ridiculously good writing

How to Turn Editing Into the Best Part of Writing

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * Long before I wrote books and your favorite newsletter 😊, I wrote for a financial newspaper about Federal Reserve regs and housing prices. A high point of my career there was a headline I wrote for a story about NACHA (the National Automated Clearing House Association, a US electronic payment regulatory system). The headline: “NACHA Business.” My pun game was strong even then. The headline. I loved it. The editor did not. (Still salty about it TBH.) * * * Eventually I went on to work for the Boston Globe, among other pubs. And while I left journalism a long time ago, writing for newspapers gifted me the biggest lesson of my career. The lesson: No one is […]

How to Turn Editing Into the Best Part of Writing Read More »

How to Write Better: This Technique Takes Your Writing from So-So to Stellar [Live-Edit]

A friend asked me to look at a few chapters of a book he’s writing. It’s a strong book with a strong premise. But he’s struggling with making the writing equally buff. So together let’s live-edit a single paragraph right here, right now. Because the writing takeaway is a solid one you can apply to blog posts, emails, video scripts, landing pages… or any kind of writing. Ready? Lezgo…. In a paragraph about a broken business model, my friend had written this: So why is it that we cling to a model invented before the first flight? An idea conceived of before the age of the Internet? A framework designed before the invention of rockets, submarines, personal computers, television, and radio? Very conversational, yes? I like that. But the list of modern inventions and conveniences (rockets, subs, and so on) is a little muddled, for two reasons. One: The order

How to Write Better: This Technique Takes Your Writing from So-So to Stellar [Live-Edit] Read More »

Creative, Funny, Unusually Honest Marketing of an Awful Dog Named ‘Eddie the Terrible’

Most pet adoption listings try to make the cats and dogs up for adoption as appealing as possible. But not the Humane Society Silicon Valley, which last week published a creative, funny, and unusually honest listing for a tiny tornado of a Chihuahua, “Eddie the Terrible.” UPDATE: Eddie gets a home. It’s an awesome piece of writing—rough edges and all—by Finnegan Dowling, who works with the shelter. And it’s the ridiculously good writing that’s making this pint-sized demon dog a mini viral sensation. Eddie has been written up in the Huffington Post. On Facebook, his posting has been shared 350 times since December 9. Eddie’s traction might not be massive—but it’s gargantuan for this small Silicon Valley shelter, which typically sees a fraction of that level of activity on its listings. See what good writing can do? “How does so much naughty exist in a small dog?” begins the listing,

Creative, Funny, Unusually Honest Marketing of an Awful Dog Named ‘Eddie the Terrible’ Read More »