• I teach others and rewrite the transcriptions into blog posts.
• I capture real stories I tell over dinner. Vulnerable, authentic experiences.
• I find strong opinions (on Twitter) that I disagree with. My counter-argument becomes a post.
THREAD: How to choose what to write about.
When you're blocked by the lie of "writer's block."
• I teach others and rewrite the transcriptions into blog posts.
• I capture real stories I tell over dinner. Vulnerable, authentic experiences.
• I find strong opinions (on Twitter) that I disagree with. My counter-argument becomes a post.
Which idea, of all those swimming inside your brain, are you compelled to pursue the way Ahab was driven to hunt Moby Dick?
—Steven Pressfield
Your motivation ensures you actually see it through.
That’s all that's needed to write with conviction: pair an OBJECTIVE with a MOTIVATION.
When writers lack one of these, they tend to not finish their articles.
Once I've chosen a topic, my next step is finding what to say.
One of my favorite writing tricks is to only write my introduction then hand it to friends and ask:
"What are the best ideas I could cover in the rest of the post?"
People give you surprisingly novel ideas that are better than your original ideas.
I ask several people to rate my intro from 1 to 10 on how interested they are in reading more.
Don't let them choose 7—that's a cop-out.
They have to decide between 6 (meh) or 8-10 (good).
I don't aim for higher than 8 because ideas are rarely super interesting to everyone.
(I only do this process when I'm struggling.)
• It's a compelling hook into my topic. Readers sense they'll get novelty.
• It conveys the importance of my idea so that readers care to hear the rest.
• It's concise.
They start by drafting a fake PR announcement—as if the product were about to launch.
They share the announcement only with employees.
If the employees aren't interested in buying the product, they pause and start over.
I believe that people ultimately read for novelty and story.
The risk that readers face when reading your work is that they don't learn anything USEFUL or FEEL anything profound.
Novel ideas are typically:
• Counter-intuitive
• Counter-narrative
• Shock and awe
• Elegant articulations
• Make someone "feel seen"
• Stories
• Analogies
• Examples
In other words:
Writing Quality = Novelty x Resonance
If you want more writing content, follow and see past threads here:
@julian
More from Julian Shapiro
THREAD: I've helped 200+ startups grow their newsletters.
Email marketing tactics 👇
People reflexively ignore welcome emails after signup.
• Delay welcome emails by 45min to bypass this reflex
• Send the email from a person—not the business. Julian Shapiro is more human than https://t.co/8y68CQzBOR
• Use unique subjects:
👎 Welcome
👍 Grammerly = Bye Typos
Make it seamless to refer
• Remind readers at the end of each issue that they can refer others. Include a link.
• Have a web version of every issue so they can be easily shared outside of email
• Consider rewards: Send a monthly bonus issue for referring 5 friends
SEO can be a vanity metric if it doesn't convert to leads.
• Offer readers quizzes to identify the best products for them. Require an email to see results.
• Create Buyer's Guides: Make PDFs with nice visuals to help readers learn skills. Require an email.
When pitching your newsletter on your site:
• Show a sample issue on the page. Prove how high quality your content is.
• Give them control over how often they get emailed. Some want weekly, but others REALLY want monthly. High volume can burn you and your readers out.
Email marketing tactics 👇
People reflexively ignore welcome emails after signup.
• Delay welcome emails by 45min to bypass this reflex
• Send the email from a person—not the business. Julian Shapiro is more human than https://t.co/8y68CQzBOR
• Use unique subjects:
👎 Welcome
👍 Grammerly = Bye Typos
Make it seamless to refer
• Remind readers at the end of each issue that they can refer others. Include a link.
• Have a web version of every issue so they can be easily shared outside of email
• Consider rewards: Send a monthly bonus issue for referring 5 friends
SEO can be a vanity metric if it doesn't convert to leads.
• Offer readers quizzes to identify the best products for them. Require an email to see results.
• Create Buyer's Guides: Make PDFs with nice visuals to help readers learn skills. Require an email.
When pitching your newsletter on your site:
• Show a sample issue on the page. Prove how high quality your content is.
• Give them control over how often they get emailed. Some want weekly, but others REALLY want monthly. High volume can burn you and your readers out.
More from Writing
I can second this observation through personal experience. I was only able to start writing because "it's just dumb weeb fanfiction quests, who cares." 100,000 pages of dumb weeb fanfic later, and I actually got better... but only because I was trying my best with every page.
"It's dumb weeb fanfiction" gave me permission to be bad, to vomit things onto the page that I knew fell far short of what I wanted it to be. To just write and write instead of laboring over six paragraphs for weeks like I'd always done before.
But I still *wanted* to be good.
Writing is HARD. And unfortunately, most people don't appreciate just how hard writing (or communication in general) is, and that cultural attitude infects writers, too.
You must give yourself permission to be bad. And realize that all writing is practice.
IT. COUNTS.
And as the folks in my mentions are pointing
... it's an excellent way to find out what actually resonates with other people - putting work out there. Even your early bad stuff you'll cringe at later.
What resonates is NOT easy to tell, because we all, inherently cringe at ourselves, a lot.
I think the mistake a lot of people make is that they write to make a good work instead of writing to make themselves a better writer (who will eventually be able to make good works). The second promotes training and builds humility while the first is just narcissism.
— Dan Kim (@CloneManga) October 31, 2020
"It's dumb weeb fanfiction" gave me permission to be bad, to vomit things onto the page that I knew fell far short of what I wanted it to be. To just write and write instead of laboring over six paragraphs for weeks like I'd always done before.
But I still *wanted* to be good.
Writing is HARD. And unfortunately, most people don't appreciate just how hard writing (or communication in general) is, and that cultural attitude infects writers, too.
You must give yourself permission to be bad. And realize that all writing is practice.
IT. COUNTS.
And as the folks in my mentions are pointing
It gave us hellcow, so it clearly worked
— Argatson (@warhammer651) October 31, 2020
... it's an excellent way to find out what actually resonates with other people - putting work out there. Even your early bad stuff you'll cringe at later.
What resonates is NOT easy to tell, because we all, inherently cringe at ourselves, a lot.
\u201cDumb weeb X\u201d is a concept with a lot of power.
— J (@Becquerl1) October 31, 2020
You May Also Like
A THREAD ON @SarangSood
Decoded his way of analysis/logics for everyone to easily understand.
Have covered:
1. Analysis of volatility, how to foresee/signs.
2. Workbook
3. When to sell options
4. Diff category of days
5. How movement of option prices tell us what will happen
1. Keeps following volatility super closely.
Makes 7-8 different strategies to give him a sense of what's going on.
Whichever gives highest profit he trades in.
2. Theta falls when market moves.
Falls where market is headed towards not on our original position.
3. If you're an options seller then sell only when volatility is dropping, there is a high probability of you making the right trade and getting profit as a result
He believes in a market operator, if market mover sells volatility Sarang Sir joins him.
4. Theta decay vs Fall in vega
Sell when Vega is falling rather than for theta decay. You won't be trapped and higher probability of making profit.
Decoded his way of analysis/logics for everyone to easily understand.
Have covered:
1. Analysis of volatility, how to foresee/signs.
2. Workbook
3. When to sell options
4. Diff category of days
5. How movement of option prices tell us what will happen
1. Keeps following volatility super closely.
Makes 7-8 different strategies to give him a sense of what's going on.
Whichever gives highest profit he trades in.
I am quite different from your style. I follow the market's volatility very closely. I have mock positions in 7-8 different strategies which allows me to stay connected. Whichever gives best profit is usually the one i trade in.
— Sarang Sood (@SarangSood) August 13, 2019
2. Theta falls when market moves.
Falls where market is headed towards not on our original position.
Anilji most of the time these days Theta only falls when market moves. So the Theta actually falls where market has moved to, not where our position was in the first place. By shifting we can come close to capturing the Theta fall but not always.
— Sarang Sood (@SarangSood) June 24, 2019
3. If you're an options seller then sell only when volatility is dropping, there is a high probability of you making the right trade and getting profit as a result
He believes in a market operator, if market mover sells volatility Sarang Sir joins him.
This week has been great so far. The main aim is to be in the right side of the volatility, rest the market will reward.
— Sarang Sood (@SarangSood) July 3, 2019
4. Theta decay vs Fall in vega
Sell when Vega is falling rather than for theta decay. You won't be trapped and higher probability of making profit.
There is a difference between theta decay & fall in vega. Decay is certain but there is no guaranteed profit as delta moves can increase cost. Fall in vega on the other hand is backed by a powerful force that sells options and gives handsome returns. Our job is to identify them.
— Sarang Sood (@SarangSood) February 12, 2020
