Writing

How not to lose all motivation when writing

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I came across the following Reddit post:

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“Here´s the thing. I´ve been trying to write for a while now. I love writing. I love to create places and characters and outlines. I´ve had a story in my mind for years and I have it all outlined and planned. But when I have to sit down and actully write it I lose all motivation, inspiration and fun. I dont know. Am I doing something wrong? Does this happen to you as well? Could use some advice.”

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My answer: you don’t "love writing”.

You love ideating stories and thinking about writing.

The solution?

Learn how to actually love the writing process. With that I mean the entire process. Ideating, first drafting, experimenting, going back to clean up your mess of a first draft, writing a second, and a third draft, editing everything, making sure the timeline fits and there are no plot holes, fixing the dialogue, and ultimately getting your writing ready to be published (or posted).

Every one of these can be further divided into their own steps—if you’d like to play the complex game that is.

Or you can look at the source of everything, that is, enjoyment as a whole, and why we, as people, find one thing more fun and enjoyable than another.

Hint: there are only two ingredients to a “fun activity” no matter what it is, who it’s for, or how to do it.

Playing chess, writing a book, going skydiving, painting, poetry, playing a video game,… it doesn’t matter. Every single one of these shares the same two foundational ingredients to what makes something fun.

If those two ingredients are present the activity becomes fun. If they’re missing from the activity (including those mentioned above) you’ll no longer enjoy it.

The trick lies in knowing you can artificially implement these ingredients into everything you do, essentially turning everything into something fun and enjoyable.

As to what these ingredients are, and how to apply them to learning to love the writing process, no matter what kind of writing you do, how long you’ve already been writing, or who/what you’re writing for (business or professional, fiction, non-fiction, or persuasive) and especially if you want to learn how you can write more than you do now, better than you do now, and faster than you do now (so you’ll also earn more money than you do now) then I’ll have to refer you to my little gem of a book titled:

“The Art of Loving to Write“.

It’s an incredibly short, yet powerful, read (and so inexpensive everyone can afford it).

No matter who you are or what market you’re in. If you do any type of writing in your life (professional or personal), I can guarantee this book can and will be useful to you—so useful in fact that you’re likely to see immediate improvements the same day after you finish reading the book.

Which, good news, the book is short enough for you to finish it in one sitting if that’s what you like

Here’s the link to get your hands on The Art of Loving to Write: https://alexvandromme.com/loving


How to always keep your audience engaged

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Here’s a valuable persuasive writing tip (or any kind of writing for that matter) I learned from a screenwriter somewhere (can’t remember who or where I learned it from):

“Plot and character are the two main ingredients to keep the audience engaged.”

Or in other words, at any point in time, if you want to keep the attention of your viewer (or reader more likely), you either need to be advancing the plot one way or another, or you need to be developing the characters.

Fail to do either of those and you’ll end up losing the attention you fought so very hard to get.

One of the best examples I know of to see this in action is the 1987 film Lethal Weapon starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.

It’s a one hour and 49 minutes long masterpiece perfectly giving the audience 15 minutes of plot (lots of action, attention-grabbing scenes, discoveries, and plot twists) followed by 10 minutes of character development (more mundane, day-to-day stuff, conversations, relationship forming, getting to know the various people) only to jump straight into non-stop action and plot-developing cinema and rinse and repeat.

At no point does either one become too much, or too little, and at no point does the film lose the attention of the audience by failing to do either.

A powerful lesson to bring into your own writing—especially when it comes to persuasive writing.

There’s many ways to go about doing so.

If you’d like to get a taste of a few of them, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


George Lucas bled on the page every time he had to write

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As a young lad and still widely unknown director, George Lucas didn’t have the luxury of hiring screenwriters—or any other writer, for that matter.

So he had to go and write everything himself.

Which turned out to be an absolute nightmare for him. In fact, the writing has always been a disaster for him. From the first time he ever tried to write a screenplay up until the last and most recent word he ever wrote down.

