“Facts tell, stories sell,” is a principle known to every top-tier ad writer. Stories change people while statistics give them something to argue about. People remember stories long after bullet-points are forgotten. Tom Robbins said, “I mean we are all, as human beings, caught up in a web of narration, this great narrative web, and […]
Seek the teacher who is a mentor to apprentices. She will give you expert advice and examples, then evaluate your ability to do as she has taught. Her name is Wisdom and you should always listen to her voice. But Wisdom’s teacher allowed young Wisdom to follow any path she chose! Wisdom learned her lessons […]
Competition can be entertaining, but I do not consider it to be “play.” Is than un-American of me? Play, for me, can have no objective; no element of strategy or combat or debate. Writing for The New Yorker on Nov.14, 2011, John McPhee shares an anecdote about George Hartzog, a man who understood my kind […]
The strangeness of our world is demonstrated by the things we take for granted. I bought a used book. The previous owner’s name was Mary Lou. I know this because she used the stub of her boarding pass as a book marker. A few years ago, Mary Lou took United Airlines flight 5409 from San […]
The feminine ideal was different a hundred years ago. Less sex, more charm. It was her charm that attracted us to young Anastasia Romanov, the daughter of Czar Nicholas II of Russia. This is why we refused to believe it when she was murdered in 1918 following the Bolshevik Revolution. For the next 50 years […]
Do you have favorite books and movies? Are there songs you love and stories that captivate you? Is there art that speaks to your heart? Paintings and plays, movies and music, stories and sculptures: art is valuable to the degree that it triggers emotion. But it isn’t always the art, itself, that triggers the emotion. Sometimes […]
You walk out the door. A person raises a forefinger and says, “Quick question.” And then they tie you up for the next 30 minutes. Have you ever been ambushed this way? Quick questions don’t always have quick answers and you can’t give 30 minutes to every person who raises a forefinger, so the next […]
“He knew how to lead by listening and teaching.” – Erwin C. Hargrove, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, writing in 1998 about a leader he much admired. I, too, have known brilliant leaders like that; men and women who lead by listening and teaching. Brian Scudamore, Lori Barr, Richard Kessler, Cathy Thorpe, Erik […]
Dewey Jenkins says, “If your employees don’t look forward to company meetings, then you’re not doing it right.” Dewey has grown his company to nearly 100 times the size it was when he bought it, so I tend to listen to what he says. Dewey taught me to celebrate, not just the touchdowns, but the […]
Reading that Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Christian anarchist, I had an unexpected thought, so I asked Google, “What is the difference between an anarchist and a libertarian?” Six-tenths of a second later, The Goog told me – in a highly visible block at the top of the Search Engine Results Page: “An anarchist is an extreme […]
The pivotal moments in our lives are rarely announced with trumpets and fanfare. But wouldn’t it be great if they were? “Hello, this is God speaking. You’re at an inflection point in your life and although you don’t suspect it, the wisdom you’re about to receive from that old man over there is going to […]
The Random Quotes database at MondayMorningMemo.com currently contains 4,376 quotes. About a third of these are quotes you can easily find online. Nearly half are delightful passages I’ve transcribed from books, movies, or TV shows, and archived for future reference. Five percent are witty and wonderful statements made by friends during lunch or in casually written […]
When you have nothing to say, be careful that you don’t pay money to say it. “What do you mean?” Have you ever paid a premium to target the right audience and then made an offer that failed to move them? “Everyone has paid for ads that didn’t work.” Did you realize that your message […]
They told you it was called, “reading between the lines.” But what they didn’t tell you was that the writer put it there – between the lines – for you to figure out on your own. Speak the truth and people will doubt you. But if you can tempt those people to follow you to where […]
Listen, my young apprentice, and I will release you from your chains. Every door of opportunity begins as a window in the mind. Look through that window of imagination and glimpse a world that could be, should be, ought to be someday. Keep looking… and watch it grow into a door of Opportunity through which […]
Every few months, I remind my partners of something that took me way too long to learn. I say, “When a person believes in what they’re doing – even if it’s an imperfect plan – let them keep doing it. Give them advice and try to open their eyes, but don’t fight them too hard, […]
