The secret to writing well isn't writing well, but living well.
I don't mean living the good life only.
I mean living the full range of human experience.
From infinite happiness to bottomless sadness and everything in between.
The more you can live/feel, the more you can transmit via the written word.
Read and reread that again for it's no small feat.
It's what gives writing it's power.
Writing... you see... is nothing more than the transfer of feeling.
If your writing doesn't make the market feel something, then it's just dead letters on a page. Pointless. The best writers use the written word to stab people in the heart. And make them feel what they don't want to feel, but need to feel in order to process an experience, generate an insight, or inspire an action.
Take the following short story by Hemingway for example:
"For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn."
It's just 6 words aka the shortest story ever written.
But it transmits all the emotions one would experience if they went through a miscarriage.
From the initial joy and excitement that comes with the news of being pregnant to the sheer grief and gut wrenching heartache that comes with losing a baby.
That's a pain that I couldn't even imagine.
But it's a pain that I can start to feel by just reading the short story above.
And that, my friend, is the gift of good writing.
It allows you (the reader) to increase your capacity to feel.
So with that being said:
The best way to become a better writer than 90% of people is not to focus strictly on increasing your ability to write well (or leveraging pointless AI prompts), but to feel well.
Do this by implementing the following unconventional advice:
1. Fall in love.
2. Get your heart broken.
4. Take a risk that scares you to your core.
5. Come up with a big idea and will it into existence.
6. Chase a dream and fail.
7. Lose all your money.
8. Quit everything and move to another country.
9. Attend the funeral of a child.
10. Undergo the death/rebirth process that comes with the (real) spiritual journey.
11. Make $100k+ in 10 minutes.
12. Have a difficult conversation.
13. Get fit, strong and healthy.
14. Sit on a park bench midday and do nothing.
15. Wake up at 5 am for a year straight.
16. Create a baby. Raise a family.
17. Get betrayed by a trusted friend.
18. Travel the world and tell no one. Do it for yourself. Not for Instagram.
19. Meditate with your eyes open.
20. Tell the truth.
21. Host a dinner and invite people from different walks of life.
22. If you're young, befriend the elderly. If you're old, befriend the youth.
23. Start a business.
24. Work a dead end job.
25. Cold approach a stranger.
26. Do a 10-day silent retreat.
27. Learn how to get punched in the face.
28. Have lunch with the homeless.
29. Rub shoulders with the wealthy.
30. Volunteer at an old folks home.
31. Get skilled.
32. Jump out of an airplane.
33. Have a near death experience.
34. Laugh hysterically when the world expects you to cry.
35. Put it all on red.
36. Break a heart.
37. Disappoint your parents.
38. Go on a solo road trip.
39. Ape into a shit coin.
40. Bar hop in Tokyo.
41. Stuff $100 bills into unmarked envelopes and stick em inside the mailboxes of a tough neighbourhood in your city (do this during Christmas time)
42. Sell a business.
43. Fulfill a dream and become a somebody.
44. See through the veils and become a nobody.
45. Get addicted to x. Quit addiction to x.
46. Trust in the goodness of reality.
47. Fail a test.
48. Pull an all nighter.
49. Work so hard you forget to eat.
51. Spend a week in a library. Read the days away.
52. Live fully.
Once you do the above (and more), then life will have taken you through the wringer and allowed you to experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
This is the best thing that could ever happen to a writer (for the best material comes from the very living of life).
Now you can pair your capacity to feel with your ability to write.
In other words: This is when you can learn proven writing frameworks, strategies, and prompts.
By doing so:
You'll increase your ability to transmit.
Now your ads, sales letters, newsletters, and tweets won't just be empty words on a screen, but a slippery slope of emotions (instead of dead content) that hook the reader and keep them coming back for more.
This, after all, is what the market actually craves.
It's the reason they binge watch Netflix.
It's the reason they listen to sad songs.
It's the reason they day dream.
Give them what they want and they'll give you what you want:
Influence, money and power.
Thanks for reading.
Your friend,
/tej
P.S. Copywriters aren't writers. Copywriters are emotional drug dealers. Your ability to transmit is directly correlated with your ability to live. So don't just wake up and write. Wake up and live. It’s the entire point.
I really loved reading this, especially considering how big my feelings have been today and how much I did not want to feel them. But that’s where the good stuff is. In the tears. In the presence. In the self honesty. It’s in the quiet calm moments alone after a flood of sadness passes and is replaced with the confidence that comes from being willing to be fully alive. Thank you for broadening my perspective on writing. This reconnected me to why I like to do it in the first place