He even mentioned as much himself by once having said in an interview, “I can be chained to my desk and I still can’t write it.”

This obviously didn’t make his life any easier.

But, there was hope.

In fact, one of his early friends and mentors was Francis Ford Coppola himself. At one point Lucas and Coppola were touring around, driving to all sorts of locations, filming together for Coppola’s latest project at that time.

At the same time, however, Lucas was working on writing the script of what would become THX 1138.

He wasn’t making any progress at all.

Rewriting scene after scene, never getting any proper ideas, always getting stuck on certain parts, and just never seeming to have the creativity or even the motivation to create a good, well-written, thought-out, and coherent script.

That’s until Coppola gave him the following piece of advice (referring to writing the first draft): “

Don’t ever read what you’ve written. Try to get it done in a week or two, then go back and fix it.. you just keep fixing it.”

This meant, just picking up his pen, writing everything that came to mind, never looking back, never making adjustments, just keep on going, keep on writing, and whatever comes out of out, comes out of it.

Only after you have created a first draft, that’s when you’re allowed to go back and start improving or changing things you’ve written.

That said.

The same principle applies to everything else that needs creating.

For example, that new digital product you’d like to create.

Honestly, I’ve seen countless of people trying to create a product only to spend months, sometimes years on the product, only to create a sub-par deliverable that could’ve been made in a few weeks (if they even finish it in the first place).

The worst part?

It could’ve been easily avoided by having (and following) a proper framework that guides you on how to easily ideate, create, and launch a digital product in 21 days or less.

A framework like I teach in Product Creation Made Easy for example.

In fact, I’ve dedicated one whole module to this exact issue (and the solution to actually getting more work done in less time when it comes to creating your product).

If you’d like to learn more about it, then check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/product


Non-money-related reasons to write emails

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In no particular order:

  • It’s incredibly fun and fulfilling

  • Writing emails brings forth more ideas and inspiration which can be used for other projects

  • You get to do whatever you want, whenever you want it, without any platform limitations

  • Your own email list is probably the closest thing you’ll ever got to free speech on a large scale

  • Allows you to talk to and bond with tons of people across many walks of life individually with the benefits of large scale efficiency

  • Incredibly easy to do—especially if you’ve been doing it for a long time already—making it the perfect way to start your day off right by checking something off your to-do list

  • Everything you write is reusable in some way, giving you unlimited benefits that keep scaling indefinitely the longer you do it

  • The best way to notify people about important announcements

Announcements such as the one you’ll see tomorrow.

See keep your eyes open for that one.


Brandon Sanderson’s 3-question character writing rule

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The quality of a story depends almost entirely upon the quality of the characters and their development.

Even more so if your story is told from the perspective of one main character the audience follows throughout the story. No matter how deep you explore real-life relatable topics, how detailed your worldbuilding is, how new and exciting your magic system is, or how epic your large-scale battles are, none of it will help you if the characters are lifeless, unrelatable, and devoid of true meaning, emotion, or ambition.

Writing good characters, however, is a whole art in itself.

But, luckily you can get almost 80% of the way there by simply asking yourself the following three questions, which I’ve first heard mentioned by Brandon Sanderson, best-selling author known for his works such as the Mistborn series or the Stormlight Archive (as well as many, many more):

  1. What does your character desperately want?

  2. What does your character need?

  3. Why can’t they have both?

Answering this will not only set you up with a good, lifelike character, but if done correctly, it could potentially help you create your entire story from start to finish with just these three questions in mind.

More.

You could ask the same question about your readers/customers/clients/whoever and come up with interesting and valuable information about how to 1) treat them as best you can and 2) dramatically improve your business because of it.

Hell, I’d even argue this could be the base of your entire marketing strategy.

  1. What does your average customer want?

  2. What does he actually need?

  3. What stopping you from giving them both of these?

Figure out the answers to these questions, entice your customers with what they think they want, then include the thing they actually want, and you’ll have yourself your golden ticket to success.

Let’s take you as an example.

