“Ideally, one should have more material than one can possibly cope with.” – Frank Auerbach, Born Apr. 19, 1931. “I can’t think of anything to write about.” Some people say that. Bitch-baby writers do. Not me. I am a bottomless wellspring of material. I didn’t used to be. But I endeavored a little to make… Read More →
Everything Old is New Again – If You Just Try a Little Bit
“The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or to say a new thing in an old way.” – Richard Harding Davis, Born Apr. 18, 1864. I wouldn’t say it’s THE secret… But it IS a great trick. Can’t think of something to write? 1. Take some old… Read More →
How to Make Your Writing Delicious, and Thus Make Prospects Crave More and More
“The truth is that life is delicious, horrible, charming, frightful, sweet, bitter, and that is everything.” – Anatole France, Born Apr. 16, 1844. Who are you writing to? Robots? No, people. So why write to live, breathing, ambulatory meat bags full of emotion – about boring old “stuff”? People don’t care about stuff. They care… Read More →
Over-complication Leads to Under-performance – So Simplify, Stupid
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci, Born Apr. 15, 1452. Y’all are making shit too complicated. Drowning in options and possibilities? Start slapping some arbitrary limitations on yourself and see what you come up with. Innovation and elegance come from making the best solution out of what you have at hand. So… Read More →
Repetition Creates Belief. Repetition Creates Belief. And Reinforcement Cements It In.
“Reinforcement is being right.” – B. F. Skinner, Born Mar. 20, 1904. Read this. It’ll change your life. Your business and money-making life, anyway. And that usually changes your home life. Having money and fame will do that. So first, gather an audience. Build it up around what you sell, or find existing ones and… Read More →
What is “Copy” and How to Write It Gooder. Goodest. Most Gooder.
“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… Read More →
Stories Sell, But Only if They Start Out With Sucking
“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… Read More →
The Cure for Boredom and Being Boring: How to Be Interesting All the Time
“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… Read More →
Brick by Brick, You Must Build Your Own Destiny, According to the Designs You’ve Dreamed
“The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.” – Alexander Graham Bell, Born Mar. 3, 1847. This is important. Like LEGO bricks. Like Voltron. Your stuff needs to combine and stack and scale. Too many chase the next client or the next job or the next… Read More →
Want to Write Well? Feed the Beast Your Fingers First.
“The piano is a monster that screams when you touch its teeth.” – Andres Segovia, Born Feb. 21, 1893. What’s funny is that Andres was a guitarist. So he was describing why he hates he piano and doesn’t play it. But we are sick fuck writer masochists. And our keyboards are beasts that scream when… Read More →