20 Rules for Writing (Delicious, Human!) Content People Actually Want to Read
- Trust your own voice.
- Trust your own voice.
- Trust your own voice.
- Trust your own voice.
- Trust your own voice.
- Trust your own voice.
- Trust your own voice.
- Trust your own voice.
- Trust your own voice.
- Trust your own voice.
- AND ALSO…
- Stop apologizing for your ideas. It weakens your impact and makes you sound like a wee little lass at the big kid’s table, apologizing for everything you're saying. You don't need to soften your sentences with, "I'm not sure, but I think that..." Ditto prefacing your thoughts with, “Well, in my opinion.” We already know it’s your opinion; you’re the author. We are reading because we want your opinion. Otherwise, we'd just read the AI summary. Have the courage to declare how you've experienced this world. No AI can ever replicate that.
- Have the guts to contribute. The world does not need you to summarize everyone else’s ideas: it needs you to consider your experience and reflect and then contribute your own. When we read something you’ve written, whether it’s your magnum opus or this week's newsletter, we want you to change our minds. We want you to alter our perspective; shift our reality a little, and then click it back into place. This is the reason we read: we want to be rebuilt. We want to really have a reason to think about something. We want to see old things in a new light. This is how we grow. (And, the lens you give us matters.)
- Do not write the first thing that comes to mind. It’s tempting to say the first thing that comes to mind in order to express an idea, but when you use tired language like, “do what you love” and “follow your passions,” your readers’ brains skip right over it and file it under, “YEAH, YEAH.” The brain is programmed to be as efficient as possible, so if it thinks it knows what you’re going to say, it doesn’t bother listening. And that’s a big problem when the entire point of creating content on the Internet is to win someone’s heartbeat.
- Following that line of thinking: violate your reader’s expectations. Use the wrong word on purpose—it wakes up the brain. Pickle around. Oh my helicopter. The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED? Go ahead: bait and switch away.
- Not sure what to write? Consider the problem you’re trying to solve. The best content marketing plan is simply a matter of figuring out how you’re going to chip away at a problem using a string of words instead of a sledgehammer.
- Zoom in. Real close. Instead of summarizing the big picture—“Has mummy ever been more entertaining than when she’s drunk?”—drill down and get specific. “Has mummy ever been more entertaining than when she stood on the patio table, opening and closing the big parasol, and singing, ‘You Know I’m No Good’ by Amy Winehouse?” (Which is an actual quote from Caitlin Moran.) The moral: even though not everybody has had that exact experience, describing the experience is much more interesting and entertaining than using the summary word: drunk.
- Stop judging yourself. Have some fun with it, already! This is not a legal brief. You are not giving a speech at a funeral. And you aren’t presenting to a boardroom full of accountants, either. We’re real people, over here, and we’re interested in having a real conversation. Relax! Nix the stiff upper lip! No one is judging you; we’re trying to learn from your experience.
- Give the reader a nice, strong...finish. Everyone worries about the beginning—and rightfully so—but then they let the end peter out. The end, though, is where the reader derives all their satisfaction. Nobody reads something to get to the middle: they read it to get a revelation. A payoff for investing their time. When you let the ending fall flat, the entire piece does. Let’s be honest: if a movie has a disappointing ending, the entire movie becomes disappointing.
- And finally: make it mean something for us. Everybody’s got some horrific crap that happened to them. Everybody’s got a story that you’d never believe. But—haha—nobody cares. I know, we are so cruel! But, how eager are you to roll up to a wine bar and get stuck sitting next to the stranger who's ramble on about his alcoholic parents who abandoned him at age two? You’re gonna run like hell, and the same thing applies to reading. Readers don’t care what happened to you: they care about what it means for them. Indeed, what does this mean for any of us? What universal truths can we take from this, and how can it help us live better lives? This is why we read. And, little secret? It's also why we write.
ChatGPT gave you the summary.
I give you the rest. The free Extraordinary Work newsletter: creative ideas to make your brand everyone’s favorite obsession, from someone who’s been doing this for 17 years. (Still not a newsletter about fish.)
Liked the short answer? The long ones arrive by email.
The Extraordinary Work Newsletter
What the Hell
Do We Do Now?
Answer: We get creative. We throw fireballs. We slam coffees. We run like Mario through a desert field as the hurry-up music kicks in. And we build businesses that are so memorable, so iconic, so subversively cool, they’re untouchable. Even by AI. Even by the French.
Subscribe to the free Extraordinary Work newsletter for creative ideas to make your brand everyone’s favorite obsession.
From the Penguin Random House author seen in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian and The BBC
More Creative Writing
Magic 8 Ball Post →