I’ve often wondered what happened to him. Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, 1979: Pennie and I had just moved into our first house. It… was built before Oklahoma became a state, had never had a mortgage on it, had been expanded 3 different times, and was now barely 800 sq. ft., had sat vacant for more than […]
Dear Radio, I’ve loved you all my life. In fact, I have more confidence in you than you have in yourself. But you have a blind spot, and it’s killing you: radio advertisers are reaching 100% of the city and convincing them 10% of the way, when they should be reaching 10% of the city […]
Is established information or new information more likely to be true? Which is more effective, planning or improvisation? Are people essentially good, or essentially selfish? Which is more important, individual rights or collective rights? Will the future of America be better than its past? Are low-income people less intelligent than high-income people? Is the Bible […]
A lawyer and a rabbi are arguing about what it means to be kind. It is an ancient argument. The lawyer thinks a “kind” person is always polite and considerate. The rabbi thinks “politeness” is superficial, and “considerate” simply means to consider the consequences before taking any action, but that true kindness comes at a […]
I began losing my hair when I was 19. By the time I was 21, I looked like I was 30. Best thing that ever happened to me. People take you seriously when you look like a grown-up, and I needed people to take me seriously. I sold advertising for the smallest radio station in […]
A thing cannot exist without its opposite. This is why a positive statement – without its corresponding negative – is usually a platitude.1 Every proton has its electron. Every summer has its winter. Every Yin has its Yang. Every up, its down. Every inside, its outside. Every justice, its mercy. “The opposite of a correct statement […]
Doubtless, they will someday say, “Inspired by Roycroft and Bohemian Grove, Pennie and Roy Williams built Wizard Academy…” But they will be wrong. Yes, the Princess and I – with the help of hundreds of good friends around the world – began constructing the Wizard Academy campus in 2004. The “wrong” part is that we […]
Trouble happens to everyone. “Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.” – Carl Jung But don’t worry about it. “Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.” – George Washington Really. Don’t worry about it. “Don’t worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day […]
“Radio is dying.” “Radio is dead.” “My friends and I don’t listen to the radio. We (blah, blah, blah) instead.” “No one listens to the radio anymore, especially in high-tech places like San Francisco, in the heart of Silicon Valley. That’s right, isn’t it?” Isn’t it? A few paragraphs from now, I’m going to tell […]
1. When you need someone to faithfully implement your time-tested policies and procedures, hire a straight-A student. This is what we know about them: A. They bought into the educational system, believed its promises, and played by its rules. B. They have demonstrated obedience, compliance, and conformity. C. They have obvious respect for authority. And […]
When you need people to respond to your ad immediately, you need to think like a reporter. These are the first two things they teach news reporters: “When a dog bites a man, that is not news, because it happens so often. But if a man bites a dog, that is news.” “You never read about […]
Technically, you don’t take a trip. It takes you. If you could take a trip, you could also put it back when you were done with it. But you can’t. Now that we’ve cleared that up, let’s talk about Robert and Chris and the trip they took. It was a 1968 trip from Minneapolis to […]
We connect with people who interest us. We have fun with people who know how to have fun. We bond with people who believe what we believe. But our deepest relationships are with people who have shared our pain. Think of the people you can count on – always – to have your back. Chances are, […]
The traditional aristocracy of inherited wealth, position and influence is a false one, in my mind. You were born into an influential family. You went to the right kindergarten, the right grade school, the right college, and you party with the right people. You invented the phrase and the wink, “It’s not what you know, […]
CHAPTER ONE: (97 words) “Circumstances” are where you are right now. “Choices” are what you will make. “Consequences” are what will happen as a result. Sometimes your circumstances are the consequence of your choices. But not always. The circumstances of your birth and your childhood, such as your nationality and your ethnicity, and whether or […]
Life-changing decisions often seem small on the day we make them. 1978 – Everyone had gone home. I was in the warehouse alone, waiting for Pennie to come and pick me up. I had been installing guttering on houses all day. The job paid $5 an hour. We had just one car. Bored, I looked […]
