33 Unusual Tips To Being A Better Writer (and maybe even making some money)
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How I Finally Made Money Writing: http://bit.ly/1mV1xW1 Back in college, Sanket and I would hang out in bars and try to talk to women but I was horrible at it. Nobody would talk to me for more than thirty seconds and every woman would laugh at all his jokes for what seemed like hours. Even decades later I think they are still laughing at his jokes. One time he turned to me, “the girls are getting bored when you talk. Your stories go on too long. From now on, you need to leave out every other sentence when you tell a story.” We were both undergrads in Computer Science. I haven’t seen him since but that’s the most important writing (and communicating) advice I ever got.
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33 Unusual Tips To Being A Better Writer (and maybe even making some money)
- 1. 33 Unusual Tips to Being a Better Writer 33 Unusual Tips to Being a Better Writerhelpful advice from bestselling author James Altucher
- 2. Write whatever you want. Then take out the first paragraph and last paragraph.
- 3. Read a lot. You can’t write without first reading.
- 4. Take a huge bowel movement every day. If your body doesn’t flow then your brain won’t flow.
- 5. Write A LOT. Practice makes…. a little better than you were before.
- 6. Write with the same voice you talk in.
- 7. Deliver value with every sentence. Even in a tweet. Else, be quiet.
- 8. Steal. (Piggyback off popular topics.)
- 9. Use “said” instead of any other word. Don’t use “he suggested” or “he bellowed”.
- 10. Be funny. First rule of funny: ugly people are funny. Make yourself as ugly as possible.
- 11. Use a lot of periods. Forget commas and semicolons.
- 12. Be Honest. Tell people the stuff they all think but nobody ever says.
- 13. Make people cry. Make them feel the potent moments.
- 14. Sleep eight hours a day.
- 15. Take what everyone thinks and explore the opposite.
- 16. Paint. Or draw. Keep exercising other creative muscles.
- 17. Don’t Hurt Anyone. Don’t be a bad guy.
- 18. Write every day. Writing is spiritual practice. You are diving inside of yourself and cleaning out the toxins.
- 19. Read before you write. Very high-level work to get in the zone and lift your game up.
- 20. Let it sleep. Whatever you are working on, sleep on it.
- 21. Be opinionated. Nobody cares about all the things you don’t have strong opinions on.
- 23. Coffee. No coffee, no creativity.
- 24. Bleed in the first line. Make it human.
- 25. Don’t write if you’re upset at someone. Then the person you are upset at becomes your audience.
- 26. Have lots of ideas.
- 27. Risk. Don’t stop writing until you’re afraid to hit publish.
- 28. Time heals all wounds. Write about the hard stuff from the past.
- 29. Have a shocking title.
- 30. Don’t ask for permission. Never say “in my opinion.” We know it’s your opinion. You’re writing it.
- 31. Break the laws of physics. There’s no time in text. Nothing has to go in order.
- 32. The last line needs to go BOOM!
- 33. Take out every other sentence. Or something like that.
- 34. Don’t be afraid of what people think. For each person you worry about, deduct 1% in quality.
- 35. Want more expert writing advice? James has created a step-by-step checklist of his personal process for writing bestselling books. See how he does it so you can recreate it for yourself. Get it for free at JamesAltucher.com/bestseller.