Writing

One of the best books about writing I’ve read has to be “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser.

One of the chapters, for example, talks about the mistake many new (and sometimes even veteran) writers make regarding their writing style.

They try to write in such a way people instantly recognize their writing.

But what’ll end up happening is that these writers will artificially inflate their texts, add meaningless words, sentences, and even entire paragraphs which not only confuse the reader but also end up boring him.

They throw out the fundamentals of clear and simple writing (if they’ve even learned it in the first place) all to chase some imaginary goal of “building a style”.

First of all, you don’t build a style, you develop it through many, many years of writing. Writing for which the author had to work for, sweat for, and sometimes even bleed for.

Ask any experienced writer about their first experiences with getting a 10-page first draft of some project down to 5 pages—only to have to reduce it down again to 3 pages the following week.

It’s hard and painful work. Often, it even seems impossible.

But that’s the only way for an author to learn how to actually improve their writing.

Then, and only then, when they mastered the fundamentals of clear and simple writing, can the author truly focus on adding their personality, their beliefs, and their “voice” into the words.

Nobody becomes a best-selling author overnight.

Not even best-selling authors.

Will it take a long time? Undoubtedly.

Is it worth it? Well, that’s for you to decide.

I know it is for me.

Even more.

I’ve developed a whole system to make writing just a bit easier, a bit simpler, and a bit more fulfilling, in other words, a system to truly come to love the art of writing as a whole so you’re not forced to bleed behind the typewriter (or whatever modern replacement you’re using).

If you’d like to learn more about my system then check out the following link: https://alexvandromme.com/loving

There’s this old saying, “less is more”.

It’s especially true for writing.

Why write big and fancy words when simple and short ones will do? Why waste your time writing 500 words when 50 is enough?

The more you leave out, the stronger your writing.

So it is for both product creation and email writing.

Which is what I focus on in my flagship course Email Valhalla; how to write entertaining emails that make sales and keep your readers reading day after day.

Sounds interesting? Click here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

A question popped up in a self-publishing writer’s community:

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I published my memoir in late January of this year. I was able to get quite a few sales (I was amazed tbh because my previous book I had published barely even sold…).

I’ve been trying my best to promote it this last month because the sales are dropping and I think it’s simply because people have no idea it exists…? But I don’t think I’m catching people’s attention with it.

I published it on Amazon kdp. I can’t pay for ads currently so…am I SOL? I really want my story to be heard

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Classic case of short-sightedness.

You see it everywhere. People trying to get others to buy their products or services so they start looking for ways to advertise that specific product… only to get a few one-time sales and then struggle to keep that momentum (if they even got any to begin with) going—never actually making a business out of what they’ve got.

Here’s the tl;dr of what I’d suggest to anyone in a similar situation:

• Step 1: Create an email list

• Step 2: Drive people to your opt-in page through content creation

• Step 3: Email them as often as you can about the common interests that connect you and them to whatever you’re selling.

• Step 4: Sit back and relax while growing a business that doesn’t rely on one-time sales because you’re not losing your customers. Instead you’re actively growing your customer list and building a better and tighter relationship with them, guaranteeing more sales (consistently) in the future as long as you keep giving people what they want.

Ain’t nothing complicated to it (and if you think this only works for authors, you couldn’t be more mistaken).

If you’d like a more in-depth view of this process, then check out Email Valhalla to learn all about building, growing, and monetizing your email list.

Click here to check it out: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Here’s something I find hilarious:

So-called “writers”, “creators”, or worse, “experts” who rely on CrapGPT to tell them 1) who their target audience is 2) what those people like 3) which topics they should write about.

I’m serious.

Explain to me how you can, without bursting into tears laughing, have the nerve to call yourself a writer, a creator, an expert, a leader, or even a marketer for all I care, and aren’t able to, from your own mind, your own experience, your own creativity (which you don’t need as much of as you might think) come up with ANYTHING to say or write about.

No clue what to write about, what to talk about, what to sell, and who to sell it to.

At this point, I’m convinced these types of people require help to get them out of bed as well in the morning. If it weren’t for their mom waking them up every morning, chances are they might not even realize where they are or what they’re supposed to do.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

And while this focuses on writing, it’s equally applicable to everything else you do from public speaking to music creation and more.

Here goes.

If you write about whatever you’re passionate about, and enjoy whatever it is you’re writing, then chances are whoever reads it will enjoy it as much as you do—if not more.

Vice versa, write stuff that bores you about topics that don’t interest you and whoever reads it will be bored out of their mind as well.

Call it the second law of writingdynamics to make it feel all sciency and shit so you’re more likely to remember it.

Anyway, this begs the question:

How do you “optimize” (I don’t enjoy using this word, but for the lack of a better one, let’s go with this one right now) the enjoyment you have while writing—which you’ll eventually transfer to the reader?

Well, that’s the exact topic of the book I’m currently still working on.

So if you’d like to learn more about that, stay tuned and keep your eyes open for more information about that (which will be sooner than you might expect).

In the meantime, check out Email Valhalla to increase your email writing skills so you can grow you list, sell more products, and build a better relationship with your audience.

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

For the past week, I’ve been back on track, writing more than I have been in quite a while.

More specifically, I’ve been working on what will most likely become a physical book, with the preliminary placeholder title of “How to Make Writing Fun, Simple, and Enjoyable (while writing faster than ever before)”.

It’s been a lot of fun, so far (meta, right?).

But the whole premise got me thinking: What does it mean for something to be considered “fun”?

For starters, and contrary to popular belief, if something’s “easy” (that is, entirely without a lack of challenge), then I’ve got it on good authority it ain’t going to be a “fun” experience. There’s simply nothing LESS FUN than boring activities.

This is what many of these “I want to sit on a beach and drink pina coladas all day” types of people miss.

They only say such stuff because they currently aren’t capable of doing so (as humans we tend to want the things we cannot have—such is the cruel way of life). In fact, if they could, chances are they wouldn’t even want to. Maybe you’d enjoy it for a day or two, sure. But after three, four, let alone a full week, you’d be entirely sick of it and you’d crave for some challenge, some excitement in your life, something to dedicate yourself to and actually work on achieving something worthwhile and meaningful (what’s considered meaningful differs from person to person).

But what does this have to do with writing?

You see, if I could hand you a cheat sheet with the exact steps to take, the exact actions to make, and the exact buttons to press (such a cheat sheet doesn’t exist, but let’s assume it does), then writing for you would be the most boring task you could think of.

It’d be monotonous, repetitive, factory-like work which, no matter how much results or how good of an outcome would come of it, none of it would bring you fun, much less true joy.

So, if making the practice “easy” doesn’t do the trick, then what will?

Well, that’s what I’ve been thinking about—intensely. And I finally figured it out.

See, everything that’s fun can be boiled down to 2 ingredients.

And once you know these two it’s easy to inject them into almost every single activity you do (making it so you can turn almost any activity or experience into one that’s as fun as it can get).

Imagine how much more work you’d get done if what you were doing! You wouldn’t even consider it “work” anymore at that point.

So what are those two ingredients?

Well, to figure that out you’ll have to buy my book when it releases.

Until then, why don’t you check out Product Creation Made Easy? I’m using almost the exact same method I teach in there to write (and eventually launch or publish) the book. I say almost, because as with anything, there’s always room for adaptation and improvisation—which I show you how to do in the course as well.

Anyway.

Check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/product

Many moons ago I received a message from a reader telling me how my writing is “like Dan Koe, but CLEAR!”

That was a sign I was doing at least something right.

Since then my writing has evolved a lot—as everything you do should do if you're actually growing—and it differs immensely from Dan's writing now.

But I still like to look back at this message with a smile on my face.

Partly to stroke my ego.

But more importantly, to see how far I've come in 1) emulating and incorporating ideas from people I admire (or used to admire at the time) and 2) how I evolved and incorporated everything I've learned into my own style, my own writing, my own creations.

Starting out as a "me too" business is a great starting point.

Staying one isn't.

And the best way to “find your voice” is by writing a lot and writing often.

It helps if that writing practice is as fun as it can be—something I’m currently writing a new course about, which you’ll hear more about soon.

As for now.

Learn how to write better emails (ones that sound more like ‘you’) with Email Valhalla.

Check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

This morning I got up and, as usual, went to my desk, powered on my PC, and started reading through my long list of potential topics and valuable ideas to write today’s email about.

But then, out of nowhere, I remembered a conversation I had last year with a friend and reader of mine (not sure he wants me naming him).

He messaged me—out of the blue—and asked whether I had a course about writing emails.

(I’ll paraphrase this to the best of my ability, since, you know, it’s been a while)

“Uh, yeah I do, that’s kind of my main thing—I’ve got two different ones, actually,” I answered.

“No, no. I mean a course teaching how to do the actual writing,” he replied. “How to get up each morning and put your pen on the paper or your fingers on the keyboard. How to make a daily habit out of it. How to keep it fun and exciting. See, you’re one of the best people I know to talk about this stuff because almost no one writes as much as you do, and definitely not with the same passion and enjoyment as you.”

Now, I wasn’t quite convinced of the idea at the time.

I said it was intriguing and wrote it down on my long list of interesting ideas to think about, but it’s been there ever since and I never gave it another thought.

That’s until today…

The idea came back to me after when in the past 2 weeks a few readers told me they had trouble writing emails and/or content. Some mentioned they didn’t have the time to do so, others said they just didn’t have the inspiration or the discipline to get the job done.

All of this combined made me realize how much I could help by creating a product such as this one.

As for the name, the design, the format, the delivery, the main selling point, or even the chapters of the course itself, I have little to nothing.

All I have is a seed in my mind shouting “How to make writing fun, easy, and enjoyable (while writing faster than ever before)” and I shall water and care for this seed for the next few weeks to see what wonderful exotic plant will come out of it.

In the meantime, if you want to master the art of email marketing or how to grow your own email list and sell your own products, then check out Email Valhalla for more.

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

A popular piece of content-creation/email writing advice is to “Write to your past self”.

What people mean when they say it is to think about where you were 2 months ago, 2 years ago, or even 10 years ago. Then think about all the problems you faced, obstacles you had to overcome, and wrong beliefs you held. And address those. This way you write as if you were writing a note that was about to be put in a time capsule and sent to your past self.

It sounds great in theory. It really does.

I used to follow the same advice myself.

But I stopped.

The first reason for this is simple:

I can’t remember what my past self used to struggle with. And even if I could, I don’t understand the feelings that accompanied them. My whole perspective is different now than it was even 5 months ago.

It’d be foolish of me if I tried talking to that specific person.

And that’s exactly why the creator economy is so great. You learn from the people 1–2 steps ahead of you, not someone 5 whole years ahead of you—another popular piece of advice.

So if you learn from someone right in front of you, why would I write to someone way behind me? It doesn’t make sense.

Another reason is that I simply can’t be bothered anymore.

The advice my past self from 5 years previous would need doesn’t interest me anymore. I’m at a different level right now. I’m interested in other topics.

If I were to talk about topics that didn’t inspire me, then my content would be bland and uninspiring, which directly hurts you, the reader. The energy wouldn’t be the same anymore.

So I simply don’t speak to my past self.

I write about what I currently find interesting. What I’m discovering in real-time.

This makes my content interesting and engaging. And I can take you with me on an adventure. A real-time adventure you can see unfold right in front of you.

Neither you nor I know the ending. Nobody knows where we’ll end up. That’s what makes it all so exciting.

So let this be a reminder not to blindly follow every single piece of advice you get. Think for yourself, carefully judge everything you hear, see, and experience.

Then decide what’s best for you and your goals.

And if you decide building an audience that loves to listen to you, longs to follow you on your adventure, and wants to buy your products is what’s best for you and your goals. Then you might want to check out Email Valhalla: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla