These 5 sentences will make you a better writer.

From non-marketing books every copywriter should’ve read.

It's 35 degrees Celsius here (95 Fahrenheit for you Americans). The radio calls it the hottest June in recorded history. Can you write in temperatures like that? I can’t. The mornings are fine. The lingering cold from the night helps. After 1 PM, it gets brutal.

It’s 3 PM now. I'm sitting on the couch, no shirt, feeling the coarse cushion scrub the sweat off my back. It’s very uncomfortable.

If you write for a living, you can’t let anything stop you from writing.

So, over the years, I've tried and tested any method and mantra I’ve come across to get me out of my slumps. What worked best was always the advice from other writers. They’ve done it before.

The first sentence is what helped me finish this article while being slow-roasted.

1. "Bird by bird, buddy."

“Thirty years ago, my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.’”
—Anne Lamott, bird by bird

I’m often drowning in open browser tabs, post-it notes, and printed drafts, with a deadline creeping up that I've neglected for much more interesting things like learning to play Mani Matter on the ukulele.

When the task at hand seems overwhelming—like writing an email campaign that should go out to half a million people in three days—my mind transports me to the Lamotts’ kitchen table with her dad encouraging me to “take it bird by bird.”

The big bad email becomes a subject line today, a draft tomorrow, and an editing session on the day it's due. Seems easy enough, now!

Anne Lamott’s bird by bird was one of the first books on writing I ever read. I’ve told myself "bird by bird" probably more often than any other writing advice I've ever come across.

Nothing takes me out of a slump of overwhelmedness like this little sentence.

Try this...

Next time you’re paralyzed by an insurmountable task, break it down into the smallest pieces you can.

A book becomes a scenic description. A landing page becomes a headline. A letter to the woman you’re secretly in love with becomes one confessionary sentence.

Later, or tomorrow, you do the same thing again. Then again, and again, and again, and…

2. "One by one, each sentence takes the stage."

"Imagine it this way: One by one, each sentence takes the stage. It says the very thing it comes into existence to say. Then it leaves the stage. It doesn't help the next one up or the previous one down. It doesn't wave to its friends in the audience or pause to be acknowledged or be applauded. It doesn't talk about what it's saying. It simply says its piece and leaves the stage."
—Verlyn Klinkenborg, Several short sentences about writing

I read Klinkenborg's Several short sentences about writing on an e-reader by a rooftop pool in Bangkok. I found it so valuable that I bought the paperback version to keep it by my desk like a bible. Out of all the books on writing I’ve read, I credit this the most for making me the writer I am today.

Common writing advice is to let your thoughts flow freely onto the page. Write as the words pour out. Edit later. This works. But there’s a better way.

Writing happens in your head, not on a page or screen. Before a sentence is ever written, it manifests in your mind. You don’t have to put it down right away. You can edit it first.

I thought this sentence through very carefully before I wrote it down. What do I want it to do? What do I want you to take away from it? I twist and turn it in my head until it says exactly what it’s supposed to say. Only then, I write it down.

As soon as the sentence comes to life, I examine it right away. If it’s good, I will write the next sentence. If it’s not good, I keep working on it. When I write something repetitive, for example, I delete it. ~~I don't leave it in the text to get rid of it later.~~ Every word needs to work for its spot in my sentences. If there’s a word that could do a better job, I ~~substitute~~ replace it. Only when I’m satisfied, I continue with the next sentence.

Try this...

Next time you’re looking at your blinking cursor on a blank page, think about your sentence before you type it out or write it down. Play with it in your head. Really think about what it should say. Then how it should say it. Then try making it say it better before it appears on your screen. You'll be surprised at how good your first draft is and how little editing you have to do.

(Disclaimer: of course, you'll still have to edit the fuck out of every text. That's just how it is. But if you write with deliberation from the very start, you'll love to read what you wrote and editing will be massively easier, too.)

3. "Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground."

"I told the interviewer (Mark Singer) that I believed stories are found things, like fossils in the ground. He said that he didn't believe me. I replied that that was fine, as long as he believed that I believe it. And I do. Stories aren't souvenir tee-shirts or GameBoys. Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer's job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground intact as possible."
—Stephen King, On Writing

I’m not sure what the metaphor of shirts and GameBoys mean. If you do, please share it with the class.

But I do know that coming up with a good story is really fucking hard. Most of the time. Sometimes, a story just… comes up with itself. You’re writing and the story just keeps going. You don’t have to think. Your characters just do things. Almost like they have a mind of their own. You're merely observing, documenting the journey.

Scientists call it the flow state. Old religions thought you’re tapping into the aether. Even older ones called it Akasha. New-age spiritualists would say you’re connected to the source. Whatever it is, it’s among an artist’s greatest tools.

When I’m stuck with my story, and trying to force it forward, little Stephen is sitting on my shoulder, whispering in my ear to dig instead of daydreaming. To unearth the story instead of trying to create it. And the more I relinquish control, the more the story progresses.

