How Creativity Rules the World: The Art and Business of Turning Your Ideas into Gold

"Techniques for making your Stories “better” than the competition (in addition to all the other techniques described above) are: “Better” Openers: If everyone else is taking their sweet time getting to the point, blow right past them and start writing at the moment of conflict or achievement. (Every single sentence you write online, you are fighting for the reader’s attention. If your story “gets better” four paragraphs later, delete your first four paragraphs. You don’t need them.) “Better” Transitions: If everyone else is writing long-winded, overly descriptive, and slow-as-molasses prose, do the opposite. Tell an entire story in four sentences. Add a page break. And then move on to the next powerful story or thought. There are no rules in writing. All that matters is you keep the reader’s eyes moving down the page. “Better” Characters: If everyone else in your niche or genre names their characters regular names like John and Sarah, name your characters XY-2 and UU-5. If everyone else’s characters have regular hobbies like playing soccer or the guitar, give your characters more unique hobbies like tie-dying safari hats. Whether you’re creating fictional characters in your imagination, or choosing true stories to retell, you always want to be searching for the unconventional. Remember: what’s expected is boring. What’s unexpected is exciting, new, and different. “Better” Language: If everyone else is writing in formal English with perfect grammar, try writing in a dialect only your most loyal readers will understand. Maybe you intentionally never use commas because that’s your style. Maybe you intentionally overuse the word ‘like’ because, like, you want to sound like a valley girl because like, that would just be just like so perfect for your story. (The book Clockwork Orange is a terrific example of how language can be manipulated to create a cult following and a very special relationship with your readers.) “Better” Category: If everyone else is writing conventional sci-fi, you should be the one to write Education Sci-Fi, where you teach readers different subject matters but in futuristic terms, settings, etc. Or, if everyone else is writing cooking recipes with a few personal anecdotes, you should be the one to write Recipes That Became Family Stories—giving the reader a recipe they can make themselves, but also telling them the ridiculous time Uncle Larry tried to make apple pie and ended up at the grocery store at 1:00 a.m., hammered, arguing with the cashier lady about how NASA has never actually been to the moon and they staged the whole thing on live television. Writing that truly “stands out” always lives in a fundamentally different category."

"Different Levels Of Audience: As you learn more and more about your readers, you can (and should) create resources for each level of reader. For example, if you are a digital marketer and you regularly write about digital marketing strategies, all your readers aren’t going to fit within the same bucket. You’re going to want to create one free email course for beginners (“Getting Started: 5 Days To Setting Up Your First Profitable Facebook Ad”), another free email course for advanced marketers (“30 Days, 30 Examples Of How To Maximize Facebook Ad Revenue And Convert 10x More Leads Into Customers”), and another free email course for experts (“7 Days To $1 Million: Facebook Ad Strategies For Experts”)."

"Main Point #1 This first sentence is your opener. This second sentence clarifies your opener. And this third sentence is why the reader should care. This fourth sentence starts to expand on the point. This fifth sentence is a story, or some sort of credible piece of insight. This sixth sentence builds on that story or insight and tells the reader something they maybe didn’t know. This seventh sentence is a small conclusion. And this eighth sentence is why that conclusion matters. This ninth sentence recaps what you just told the reader. This tenth sentence reinforces the argument you’re making with an additional tidbit or insight. And this eleventh sentence drives the point home."

"Use casual language. You want any and all self-promotion to sound like part of the story you’re telling. 99% of people who work in PR make this mistake by saying somewhere in the piece, “Enter: <Company Name>.” They literally introduce the thing they’re trying to promote with a massive spotlight—which immediately makes the reader feel like they’re being sold to, and no longer the center of attention or “main character” of the piece. Instead, be more subtle. Use casual language like, “I originally told this story in my book,” or, “Before I started my first company, Digital Press…”. Self-promotion should never feel like self-promotion. It should feel like context. That’s it."

"Make whatever it is you’re promoting “the setting” for the story. If you’re writing a piece about workplace habits, you have the opportunity to promote your own company’s workplace by making it the example of whatever insight you’re sharing with the reader. You can say, “Positive workplace culture is extremely difficult to cultivate, but by practicing these three daily rituals as a team, you’ll find it can be nurtured quickly and effectively. For example, every morning at Digital Press, the first thing we do as a team is…”. Here, I’m using my own company as an example of the thing I’m explaining to the reader—not making it the “main character” itself."

"I was learning, growing, and publishing on the internet. Anytime I would write something online, I would receive immediate feedback—in the form of words (“I totally agree! Amazing perspective,” or, “You’re an idiot. Go die in a fire,”) and in the form of data (Views, Likes, Shares, Upvotes, Comments, etc.). Without even realizing it, I would then take that data and use it to inform my next piece of writing. I would double-down on topics that attracted more viewership. I would retell stories that had prompted people to Comment. I would adjust my headlines and the format of my articles based on previous articles that had performed best."

"Notice again how every single structure relies on a single opening sentence, and always ends with a single conclusion sentence. Pieces that open with two consecutive sentences in the first paragraph are weaker. And pieces that open with three or more sentences in the first paragraph are tiring for the reader. As much as possible, you want to crescendo and decrescendo your rhythms, starting with one sentence, then moving up to three, four, or five sentences, then back down to two sentences, then back down to one—and repeat. This is what makes the reader feel like they’re riding a wave."