“All books are either dreams or swords, you can cut, or you can drug, with words.” – Amy Lowell, Born Feb. 9, 1874.

If you're just using words to describe shit or explain shit, you're wasting them.

Words can stab. Use yours hit the reader's tenders organs. Make them bleed. Reopen old wounds. Carve new ones.

Words can drug. Use yours to relieve the pain of these stab wounds and give them a buzz that gets them hooked.

That's the one-two punch that makes persuasive writing effective. Arouse and agitate their pain and discomfort and ennui. Then offer relief for that discomfort and worry you just caused.

It's so simple, but so effective. But simple doesn't mean easy – and that's why you need to dedicate decades to mastering this art and science of…

Ha ha, just fucking with you. Children can do this. Idiots, too. It's only smart people that struggle with it, because hey simply can't believe that it could be this easy…

You don't have to be a genius or an artist to make your words dangerous and/or narcotic like the quotation says. You just have to follow a few simple rules.

1. Care deeply or pretend to. This shows the prospect that you share their passion for one of their favorite subjects – themselves.

2. Be certain or pretend to be. Certainty implies confidence. Confidence implies probability. People want to make good bets.

3. [REDACTED]

4. Provide scapegoats. It's not their fault. Nothing is. It's society or nature or competitors or the government or whatever. Never them.

5. Make predictions of doom. If they don't pay attention and take action, it's going to get real “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome “all up in their lives.

6. Make prophecies of salvation. If they DO pay attention and take your recommended actions, it's going to be more like the end of “The Neverending Story” with everything restored and everyone happy.

7. Tell them what to do to feel good. Lay it out. Tell them what you want from them. They do what you want, you make it better and deliver what you promised.

That's it.

Your words have power. Yes YOU. Yes, YOUR words.

Don't keep the knife in your pocket. Take it out and flash it. Cut someone. Deeply.

Don't make your words watery. Make them whiskey. And let them drink deeply to make the pain of their cuts less biting.

Then sell them stitches and antiseptic.