I’m guessing, since you’re on my email list, you’d want to earn more money selling your own products, books, courses, art, services, whatever. But what you actually need is a simple and reliable way to get your stuff in front of your target audience so you can make sales while focusing on the stuff you do best—creating.

Well, the thing that’s been stopping me so far from giving you both is the fact that my paid ad course (which would give you both of these things) isn’t out yet… but it’s almost here!

All that’s left to do is for you to wait a little while longer and for me to finish the last bits and pieces of the course.

So definitely keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, check out my flagship course, Email Valhalla, which makes for an extremely powerful—and profitable—addition on top of said paid ads course I’ll be releasing shortly.

Click here to learn more about Email Valhalla: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


The best confusing piece of advice for new and upcoming writers

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When asked about advice for new and upcoming writers, the great George R. R. Martin often goes into a story about how, when he was still a “new and upcoming writer”, he’d get advice along the lines of, “Write what you know.”

This always confused him.

Because here he is, wanting to write about dragons, medieval empires, large-scale military battles, lots of politics, shady spy networks, and all kinds of weird and ancient magic. Yet he’s told to “write what he knows”, which, strangely enough, doesn’t include any of the above, let alone dragons and magic.

Fair enough, right?

But it wasn’t until George got older, wiser, and more experienced that he truly started to understand the meaning and intention behind “Write what you know”.

It’s not so much about the big central topic as it is about the underlying emotions and relationships that carry the story—after all, as the great Chris Claremont, who single-handedly revived the entire X-Men series when nobody thought anything of it and turned it into the giant that it is today, used the say, “the fights are bullshit”

For example:

You might not know anything about dragons, magic, or the ruling of kingdoms but you might know how it feels to be disconnected from a loved one, to be scared to death not knowing if you’ll ever see a relative again during a period of war and chaos, to be raised in a broken family full of alcohol and abuse, or even to do everything you can, hoping for someone to tell you they’re proud of you, only it feels like nothing is ever good enough.

Those are the things you know which you should write about.

Do this right and other people will be able to relate to a dragon-riding, empire-ruling, 5,000-year-old vampire assassin. Because it’s never about what’s on the cover. It’s always been about what’s underneath.

Coincidentally, “Write what you know” isn’t only good fiction writing advice.

It’s good writing advice in general, including writing emails that get you paid and keep your readers coming back day after day.

If that’s something you’d like to learn more about, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


Something something, overhyped claims

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Soon after launch, I received the following review of my book “The Art of Loving to Write”:

(I originally received this email in Dutch from Victor, a long-time reader and fellow Belgian, so the translation is entirely mine but I kept it as close to the original meaning as I could)

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BRO.

I bought your book this morning and immediately finished reading it in an hour.

That's when I put aside my Kindle, picked up my MacBook, and wrote 7 emails in the next 2 hours.

Amazing tips (The one about [how to never have writer’s block ever again] for example)

It motivated me to start writing again. Your book showed me that writing doesn't have to be a drag; in fact, it can be the highlight of my day.

Thanks Alex.

Your philosophy of writing, marketing, and online business just resonates with me. It's so simple, so logical, and so fun.

I look forward to seeing what I'll achieve with this in the coming year.

Cheers,

Victor.

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And so it goes in my world.

If I say something is immediately practically, instantly useable, and will help you write more than you do now, better than you do now, so you can earn more than you do now, all the while learning how to enjoy every second of it so it becomes the highlight of your day…

Then, my dear friend, I’m not just making it up.

That’s, unfortunately, something this industry often gets wrong. So many people out there make extremely overhyped claims they can never hope to deliver on.

Sure, it works to get the initial sale.

But nobody earns a living from the first sale. It’s the second, third, and even tenth sale that helps you earn a living.

And no way in hell will someone who’s lying about their claims ever get repeat customers.

Those people simply aren’t capable of playing the long game.

If, instead, you are one of the people who knows how important it is to play the long game, and build yourself a business that’s meaningful and worthwhile (not just a get-rich-quick scheme).

