Long Form

Writing today is mostly done by those who have gone to school and written in purely one way. Students were always primed to write essays in a manner that conveys their knowledge, versus trying to communicate something.

To effectively communicate something, one must understand who their audience is and what they believe. This is essential, to know their belief, you must either reinforce or change their belief through what it is you are writing.

Good writing must also front load all of its thinking and research first -- one must know what their stance is so they can clearly communicate it. If this is done while writing, it becomes abundantly clear that the author is learning as they are writing. Remember, a professor or teacher is being paid to read your writing, but anyone outside of work or school will not be paid to read your writing, so you must be clear about the value that you are projecting to the reader. Painting their worldview only to state clearly why you are going to explain why it is wrong is both audacious and enticing.

Good writing does the following (in priority order):

• Clear
• Valuable
• Persuasive
• Organized

So when writing, don't just divulge everything you've learned and reteach it to someone -- in a world with ChatGPT they can find a better, shorter answer in any preferred style through LLMs. So what is it that you wish to convey? You can learn concepts, but there is an opportunity for you to hold an opinion and base your writing off that opinion, using what it is you have learned to help support a solid argument.

“But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what — these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to education and rank.” — William Zinsser

“How can the rest of us achieve such enviable freedom from clutter? The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other. It’s impossible for a muddy thinker to write good English. He may get away with it for a paragraph or two, but soon the reader will be lost, and there’s no sin so grave, for the reader will not easily be lured back.” — William Zinsser

“Writers must therefore constantly ask: what am I trying to say? Surprisingly often they don’t know. Then they must look at what they have written and ask: have I said it? Is it clear to someone encountering the subject for the first time? If it’s not, some fuzz has worked its way into the machinery. The clear writer is someone clearheaded enough to see this stuff for what it is: fuzz.” — William Zinsser

“’Experiencing’ is one of the worst clutterers. Even your dentist will ask if you are experiencing any pain. If he had his own kid in the chair, he would say, ‘Does it hurt?’ He would, in short, be himself.” — William Zinsser

“Therefore think small. Decide what corner of your subject you’re going to bite off, and be content to cover it well and stop. This is also a matter of energy and morale. An unwieldy writing task is a drain on your enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is the force that keeps you going and keeps the reader in your grip. When your zest begins to ebb, the reader is the first person to know it.” — William Zinsser

“The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem exactly right. They didn’t expect the article to end so soon, or so abruptly, or to say what is said. But they know it when they see it. Like a good lead, it works.” — William Zinsser

“Something I often do in my writing is to bring the story full circle — to strike at the end an echo of a note that was sounded at the beginning. It gratifies my sense of symmetry, and it also pleases the reader, completing with its resonance the journey we set out on together. But what usually works best is a quotation. Go back through your notes to find some remark that has a sense of finality, or that’s funny, or that adds an unexpected closing detail.” — William Zinsser

“Most adverbs are unnecessary. You will clutter your sentence and annoy the reader if you choose a verb that has a specific meaning and then add an adverb that carries the same meaning.” — William Zinsser

“Don’t hedge your prose with little timidities. Good writing is lean and confident.” — William Zinsser

Advertising

“What you are doing when you are being creative is trying to connect two separate ideas that logically would not go together up until that moment.” — Eugene Schwartz

“Crafting a story that tricks people into making short-term decisions they regret in the long-run is the worst kind of marketing sin.” — Seth Godin

“Conversion copy should not call attention to itself. It should call attention to the prospect, to her problems. Or to the product, to the pleasure it produces or the pain it prevents. But not to itself.” — Eddie Shleyner

There are two types of advertising:

• Direct response marketing compels someone to act immediately
• Creative ads are memorable

Ken McCarthy quoting Eugene Schwartz: “Copywriters don’t create demand. We channel existing demand. We’re not paddling, we’re sailing. We put up our sails and let the wind take us. So many businesses make the fatal mistake of trying to ram a product down the throats of a market because they think it’s a great product. It never works. What does work — and what produces phenomenal results — is getting to know the demand and the needs and wants and dreams and desires of people, then crafting products that satisfy those needs and crafting ads that speak to those needs.”

“The next time you need to efficiently articulate a huge concept — whether it’s about love or business or anything else — zoom in. Zoom in on a specific moment tied to that concept. Focus The Reader’s attention on that one spot. If The Reader can relate, the moment will carry weight. If she can relate, it will tell your story better than you think.

“The secret to being good at anything is to approach it like a curious idiot rather than a know-it-all genius.” — Mike Monteiro

“Usually in direct marketing, you’re either positioning your product as the ‘economical’ option or the ‘premium’ option. If you’re selling a premium product, you can only command a higher price point through differentiation.” — Eddie Shleyner

“Incentivizing your list is imperative if you’re competing on price. In fact, it’s necessary for any type of direct-response promotion because if you give people time to make a decision, they’ll usually take it. And you don’t want The Reader to take their time, to feel comfortable. You want her to feel tension, pressure. These feelings compel action, which is the goal.” — Eddie Shleyner

Ways to incentivize your list to buy immediately (as told by Eddie Shleyner):

• Dimensionalize the savings:
• Buy 2, get 1 free
• Get 3 for the price of 2
• Save $40 … it’s like getting another bottle FREE
• Create urgency:
• Timing deadlines: Save 50%, offer ends at midnight
• Trial deadlines: Start for just $1, today only
• Scarcity deadlines: Only 30 units left
• Remove the risk of ordering:
• Money-back guarantee
• Double-you-money-back guarantee
• Order now, pay later

Eugene Schwartz said you can’t write an ad until you’ve identified the market’s “Level of Awareness”, or what your prospects already know about the problem your product solves. There are 5 levels:

• “Unaware” prospects don’t realize they even have a problem
• “Problem Aware” prospects know they have a problem, but don’t fully understand it
• “Solution Aware” prospects understand their problem and are aware of solutions similar to yours, but they’ve never heard of your particular product
• “Product Aware” prospects know of your product, but haven’t purchased it yet. They’re still researching and weighing their options
• “Most Aware” prospects are almost customers.

“Brand positioning boils down to one thing: differentiation.” — Eddie Shleyner

Story-Telling

“Your story must reflect change over time. A story cannot simply be a series of remarkable events. You must start out as one version of yourself and end as something new. The change can be infinitesimal. It need not reflect an improvement in yourself or your character, but change must happen. Even the worst movies in the world reflect some change in a character over time.” — Matthew Dicks

“All great stories — regardless of length or depth or tone — tell the story of a five-second moment in a person’s life… the purpose of the story is to bring that moment to the greatest clarity possible.” — Matthew Dicks

The beginning of the story should be the possosite of the end.

“Stories must reflect change of some kind. It need not always be positive change, and the change need not be monumental.” — Matthew Dicks

Start your stories as close to the ending as possible. By knowing how the story ends, you can work backwards from there and you avoid unnecessary setup that eliminates superfluous details just to get to the point.

“Try to start your story with forward movement whenever possible. Establish yourself as a person who is physically moving through space. Opening with forward movement creates instant momentum in a story. It makes the audience feel that we’re already on our way, immersed in the world you are moving us through. We’re going somewhere important.” — Matthew Dicks

“Never start your story by setting expectations for it, realistic or otherwise. No one wants a rubric or an introduction at the beginning of a story. They simply want a story… starting your story with a thesis statement reduces your chances of surprising your audience.” — Matthew Dicks

“Stakes are the reason an audience wants to hear your next sentence. They are the difference between a story that grabs the audience by the throat and holds on tight and one that an audience can take or leave. Stakes are the difference between someone telling you about their mother and someone telling you about the time they wanted to disown their mother.” — Matthew Dicks

“The Elephant tells the audience what to expect. It gives them a reason to listen, a reason to wonder. It infuses the story with instantaneous stakes. The Elephant should appear as early in the story as possible. Ideally, it should appear within the first minute, and if you an say it within the first thirty seconds, even better.” — Matthew Dicks

“A Backpack is a strategy that increases the stakes of the story by increasing the audience's anticipation about a coming event. It's when a storyteller loads up the audience with all the storyteller's hopes and fears in that moment before moving the story forward. It's an attempt to do two things: (1) Make the audience wonder what will happen next. (2) Make your audience experience the same emotion, or something like the same emotion, that the storyteller experienced in the moment about to be described.” — Matthew Dicks

“Storytellers use Breadcrumbs when we hint at a future event but only reveal enough to keep the audience guessing.” — Matthew Dicks

“The ideal connective tissue in any story are the words but and therefore, along with all their glorious synonyms. These buts and therefores can be either explicit or implied. "And" stories have no movement or momentum. They are equivalent to running on a treadmill. Sentences and scenes appear, one after another, but the movement is straightforward and unsurprising. The momentum is unchanged. But and therefore are words that signal change. The story was heading in one direction, but now it's heading in another. We started out zigging, but now we are zagging. We did this, and therefore this new thing happened.” — Matthew Dicks