[LS] Writing About Writing is Work - Cows Escaped a Flood
I have two jobs, both are joyful, both are work. And both require me to evolve. What I call fun...
Hi,
So, my last two projects (OK, well they are both In Progress) have been harder than any before. Because I’m changing as I write, what it write, how I write. And I explain below. Meanwhile, yes - cows can be swept away when the nearby “river” gets out of its creek banks and becomes one.
Again, check your subscriptions if you’re getting too few or too many of these newsletters.
Farm News - Just missed a torrential downpour with my cow moves. As it rains again today - but: a new heifer joins us!
Writing News - Copywriting now mostly done. Which means: dunno. Amazing things I’ve found now tell me that WriterpreneurOS will be changing, once again…
Expectancy - Just not that hard. I mean, we do this every day. Why should we worry about governmental types?
Farming News
We had a real downpour the other day. So much that it got over the roads near us.
About four feet deep out there. For most cars, this would be up past the door handle. And why that railing is on the downstream side.
Just the day before, I moved the cows out of the paddock which this affected. So they were safe. I had no idea this storm was coming. (And now resolve to check my weather at least once daily, no matter how pleasant it is at the moment.) This morning there was dew on the grass, which usually means no rain. But I’m sitting through a new set of rain that is supposed to last into tomorrow morning…
The great news - on the last day of April, we got our first calf.
A heifer. And, as our tradition around here, I’m asking for names. (Reply to this email, or just put in the comments below if you’re online.)
The herd should be mowing our lawns again by this time next week…
Tiny Home News
Gardening continues this week. My wife wants to can this summer, so it means planting a lot now. Mother’s Day is the deadline for everything that we want to raise this year.
This is a few days ago. The first load in. Farm truck on the left, with dirt from our sister’s pond project down the road. My own truck on the right, fresh from the hardware store with packaged/store-bought dirt.
Bought and cut 5 food-grade 55-gallon barrels a couple of days ago. Haven’t gotten holes drllled into the bottoms, nor plugs removed from the tops. It’s raining as I write this, so I’ll have some water to slosh around tomorrow.
There’s flowers up by the cottage, and we’ll be planting our vegables into the containers (barrel halves, older feed tubs, plus 5- and 3-gallon buckes from Walmart bakery.) Lots of mixing to do to get the right soil just right. Without draining our bank accounts.
My wife just messaged me that she’s bringing down some more tomato plants when she returns tomorrow afternoon.
Writing News
The good news is that I’m almost completely done with the Copywriting book.
Bad news is - this is making me re-think how I wrote my first book.
Copywriting took me through studying the classics to extract the main priniciples. I also compiled what I know is valid about human motivations - from people who did studies along this line. Because when you know how to copywrite, then you next need to know what triggers/buttons to push which reach people where they are at.
Then I extracted the writing devices these classic authors used. Which was an amazing learning experience on its own. And is the Big Point of how this book is assembled. Know the evergreen principles and basic models, collect and employ devices - that is how all three types of writing work best. (Including copywriting with fiction and non-fiction.)
Then it got a little wild. Because I started researching word of mouth advertising, which then led into academics who studied making stuff go viral. (Books: “The Tipping Point” - Gladwell, “Contagious” - Berger, “Made to Stick” - Heaths.) That then flowed right back into copywriting and the principles-devices model. Which, as you can imagine, turns everything topsy-turvy - but also rolls right back into authors engaging their audience through emotive and emphathetic prose…
A comparision to viral TED talks brought up another book (“Talk Like TED” by Carmine Gallo) which I’m in the middle of studying. But this is now starting to really send earthquakes down my back, since these go viral for various reasons, but all of those reasons are explained within the earlier studies (and books) mentioned.
See the business plan below for how this now effects the WriterpreneurOS book.
New Business Plan - Substack-centric.
I haven’t gotten this laid out, quite. What this does point out is that my writing is more than a bit mechanics-based. I’ve always been into how things work and fit together, but leaving out the emotional grease they use at times.
The point is working out how to earn income through Substack to support my writing. It’s not lost on me that the leaderboarders are those who talk about angst and emotional blocks, and particularly those who deal with videos and popular trends. (We aren’t even going near the morass of “social” media…)
So:
Free with everything, to a point.
Paid members get perks.
Founding Members get the best perks.
Figure that I can create an 18-minute podcast from a 3,000 word post. Record it myself and host via Substack. Then broadcast that through all the various podcast distribution sites.
That 3000 words goes out free, but with ads to subscribe, and so on. At a certain point, the Paywall kicks in, with a cliffhanger of what’s behind that curtain. THEN - I post the ad-free version of both the text (as an ebook) and the podcast (an audiobook episode) exclusively for the Founding Members.
Seems fair. Takes a bit more writing. A lot more editing. And a whole bunch of soul searching to find the right emotional bits that aren’t mechanical at all. But - it’s right down the line of what W. S. Campbell teaches in his books: Write what’s interesting to you, that had an emotional impact on you.
Now - when you add in the TED talk format, you then can elect your presentation to also be a video (via ZOOM) that is all emotional and novel and memorable, that is has a jaw-dropping moment, and is built with all the devices that author found are common to the most successful TED talks. (And videos are all the rage these days.)
Yes, there again: evergreen principles, writing and rhetorical devices.
That means we’re still on track.
This is just amplifying your books. In 16 weeks, you have a 48,000 word book, an audio book, videos and podcasts with built-in ads available everywhere. If you wanted, you could publish each of those 3K-word chapters as an ebook, several collections, plus several print versions.
All this adds up to what I’ve already covered in that WriterpreneurOS book - but will mean creating those 16 chapters out of what I already have - or in addition to them.
And it means I won’t be looking at non-fiction the same way from here on out. Meanwhile, the basic research is starting to edge onto a year-long quest.
So be it.
Because now I’m coming out with something that may just turn viral. That may just become a perennial-selling book. That might build a huge audience that I can help improve their lives by interacting with them. Making friends, and so on.
A bit different from being that normal reclusive as I’ve practiced for some 20 years - until recently. Just the tonic I’ve been looking for, it seems.
Proofing Update
Not quite done, but I plan to steal my binder back tomorrow (she’s out of town) so I can start catching up without interrupting her. And that’s before I start reorganizing everything above.
The Recurring Special Offer:
ONCE AGAIN, the beta-readers version of Writerpreneur OS is still available. It’s still being proofed, so there will be revisions coming that makes your reading easiter.
But if you download before I get the most recent version up, you’ll still find some great stuff that’s relegated to cutting room floor material. Keep copies of your versions to see the changes. Gumroad will allow you to download it as many times as you want.
Here’s the link: https://livingsensical.gumroad.com/l/WOS01-beta-readers
Find the oopsies. Leave comments, reviews. Ask questions. Be one of the first anywhere.
Between 250 and 300 pages, depending on format. Available are epub and PDF. No charge. (Free download, in other words.)
Nearly 20 years of writing-publishing-entrepreneuring - all rolled into a single book. And updated. Condensed.
Expectancy And…
Almost forgot to update this with more useful tips of how to survive this manufactured crisis coming at us.
There’s a lot of bad memes floating around about government and those actors - and they are mostly all true. Best advice: “Render unto Caesar…” Then release and/or let go of everything that doesn’t contribute to improving your life and/or accomplishing your goals.
The key point is, however you phrase it: you get what you expect. And only as good as you expect. So the whole point is to be grateful for the good things that come your way, and always expect better for everything else.
Beyond that, discern the facts from opinion, discard opinion and put the useful facts to work. Discern what effect people are trying to have on you. The constantly critical and demeaning ones you can leave out of your life. They’ll soon find other people to annoy when you pay no attention to them. Bless them, meanwhile.
The best attitude to assume is to be constantly cheeful, calm, and expectant. Let go of what doesn’t turn out the way you expected, and be grateful for everything that does. In that way, you say “yes” or “no” to the world around you. And things keep turning better the more you practice expecting better with gratitude.
Observe exactly what is happening around you. And when something unexpected happens, then decide what you’d like to expect and put that out there.
If it works for you for parking spaces, then it will work for even greater things.
Again, and always: test this for yourself.
Thanks for being there, opening this.
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I hope your life is not too interesting to be overwhelming, but sufficiently engaging to keep you amused. (Like some of us here...)
Robert
PS. Again, you can always email me about anything.
PPS. Again, do upgrade to the paid newsletter version. That helps me keep the lights on - so I can keep all this coming to you. As much or little as you want…