the reader. Stories they haven’t heard about themselves yet. The ending
Escapism Motivates: Where Will You Go When You Get Away From Here? Read More »
“If I could find anything blacker than black, I’d use it.” – J. M. W. Turner, Born Apr. 23, 1775. This one isn’t about the content of the quote, but more about the implications of it. Turner couldn’t find paint that was any blacker than the paints he used. He could never actually accurately show
Programming Imaginations With Impossible Imagery is the New Black Read More »
“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.” – Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin), Born Apr. 22, 1870. This is a statement that sounds sinister because of how specific it is. If you make it as general as it is in reality, it’s not so evil-seeming. Anything repeated often enough will eventually be believed, not just
Repetition is the Mission… Repetition is the Mission… Repetition is the Mission… Read More »
“For to tempt and to be tempted are things very nearly allied – whenever feeling has anything to do in the matter, no sooner is it excited than we have already gone vastly farther than we are aware of.” – Yekaterina Alexeyevna, Born Apr. 21, 1729. If persuasion is a fishing pole, emotion is the
The Art of Sinking Your Persuasive Fishhook Right in Your Prospect’s Face Read More »
“A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason.” – J. P. Morgan, Born Apr. 17, 1837. Morgan was talking about parsing the reasoning behind the market moves his competition were making. But we are going to approach it backwards. If you want to persuade and influence people
The Real Reason People Do What They Do (And How To Use It Against Them) Read More »
“We imagine that we want to escape our selfish and commonplace existence, but we cling desperately to our chains.” – Anne Sullivan, Born Apr. 14, 1866. This one is going to be really uncomfortable. Ready? See in that quote where she says “imagine”? That imagination is why we can sell people stuff all day long
The Ugly Difference Between a Buying Brain and a Selling One… Read More »
“The purpose of narrative is to present us with complexity and ambiguity.” – Scott Turow, Born Apr. 12, 1949. Scott writes fiction, unlike us. But his point holds, because we DO use complexity and ambiguity. The purpose of narrative in copy is to give COMPLEXITY to the problem the prospect is facing. We give it
The Difference Between Fiction and Copy is in Where You Put the Confusion… Read More »
“Lying increases the creative faculties, expands the ego, and lessens the frictions of social contacts.” – Clare Boothe Luce, Born Apr. 10, 1903. Lying is powerful. Whether you call it telling tales, self-delusion, pretending, make believe, whatever – if you want to get good at what we do, you need practice. If you want to
To Gain Persuasive Power, Practice Practical Lying in Person… Read More »