There’s a nice side effect to this. Not knowing what happens next makes writing so much more interesting.

Try this...

When your story is stuck (not YOU, your story), don't try to invent what happens next. Observe. Let your characters decide what they do. You’re just there to write it down.

"You’re allowed to steal anything."

"In any art you’re allowed to steal anything if you can make it better, but the tendency should always be upward instead of down. And don’t ever imitate anybody.
—Ernest Hemingway, With Hemingway: A year in Key West and Cuba

There’s a more famous quote of this. You know the one? “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” But I don’t like Steve Jobs much, Picasso never said it, and the original quote from T.S. Elliot just doesn’t hit as hard.

I’m sad to say I’ve never read Arnold Samuelson’s With Hemingway. Could never get my hands on it. But I’ve read this article (you should, too).

There aren’t many things a writer wants more than for their creative genius to be recognized. If we do what’s done before, it’s not our creative genius, but someone else’s that gets all the recognition, right?

Don’t look at creativity that way. Your work was never yours to begin with. And theirs wasn’t theirs. Creativity is a cumulative achievement.

An example: Star Wars is one of the most successful stories of all time. It’s also based to some extent on Flash Gordon. Flash Gordon was made to compete with the popular comic book space hero Buck Rogers. He was probably based on the Barsoom series.

There are countless examples.

The greatest artists always knew that stealing beats inventing. Once I realized and accepted this, I felt free. The burden of creative expectations was lifted.

I now have a swipe file full of great ads, headlines, frameworks, emails, landing pages, CTAs, and more that I use freely. When I start a new draft, I go through my swipe file to find what has worked for others, and make it my own.

Try this...

Write down everything that makes you feel something. A headline in a newspaper makes your eyes go wide? Cut it out. A friend says something profound six beers deep? Write it down on a napkin. There's a hard-hitting line in a newsletter? Copy-paste it over.

Everything is material. Use it for yourself whenever you can.

I won’t even be mad if you steal this headline.

You could make it into:

• “These 5 sentences will make you a better painter. From children’s books every artist should’ve read.”
• “These 5 sentences will make you a happier person. From non-self-help books everyone should’ve read.”

Or a bit more abstracted:

• “These 5 images will make you a better photographer. From trash mags you’ve never seen before.”
• “These 5 solo exercises will make you a boxer. From the best trainer you’ve never heard of.”
  

"In buildings where they have to keep the work going on, put something across the windows."

“Rewrite that for me, will you? Tell them the buildings will have to keep their work going—put something across the windows. In buildings that can afford it, so that work can be stopped for a while, turn out the lights and stop there. I don't think I have got anything else. . .”
—Theodore Roosevelt

Teddy Roosevelt was a pretty cool guy. The dude gave a 90-minute speech right after being shot in the chest, would deck you in a fist fight, won a Nobel Peace Prize, fought corporate power (earning him the nickname Trust Buster), and wrote about 35 books and 150,000 letters in his lifetime.

That’s only to name a few things. Seriously, you gotta read up on Teddy!

In his book On Writing Well, William Zinsser uses Teddy Bear's above quote to illustrate how cluttered language kills clarity. The original memo was: "Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal buildings occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any…". Sorry, I got bored typing off the whole thing.

The quote above is what Teddy changed it to.

Zinsser’s On Writing Well was the second most important book about writing I’ve ever read. It’s the basis of my editing, with simplicity at its core. So, even if you don’t take anything else from this piece, take this: You can always say it simpler.

Try this...

Next time you edit, keep Grammarly and ChatGPT closed (for starters). Imagine Teddy Roosevelt sitting vis-à-vis, looking stern. Make sure you’re saying what you want to say with as few words as possible, as simple words as possible, as short sentences as possible, and as short words as possible. Short sentences aren’t the only way to communicate clearly and simply, but they’re the easiest. If you write bad short sentences, you’ll know immediately they’re bad, and you can fix them easily.

Pay attention to how the sentences sound next to each other and how the words inside the sentences sound. It’s important not to neglect rhythm when writing simply.

I want you to write this.

You’ve probably skimmed the headlines and are now reading this conclusion. It’s what I always do, too. No hard feelings. And if you didn’t skim, I love you!

In any case, I want you to become a better writer from reading this, so I’m leaving you with an exercise—it’s up to you if you use the five sentences from this article or do it on your own.

It's a simple exercise: Write as if you were writing on a typewriter.

If you have one, the exercise is even easier: use it.

Write something interesting. Something that makes you feel something. Don't write an essay or sales copy. Too many rules and established practices. Write a poem. A love letter. A flash fiction story about children's shoes.

You get three simple rules to follow:

1. No deleting. If you mess up, you can replace each character with the letter "x".
2. No inserting. If you forgot a word or punctuation mark, better make a note of it for later.
3. No functions. Don't copy, paste, cut, format, spell check, highlight, comment, link, ... you get the gist.

Writing on a typewriter has helped me slow down and write more consciously. I hope it helps you, too.

– Pat