How do you get the words flowing?
It helps to hear how others before you did it.
One of the reasons I am such a big believer in the Ship 30 for 30 daily writing challenge is because, like all these writers, they preached the importance of good habits, consistency, and getting on with writing (instead of *thinking* about writing). I firmly believe it’s the act of writing that makes you a better writer, and nothing more.
Here’s what the pros have to say about it:
1. “Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use.”
— Mark Twain
2. “Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.”
— Stephen King
I tweeted this recently and it’s been on my mind since:
My first year of high school sucked.
I didn’t have a group of friends. I sat by myself every day at the one lunch table nobody else sat at. I didn’t talk to anyone during or between classes. And I spent every Friday alone in my bedroom, eating takeout Chinese food and playing World of Warcraft.
My first year playing hockey as a kid also sucked.
I had a hard time learning how to skate. I kept falling on my face, and asked my dad repeatedly if I could quit (he said no, and I went on to play hockey for almost 15 years).
My first year playing classical piano…
There are two paths for making money as a writer.
- Sell your expertise per hour (service).
- Sell your expertise per asset (product).
All revenue streams flow down these two paths.
If you go the service route, your revenue streams become things like selling content marketing services, ghostwriting, building a business that provides writing, editing, or marketing services, consulting, and so on.
If you go the product route, your revenue streams become things like selling books, courses, newsletters, journals, physical products, digital downloads, and so on.
So, what’s the difference?
The benefit of selling your expertise per hour (providing a service) is that it is 10x easier to start generating revenue…
In your first year of writing online, editing your work is a waste of time.
There are 5 major edits writers make:
- Grammar (“Is this correct?”)
- Format/structure (“Is this organized effectively?”)
- Style/voice (“Is how I’m communicating reflective of the emotional dimension I want to share with the reader?”)
- Pace (“How quickly am I revealing new information?”)
- Idea (“What am I actually trying to say here?”)
The problem with editing your work your first year of writing online is you don’t know yet what you’re editing for. You write something. You step away from it. You come back. …
“Good job.”
This is the driving concept behind the main character’s success in the hit movie Whiplash.
The main character is an average drummer, at best.
But he connects with a mentor who, rather unconventionally, takes him under his wing and pushes him to expect more from himself.
The movie is challenging to watch in the sense that you see this boy eventually internalize the demanding voice of his mentor, practicing to the point of bleeding fingers and insomnia — his mentor never once settling to give him the most simplest phrase of approval: “Good job.”
Near the end of the movie, the mentor eventually explains, “There are no two words more harmful than good job.”
His rationale is that approval is fleeting, and does nothing but encourage complacency…
I was 26 years old when I quit my 9–5 job and became an entrepreneur.
Less than a year into the journey, I learned a handful of lessons that drastically changed the way I saw life, business, and the difference between those who “make it” and those who fail.
Here are the 5 big lessons every entrepreneur should be prepared to learn that first year:
1. Just because a client says they’re in, doesn’t mean they’re in.
Until the papers get signed and the money is in your account, they’re not a client. And trust me, just because someone says, “I’m in. …
I have a framework, a proven system, for immediately 10x-ing the reach of your writing online.
It’s a bit controversial. SEO writers hate it.
And yet it has been my “secret” to accumulating more than 100,000,000 views on my writing over the past 7+ years.
This is The Ultimate Online Writing Republishing Framework
This morning I wrote a Twitter thread about it in the context of writing and publishing Atomic Essays in the Ship 30 for 30 writing challenge.
Here’s how it works:
Step 1: Write Your Article (Atomic Essay)
Some writers enjoy writing inside Medium (because their UI is beautiful). Other writers find inspiration starting on Quora, or even inside a Google Doc…
If you want to be a professional writer today — meaning in the context of the internet — then writing isn’t your goal.
Publishing is.
What separates the most successful, most-read, most referenced, most interesting writers today from everyone else isn’t just the quality of their ideas, but their consistency. Coming up with unique things to say is only the first half of their greatness. The second half is their unrelenting commitment to sharing those ideas regardless of whether or not they feel “ready.”
I call this Practicing In Public.
Step 1: Come up with an idea
Step 2: Work through that idea
Step 3: Publish that idea
…
We tend to think of failure and achievement in separate terms.
- Achievement means you were right. You were correct. You set an expectation and then you met it.
- Failure means you were wrong. You missed the mark. You set an expectation and you didn’t measure up.
When we approach our work with this separate mindset, we inevitable set ourselves up for failure. Here’s why:
The key to growth is to set goals outside of your comfort zone.
In order to continue growing as a person with your respective craft, you have to set unreasonable goals. That’s the point. …
