writing advice

Specific Writing Is More Relatable Writing: Standout Sentences #1

Normally I celebrate standout marketing writing. But this week I’m sharing a line from a novel I’m reading. It’s simple. It’s compact. And it’s perfect: “His skin was not just clammy but the color and consistency of actual clams.” —Ann Patchett, Bel Canto Ann is describing a Bel Canto character—a Russian bureaucrat named Fyodorov. I read that line Monday night and I literally LOLed. That sentence is now in my head. (It’s moved in. Possibly vacationing there.) I keep remembering it at odd moments (in line at the checkout, in the middle of a meeting). And I laugh suddenly and quietly. Yesterday I was picking out grapes in the supermarket when I thought of it and smiled. A woman across the produce aisle looked at me and then at the grapes, like the grapes had said something funny. Anyhoo… Let’s break down the science of why this sentence from Ann […]

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6 Signs That It’s Time for You to Write Your Book Already [A Checklist]

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. * * * From time to time I answer reader questions. This is one of those times. <Hoists mailbag onto table. Rummages around. Pulls out reader letter.>* *Kidding. Of course questions come via email. But “clicked email and pasted here” doesn’t land quite the same, does it? “How do you know when the time is right to draft your first book? Did you feel overwhelmed by writing about such a competitive topic?” —Sara Let’s answer the first part of that question with a visualization. (Walk with me…) I You’re wandering through the aisles of a bookstore/clicking around the virtual aisles on Amazon. You eye a certain book tucked on a shelf. A small shock of recognition: The topic. The positioning. You’re staring

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TikTok with the Best Writing Advice (No Really)

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. * * * I sense I’m being watched. Followed. Stalked, almost. He’s quiet as a ninja. And like a ninja, he seems everywhere at once. Often I sense him before I see him. I think I’ve entered a room alone but then turn suddenly, and—yep—there he is: his silhouette in the doorway, backlit by the yellow hallway light. “Oh, hey. You good? Just keeping an eye on you.” It would be a little creepy, except for… well, look at him. Let’s start with his legs. They’re six inches long—too short to scale all the stairs to the second floor without needing a nap. He lies on the landing and cries. He might be part ninja. But at that moment he looks

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A Writer’s Hierarchy of Needs: How to Do Our Best Work

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.   Where to Do Your Best Work Yesterday, I disturbed the spider ecosystem thriving on Tiny Porch (TP), the official name of the screened porch of my backyard Tiny House Office (THO). My THO is a small office I built in my backyard; it’s where I do my best work. (You can read the back story on it here.) I’d been meaning to take care of that spider situation all summer. But I’d been avoiding it, instead breezing by it with blinders on. Kidding myself about the growing number of feathery webs. Ignoring the small, growing piles of spider trash on the floor—the chewier parts of a fly, the undigested husk of a beetle. Spiders can be real pigs. Then I started

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Is It Better to Write When You’re In a Good Mood? Or When You’re Not?

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. Recently, I gave a mini writing workshop for a MarketingProfs client. The workshop (“How to Write Your Face Off”) was online, which meant the 30 or so attendees could see and hear me… but I couldn’t see or hear them. That’s always a weird experience: imagining an audience that’s there—but also not there. The webinar experience reminds me of when I used to stage musicals in front of my dresser mirror in my childhood bedroom. Last week, when I turned on my mic and started talking, I had a momentary impulse to belt out the opening lines of “Matchmaker, Matchmaker.” (Not really. But that thought made me laugh.) Instead, I just flipped to the first slide. * * * In a virtual

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A Writing Prompt for an Anxious World

 There are two truths I’ve realized about the Coronavirus pandemic: Everyone feels they are dramatically, uniquely affected. Everyone is right. Every one of us is affected. No one knows exactly how much. There is a relentless, invisible virus among us, and there is also a weird anxiety in the air. Like one minute I’m in a positive mindset: We’ve Got This! Then literally a minute later I watch that doctor’s video about how fastidious you need to be when you clean your groceries… and fear and anxiety settle in. Like suddenly I’m jumped by a Feelings Mafia that’s been lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce + mug me + empty me out. It wears me down. Maybe you, too? * * * I spend a third of my year on the road, speaking at events and meeting people like you. But, as of now, I won’t be on an

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