writing

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Don't Be a Hero

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Don't Be a Hero

Who Is the Hero In Your Story?

If I told you my life story, would you care?

What if I asked you tell me your life story?

Eugene M. Schwartz’s The Brilliance Breakthrough: How to Talk and Write So That People Will Never Forget You should be (and often is) considered to be the “bible” of effective copywriting and storytelling. One of the many tenets Schwartz embraces is the notion of making the reader (or the customer) the hero of the story you’re trying to tell.

Too often, we put the capes on our own backs. And that’s where the writing falls short.

The Write Path to Better Thinking

The Write Path to Better Thinking

Guest Writer: Trudi Roth

The following originally appeared in the Further newsletter, which I highly endorse and what remains one of few things I read each and every week. Do yourself a favor and subscribe.

Written by the outstanding Trudi Roth, this piece captures my own thinking about the future and purpose of writing better than I ever could. With her permission, I reprint it in its entirety here.

As someone who makes her living by writing, you might think I’m petrified that AI will decimate my career.

Honestly, machines don’t scare me. It’s the foolish humans who are okay with completely abdicating their ability to think, communicate, and solve problems that I find alarming.

Know Your Value. Then Sell It.

Know Your Value. Then Sell It.

Follow your passion?

Maybe. But I’ve always found that to come off as a bit hokey. It’s easy to say if you’re one of the 0.1% of people who hit it big, strike it rich, or achieve fame and fortune. “Follow your passion. That’s what I did, and now look at me!”

But you know who else followed their passions? The 99.9% of people who you’ve never heard of. Following a passion wasn’t enough for them. Most who pursue stardom fail, then move on to something else as Plan B.

That something else is known as “the real world” by many. Myself included.

Here’s what Kenny Loggins suggests…