you can't hide behind bad writing

Paul Graham said this and it so true he goes people think that writing is only about communicating the ideas you already have but actually the truth is when you sit down to write you will generate new ideas writing is an incredible idea generator and so it's like you know starting a little fire in your brain

work begins before I've typed a single word and I I always say you want to begin with the end in mind what I mean by this is I before I write anything I first decide what is the reaction

we always work backwards from an emotion he goes people will only share or act if they feel something

I ask myself three questions what is the reaction I want that's always an emotion the next one is what is the action I want so what do I want them to do after they read this like click the buy button click the share button forward this to a friend sign my petition whatever it is who knows what it is but what's the reaction what's the action and the last thing I say is at the end of this if they could just remember one line or one takeaway one sentence what would it be

most people just sit down they start trying to write what we've told you is do two two different things instead begin with the end in mind

second thing Sam's saying is you don't just jump in like a you know if you're GNA go do a workout you don't just go start sprinting right away you warm up I do warm-up sets and you do the same thing before you write a word of your own you start by writing but not your own words you take some writing that you really like that maybe you want to almost like through osmosis just

great writing is great editing let's be perfectly clear great writing is great editing

I used to be a overthinker drafter where I would overthink how much I need to how much time to spend in the draft phase so I try to make a good draft bad idea you actually just want to have a like like quick and dirty draft like a brain dump draft and so I used to try to make a good draft that would take me way too long and I get fatigued and i' feel bad about it and I'd be like I hate this this is stupid should I even do this and all the doubts creep in and then I'll try to edit right away now
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short draft and then high energy edit after

mistake number one they start with a bunch of intro context background fluff uh you wrote a the tip is actually don't bury the lead so the first sentence should punch so try putting the most important sentence at the top try putting the most provocative statement at the top try putting the promise at the top or the the bait the hook at the top

I remember reading this which was first sentence I spent the last 30 days eating nothing but soilent a new age powered powdered meal replacement why would I do something so stupid I'll explain but
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first if you're not familiar with soent here's the gist

if I didn't have to read this would I want to read would I need to read the next sentence not would I need to read the whole thing but I need to read the next sentence if it's yes you've created a curiosity

you don't
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have to have like this second character this Shakespeare inside you that writes in a completely different style and communicates completely differently than you actually talk you don't need that you actually want them to be very similar it's actually the most engaging type of writing is when you feel like the author's just talking to having a conversation with you specifically and so right like you talk

Stephen King he says any word you have to hunt in a thesaurus is the wrong word there's no exceptions to this rule

he goes please please don't tore it in the special if you want to share it direct people here it's so easy just to drop $ five do we don't make you join anything we let you download any file you want it costs a shitload of money to make these specials and I do it myself I love off offering directly for so cheap and so easily and I would like for that to continue being a good idea

I worship at the altar of intention and obstacle

a story is just two things somebody has an intention some somebody wants something and there's obstacle in their way

so any story if you can't they say like in a movie you should be able to pause at any moment of any story and say what does that character want and what's in their
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way and if you can't pause and name that right now you have failed as a Storyteller

second thing is you have to establish like how do you make a story Better or Worse Stakes is the next thing so what is at stake uh what do you have to lose if this doesn't go well

the true art is when you can establish high stakes emotions in a low stakes environment

from uh 1974 to 2013 someone analyzed this and the letters per or sorry the words per sentence dropped from 17 to 13 if you look at like we actually did an analysis on this every year it gets shorter and shorter and shorter and the reading level dropped from a 10th grade to a fourth grade reading level so the Richer he got and the more complicated his businesses got the simpler the writing got because he just got better at explaining it a really easy to understand way

there's this great graphic that's gone viral many times you probably seen it great writing has Rhythm so there's a an example so I'll just read this out loud he goes this sentence has five words here are five more words five word sentences are fine but several together become monotonous listen to what is happening this writing is getting boring the sound of it drones it's like a stuck record the ear demands some variety now listen I vary the sentence length and I
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create music music the writing sings it has a pleasant Rhythm a lilt a Harmony I use short sentences and I use sentences of medium length and sometimes when I'm certain that the reader is rested I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length a sentence that burns with energy and builds with the impetus of a crescendo the role of the drums the crash of the symbols and sounds that say listen to this this is important so write with a combination of short medium and long sentences create sound that pleases the reader ears don't
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just write words write music

most people's problem is every every sentence is too long and so you start with short sentences but then you figure out how to vary it so that you're writing sings

first he doesn't address he's he's doing his normal act and he pauses just in the middle of like doing a thing and he's just like so should we talk about it all right we could talk about it and he just brings it up like in the he makes it awkward because like what he did was like weird and pretty gross and bad whatever so what he did was instead of backpedaling and apologizing instead of denying instead of trying to spin it as good he was was like everybody's got a thing some people's things are weirder
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than others but everybody's got a thing

the biggest lesson of it all is that you want your content to just be you pushed out I think everybody thinks they have to like become some character in order for their content to hit to work to be to be a m to be a popular or whatever and you could kind of do that and you might even get some popularity
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but it'll never work in the long run because it's not you