Then I’ve got an important suggestion for you.

Learn how to write a lot and, even more importantly in my biased, yet correct, but humble opinion, learn how to enjoy every second of the writing process. Because you’ll be doing this for a long loooooong time.

And man, would I hate to see you “suck it up” for years because you never learned how to enjoy the writing process.

Which brings me to my book, “The Art of Loving to Write”, which Victor just told you all about.

“The Art of Loving to Write“.

You can find it on Amazon all over the world in both paperback and Kindle format.

It’s an incredibly short, yet powerful, read. And one so inexpensive (as opposed to some of my other products) everyone can afford it.

No matter who you are or what market you’re in. If you do any type of writing in your life (professional or personal), I can guarantee this book can and will be useful to you—so useful in fact that you’re likely to see immediate improvements the same day after you finish reading the book.

Which, good news, the book is short enough for you to finish it in one sitting if that’s what you like

Anyway.

Go check out The Art of Loving to Write here: https://alexvandromme.com/loving


What’s the purpose of entertainment?

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Henry David Thoreau, the American essayist, poet, and philosopher once wrote:

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

“For books are not to teach us how to live,” writes Frederic Gros in his book A Philosophy of Walking, “but to make us want to live, to live differently: to find in ourselves the possibility of life, its principle.”

Both Thoreau and Gros argue that true, valuable, and insightful books can only be written when combined with lots and lots of walking.

True walking.

Not the kind you do when you’re out shopping, rushing to get to the train station, or going to the hairdresser around the corner.

True walking is when you’re out in nature without a destination or goal to achieve, with no purpose whatsoever. It’s just you, Mother Nature, and your thoughts. Often for hours on end—even though it’ll only feel like a few minutes at most after you’re done. That’s how time functions when out in the open, connected to the world around you, and without a care in your mind; the flow gets all tangled up and you have no idea how many seconds, minutes, or even hours have passed.

“What’s the point of telling me all this?” you might ask.

Well, it’s simple really.

First, it might be a worthwhile idea to go on more walks, experience life more clearly, and inspire you to write your next masterpiece.

Second, and this is where today’s marketing lesson comes in, the first Thoreau quote I shared helps you answer the question of “What problem does an author solve?”.

To clarify what I mean, take a look at the following quote by famous comic book writer, publisher, and producer, Stan Lee, who single-handedly grew one of the biggest multimedia enterprises to date:

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“Entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain people, you're doing a good thing.”

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Or in other words, you’re helping people want to live (and live differently).

You can prove this to yourself by looking at people’s expenditures during difficult economic times, filled with doubt, uncertainty, and anxiety. You’d expect people to start saving more and only spending their hard-earned money on basic needs for survival such as food, shelter, hygiene, and transportation.

Instead what you’ll find is, yes people will spend more of their budget on those things (relatively speaking), yet they’ll also start spending a lot more money on entertainment as well.

After all, what good is mere survival without the will to live?

Now, you might nod your head while reading this and think “okay that’s cool”, but not so fast. Because this is truly important news for you to keep in mind as long as you work in the entertainment industry—which, at this point, almost everyone does to a certain extent.

Why?

Because that’s the key to all your marketing!

The big question people always have is “what can you do for me?”, no matter if they’re buying new clothes, booking a vacation, taking a language course, or shopping for new books in their local Barnes & Noble.

You simply cannot succeed in your marketing endeavor if you’re not aware of ‘what you can do for them’, or in other words, ‘what problem you’re solving’—a question that is a lot easier to answer in non-entertainment-related markets.

Speaking of marketing…

I’ve been busy working on a paid ad course, specifically for independent creatives active in the entertainment industry, which will help you create profitable ads, built upon age-old direct marketing knowledge, in such a simple and streamlined way that you don’t have to waste years of your life getting a PhD in advertising, so you have more to do what you love most.

It’s not quite here yet, but it will be soon…

So keep an eye out for that.