People don’t Paint-by-Number as often as they did 50 years ago. My personal theory is that we came to our senses and realized Paint-by-Number paintings are perfectly awful. But we still see and hear a lot of Advertise-by-Number and Sales-by-Number. I blame the colleges. Paint-by-number paintings employ a template. I’m not against templates. I’ve created […]
We experience wonder when we realize our true size. On clear nights, we ride a speck of dust as it circles an 11,000-degree fireball shooting through a limitless vacuum at 52 times the speed of a rifle bullet. And that fireball is one of billions of fireballs in our galaxy. And our galaxy is one […]
Balance is not compromise. It is a universe born when gravity meets antigravity, matter meets antimatter, Yin meets Yang, and Lennon meets McCartney. Balance is not the average between two extremes. It is the precarious midpoint between rising and falling. It is the last breath of an old man answered by the first cry of […]
“The data is conclusive,” he told me, “our close rate is much higher when customers call us on the telephone instead of going to our website. Therefore, you need to write ads that drive customers to the telephone.” “I agree that the data is conclusive,” I told him, “and it says you need to fix […]
The name Wizard Academy causes a lot of people to scorn our school without knowing anything about us. And that, my friend, is the primary reason we chose the name. 🙂 We don’t want uptight people coming here. When the right people – people like you – are confronted with the name Wizard Academy, they […]
Didn’t Coca-Cola used to have the most wonderful TV ads? But when’s the last time you saw one on TV? Have you heard of Vitaminwater? Coke bought it for $4.1bn. Traditional soft drinks are now less than 2/3 of Coke’s business, and that percentage is likely to decline. The problem, I think, is that we […]
We settle for sex when we cannot find love. Likewise, we settle for the excitement of energy – adrenaline – when we cannot find oxytocin – that quiet but satisfying excitement of knowing we belong. Adrenaline and oxytocin are the neurotransmitters that make us feel our most important feelings. POW! The release of adrenaline is […]
Wizard Academy began with an itch and an image. I got the itch in Tulsa in 1978 when I was 20 years old. I saw the image online in 1994 when I was 36. The itch was to help little businesses succeed. The image was of a boy sitting beneath the stars with an open […]
2018 is looking to be a good year for small business. My personal definition of “a small business” is an owner-operator doing between $1M and $75M a year. I do not pretend to know the trends outside this group. The following are the small business trends that seem to be emerging in 2018: 1: Small […]
I am, by profession, an ad writer. I tell stories about people and products and services. You do, too. But because I get paid for it, I spend a lot of time considering – and measuring – the impact of stories. Some of the stories I’ve told have made people an enormous amount of money. […]
A pleasant surprise is the beginning of delight. You surprise and delight your family by listening to them. You surprise and delight your friends by being interested in what they say. You surprise and delight your customers by giving them your full attention. That’s why everyone likes you. Ray Bard is the ringmaster of untamed quotes, captured […]
Indy Beagle brought me an electric fan and a hammer. The fan is to blow away the smoke. The hammer is to shatter the mirrors. You hear a lot of talk these days about transparency and engagement and the Zero Moment of Truth. My friend Dewey Jenkins says the most dangerous statement a stock broker […]
Fifty years ago, an 18-year old songwriter named Laura Nyro asked, “Can you surry? Can you picnic?” Laura Nyro didn’t tell us HOW to surry. She just asked if we could do it. Then she instructed us to, “Surry down to the stoned soul picnic. There’ll be lots of time and wine, red-yellow honey, sassafras […]
I was worried Thanksgiving dinner wouldn’t be the same this year without Uncle Alfred. Every year for as long as I can remember, when the time came for each of us to name something we were thankful for, Uncle Alfred would tell his famous Story of the Shoes. “Your mother was six and I was […]
The world of online marketing was rocked so hard this summer that it almost fell to its knees. Some really big names in online marketing had the courage to announce that online customers are more likely to buy your products if they’ve heard of your company and feel good about it. Dumbfounded, I spoke to […]
We are alert to danger because our survival depends upon it. But there is more to life than danger. There is singing. And looking at the sky. And chewing on a blade of grass. Have you done any of those things recently? They call to you from beyond your window. Walk outside. Sing a song. […]
In 2018, I will continue to fade from sight. By the end of 2019, I hope to be completely transparent. This has been my goal since May of 2000. If the founder of an organization remains vitally involved until the day they are no longer viable, the organization they founded will cease to exist within […]
Dale Earnhardt, Jr will make 21.4 million dollars this year. He is the world’s one hundredth most highly paid athlete.1 But don’t assume pro athletes make a lot of money. The sad truth is that the top 10 percent – the star athletes – receive more than 90 percent of all the money paid to athletes. If […]
Your body doesn’t have a single immune system; it has a bundle of them. And the most powerful of these systems is the one that rejects foreign tissue. This is why doctors do everything they can to suppress it during transplant surgery. That suppression doesn’t always work. When the cells of your body detect an […]
Characters in books and movies and TV shows are magical. They make us laugh and cry and hold our breath as they take us to a vivid elsewhere. Conflicted, exaggerated, accelerated characters live in a world more interesting than our own. And it is a world we like to visit, even if it’s only 30 […]
The object of conformity and compliance is to bring the best of the past forward. A person can achieve expert results by following in the footsteps of an expert. The old ways are often the best ways. But you, my strong-willed friend, are a nonconformist; a renegade, a rebel, a misfit. One of “those” people. […]
“I was told that repartee heightens the attention of an audience.” “Is this going to be like that time you told me about ambergris?” “What do you mean?” “There I was, minding my own business, when you started telling me how the most expensive perfume in the world comes from whale puke. Like I needed […]
(1.) Adrenaline is a neurotransmitter that increases blood flow to the muscles during times of excitement and creates involuntary recall of events. When there is adrenaline in the blood, you are more likely to remember the moment. This is why advertisers try to make their ads sound exciting. (2.) Oxytocin is a neurotransmitter that produces […]
Real experts in online marketing rarely use the phrase “going viral,” because it has no agreed-upon definition. Instead, they talk about “Discovery Content” and “Community Content.” To understand Discovery Content, just look at anything posted by BuzzFeed or any of the other organizations whose principal income is generated by the companies who sponsor their clickbait.1 But […]
Whittington said it. Eisenberg endorsed it. The waitress distracted us with a question of her own. I somehow knew to capture that moment with a photo. Our conversation never made it back to Daniel’s idea that every life has a theme song, but later that day I carried his wandering thought to the Worthless Bastards […]
Everyone agrees that Henry Leverseege would have become much more famous had he lived beyond 29. But even though he died young, his paintings hang in museums across England. There is only one of them in private hands. Mine. 🙂 Henry was born in 1803, the year that Thomas Jefferson famously negotiated the Louisiana Purchase […]
I consider myself to be the luckiest person on earth. And I can tell you of several specific moments in my life that would convince you of it. Being lucky is a choice I made. Because the truth is that I could just as easily tell you of other moments in my life that would […]
Ivan and Alvina are in their early 20s. Ivan was born and raised in Bulgaria. Alvina, in Siberia. When Alvina sees Ivan playing keyboards in a café on the Black Sea, they become pen pals. And then they fall in love. And then they get married. They dream of moving to the west. Canada says […]
The door to immediate action is easily kicked open by the steel-toed boot of urgency. If you want people to take immediate action, you’re going to need a credible shortage. A shortage of product. “Only 11 remain!” A shortage of time. “Sale ends Saturday at 6PM!” A shortage of capacity. “Only 128 seats are available!” […]
1. Freeze-frame each moment when something rocks your world. 2. When you cry or become frightened or get angry or laugh or are overwhelmed by a sense of wonder, reverse-engineer what just happened. Ask yourself, “Why am I feeling this way? How did they do this to me?” Was it something in the sequence of […]
When you’re trying to transfer a thought or a feeling to someone else, the impact of your communication will be determined by the following equation: How big is the thought in your mind, or the feeling in your heart? How quickly can you transfer it? The Law of Impact (or force,) documented by Isaac Newton, […]
I always look forward to my lunches with Ray Bard because he teaches me valuable things. He doesn’t intend to teach me things; it just happens. Our short lunches last 3 hours. Our record is 6 ½. Ray is my publisher. During our most recent lunch, Ray said – and I’m inclined to agree with […]
You hear a lot of talk these days about how no one listens to the radio anymore. Interestingly, the people who make these claims offer no evidence beyond the fact that commercial free music can be obtained through online streaming. This reminds me of that famous malaprop by Yogi Berra, “No one goes there anymore. […]
