Recently, this girl I’ve gone on a few dates with (who is a writer) and I started rapping about writing, the craft of writing, tricks for getting lots of writing done fast, yada, yada yada.
Eventually the topic of my *chaotic* way of writing came up.
By that I mean, I think too fast to write slow or talk slow. (When talking, sometimes I talk until ALL the air has expelled from my lungs to keep up with all ideas spewing out.) And, many times the ideas come out so fast my fingers are typing what looks like gibberish (my own form of short hand, of sorts) and my goal is to get as many ideas down as I can in spurts so I don’t lose any.
(Or very many — a few slip by the goalie every now and then).
Anyway, her response?
She said Yours Unruly’s wicked ways were like “anti-meditation.”
I don’t know much about meditation.
But, I can only assume she meant instead of letting my mind calm, and let the thoughts flow… I forcefully spew the ideas out all over the page, in whatever order they arrive, without rhyme, reason, or structure.
Contrast that to the great writers of old like C.S. Lewis.
I read about how his process of writing was to use one of those old school pens where you have to dip it in ink every several words. He would write a sentence, then stop, dip it in some ink, write another sentence — letting his calm subconscious mind slip him ideas ala the way Gene Schwartz talked about in his famous speeches for how Mozart got ideas for his scores which he never had to edit because they always came out perfect. My way, on the other foot, is more like making a movie — shoot lots of scenes, then put them together in the editing room later.
Anyway, I have no idea if this email adds to your life.
But, it seemed worth mentioning.
Especially for people who find the *process* of writing fascinating.
And, who want to know how others approach it.
All right, enough of this, on to business:
The September “Email Players” issue goes to the printer Monday.
One of the (many) things it teaches is a secret way of using holidays and history books to write emails that:
1. Are extremely fun for your list to read
2. Potentially extremely profitable
3. Don’t smack of hype or even sales pitch at all
I saw a marketer I respect tremendously do this in May.
And, I spent a lot of time analyzing what he did.
(And am passing my intel about it to subscribers.)
The Monday deadline looms.
Get your lovin’ here while you can:
Ben Settle