Why do I write daily emails?

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The short answer: I enjoy it

The longer answer: I enjoy it and it makes me more money.

Jokes aside, I could go over all the reasons why I write daily emails—aside from helping me make more money, being top of mind, having a better connection with you, my reader, and getting better at writing infinitely faster than someone writing monthly, weekly, or semi-daily emails.

But I won’t go into that today.

Another reason is that I find it motivating as well.

First of all, I get more responses. More people reply sharing how they liked my emails. It helps me stay accountable making it so I can’t take a single day off. I have to show up every single day, even when don’t feel like it—especially when I don’t feel like it.

I simply have to write something, come up with ideas, write a (hopefully) engaging story, and share the lesson in a way that hits just right, so it’ll be impactful to you as a reader, ensuring you’re getting a benefit from it and continue reading my emails the following day as well.

That’s far from an exhaustive list of why I write daily emails.

But it should be more than good enough to get you started.

So if you’d like to learn the craft of writing emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day, then check out Email Valhalla right here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


Late-night drinks turns into a motivational speech

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Last night I went to get some drinks with a few friends.

One of those friends had already previously expressed her long-time interest in writing her own novels at one point in time. We’d often chat about the act of writing a book and what type of genre/direction she’d want to go in.

So much so she even considered pursuing some form of creative writing education in the UK (don’t remember all the details—this was quite a while ago).

That said.

Like most people’s dreams, that’s all that happened; talking about the dream, never making any real steps towards accomplishing, or even starting, that dream.

Well. until now at least.

Apparently she started taking notes, creating outlines, doing research, brainstorming about ideas, learning about the trade, and picking up both writing and marketing tips and tricks from people she looks up to (or at least that’s who I’m assuming she got it from), even getting set up with useful writing tools and software to make her life easier.

Now, I’m still unsure how much writing has been accomplished already—if any.

But at least she’s actually fired up and making considerable progress towards her final goal—all of which is to be applauded and supported—I sincerely hope she goes through with it until the end, I really do.

All of this, however, reminded me of an important lesson.

Something I learned quite some years ago from (in)famous psychologist, author, speaker, deep thinker, and celebrity with an extremely engaged and almost cult-like following, Jordan B. Peterson. Love or hate the guy, I don’t care and that’s not what really matters here anyway. If you’re not wise and intelligent enough to realize you don’t have to like, or even agree with, someone in order to learn from, get inspired by, and broaden your perspective on how you view the world, then you’ve got much bigger issues to focus on in your life.

I’m not even sure if this is something I should attribute to Peterson, but it’s who I heard it from first and who comes up first in my mind whenever I think about this.

And that specific valuable lesson in the following:

You have no idea how little encouragement people need to drastically improve every single aspect of their lives. Yet most people still aren’t getting any encouragement at all.

Imagine how much better the world would be. How many more creative masterpieces, technological breakthroughs, or truly revolutionary thinkers we’d have if more people simply got told “I believe in you" or “Go give it everything you’ve got” at least once?

Truly a shame.

Anyway.

Let this be your reminder to believe in yourself and go give it everything you’ve got. You’ve only got one life. Nobody else is going to write that book you’ve been dreaming about, direct the movie you once envisioned, record the song you keep humming to yourself, build that life-changing product you once thought about when you couldn’t sleep, but never did anything about it because you weren’t sure if you were up to the task.

Well, I’m here telling you that you are.

Even more.

It’s almost laughably easy to produce and create anything you put your mind to in today’s digital age where you can reason billions of people all across the globe from the luxury of your home just by pressing a few buttons on your computer.

In fact, using today’s advertising technology it’s truly never been easier to reach anyone you want (you have no idea how specific and niche your target audience can be).

And I’ll show you exactly how to make that dream of yours a reality in my paid advertising course… once it’s finished, which will be sooner than you might think, so keep your eyes open.

In the meantime, consider learning how to write daily emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day by getting my flagship course Email Valhalla today:

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla