“Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better.” – John Updike, Born Mar. 18, 1932. A lot of writers worry too much about creativity, and not enough about consistency of output. If that’s you, let’s talk about manipulating your mind out of making that mistake, shall we? Creativity is […]
Creativity Comes to Life When You Feed it Something to Improve Read More »
“Technique is what you fall back on when you run out of inspiration.” – Rudolf Nureyev, Born Mar. 17, 1938. “I don’t have a good idea.” Shut up. Write anyway. “I don’t have anything to say.” Stop it. Write something anyway. “It didn’t come out the way I wanted.” Fuck you, publish it anyway. We
Discipline and Foundations are What You Build On (Because You Can’t Build On Nothing) Read More »
“It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content… it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion.” – Rene Daumal, Born Mar. 16, 1908. This is especially true for us. Persuaders, I mean. If there
What is “Copy” and How to Write It Gooder. Goodest. Most Gooder. Read More »
“The fact of storytelling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell.” – Ben Okri, Born Mar. 15, 1959. Clients fuck this up when they write about themselves. And sometimes they get mad when they work with a writer who knows better. I’ve
Stories Sell, But Only if They Start Out With Sucking Read More »
“A strong emotion, especially if experienced for the first time, leaves a vivid memory of the scene where it occurred.” – Algernon Blackwood, Born Mar. 14, 1869. You ever see that movie “Inception” where that team of mental mercenaries implants an idea into someone’s memory, so that they mistake it for their own? I can
How to “Inception” Your Ideas Into Other People’s Brains – With Only a Pencil and Paper… Read More »
“THE ONLY WAY YOU CAN CONTROL PEOPLE IS TO LIE TO THEM. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them.” – Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, Born Mar. 13, 1911. Get out the Preparation H because every time his topic comes
Don’t Lie to Yourself – Deception is What Fuels All Persuasion Read More »
“The greatest sin for a writer is to be boring.” – Carl Hiaasen, Born Mar. 12, 1953. If you can manage to keep yourself free of this sin, the world can be yours. It doesn’t matter if you’re not so convincing, or so poetic, or so informative. Your readers will forgive you for that. Just
The Cure for Boredom and Being Boring: How to Be Interesting All the Time Read More »
“The questions don’t do the damage. Only the answers do.” – Sam Donaldson, Born Mar. 11, 1934. In Sam’s field of journalism, that can be true. A probing question that gets an answer from a prominent figure is often revealing in a way the answerer may not have meant. And often, it can be damaging
Know the Answers Your Reader Won’t Think to Ask For Read More »
“For imagination sets the goal picture which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of will, as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination.” – Maxwell Maltz, Born Mar. 10, 1899. The vast majority of people possess withered and disused imaginations. Having to deal with the real world
Paint a Pretty Picture and Prospects Become Purchasers Read More »
“Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.” – Mickey Spillane, Born Mar. 9, 1918. Spillane never wrote “literature” like the kind professors value. Unless
The Profitable Cliffhanger – How to Serialize Your Selling Read More »