Exactly three hundred and thirty years ago – roughly ten generations of parents and children ago – the French explorer La Salle, searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River, was murdered by his own men. We were experiencing dysfunction among supposed team members. In Virginia, a panicked Nicholas Spencer of Westmoreland County provides Virginia […]
Every successful person has a blind spot. Here’s what often happens: You have a unique approach, a particular process, or a special emphasis. It separates you from your competitors. Your commitment to it makes you successful. So far, so good. You found a way to be different and it made you a success! But now […]
I’m in a strange mood. I hope you’ll forgive me. I’ve been contemplating things unsaid. Deeds undone. Symphonies unfinished. The reality of mortality has shown up as a hole in the light, a silhouette on the horizon. And its whispering voice has led me to compile a list of unfiltered thoughts that seem to me, […]
A world of absolutes is a tidy world, but narrow. The wider world must make room for things that are not. “Make room for things that are not.” I wrote about that last week, didn’t I? We cling to absolutes, I think, because they give us the illusion of stability in a world of constant […]
We live in a universe of paired opposites. Proton and electron. Inhale and exhale. Extend and contract. Rise and fall. Male and female. Day and night. What you embrace does not define you nearly so much as what you exclude. I’m speaking of self-definition. EXAMPLE: One person says they love cars made by Ford. Another […]
Others judge you by the outcomes you achieve, but you judge yourself by your intentions. You judge yourself as God does. This is why I like you. You have no power over the vagaries of your circumstances; to be in the right place at the right time is not a matter of skill, but of […]
People are being caught off guard by the quirky tale of Sunshine and Poobah. Evidently, reading it cover-to-cover is a much different experience than reading it one chapter at a time. This funny little book is rapidly gaining a life of its own. This is the backstory of how – like Frosty the Snowman – […]
Boring, ineffective ad campaigns are almost always the result of data-worship. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman famously said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” He was talking about using data to make predictions. Amos Tversky, one half of the Nobel Prize-winning duo* of Kahneman and Tversky, renowned for their discovery […]
According to all the cognitive neuroscientists, the essential gift of the human race is our ability to attach complex meanings to sounds. Here’s a shocker for you: the written language was developed only to make the spoken language permanent. In fact, the written word has no meaning until it has been translated into the spoken word it represents. […]
England, 1890 – Barely 5 feet tall on his tiptoes, 30 year-old Jimmy was a pen pal of 40 year-old Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous author of Treasure Island, during the final years of Stevenson’s life when he lived on the island of Samoa. The two never met, but if they had, they would doubtless have […]
What do you value? Are there things for which you would be willing to suffer humiliation, rejection, and financial loss? These are your deep core values, your non-negotiables. It’s important that you know what they are. A person without non-negotiables is a person without passion. But it’s also important to know your negotiables. A person […]
On the day he died, long ago, a man said, “In this world you will have trouble.” I’ve never had reason to doubt him. Money trouble Work trouble Relationship trouble Legal trouble Health trouble Family trouble Tax trouble You don’t get to choose whether or not you will have trouble. But you do get to […]
Our nation is changing, of course. Things aren’t like they used to be. Famous clothing brands are at historic lows and major retailers are closing hundreds of stores. In 2016, 2,056 stores closed their doors. The worst year on record is 2008, when 6,163 stores shut down. Brokerage firm Credit Suisse says in a just-released research report, “Barely a […]
Michael Jordan wasn’t a perfectionist; he was an improvisationist. That’s why he was hard to stop. A perfectionist knows exactly what he’s going to do. He plans his work and works his plan. The only problem is that because he knows, the defender knows, too. It’s easy to anticipate what a perfectionist is going to do. […]
Ask a businessperson or a marketing professional, “What is branding?” Go ahead. Go do it. I’ll wait… Did they mention the importance of a having a logo? Did they talk about the consistent use of a chosen group of “brand” colors and a particular font and layout and look and feel? Have you done what they told […]
People read books for the strangest of reasons. I recently read a book about a female aviator in Africa in the 1930s. I have no interest in aviation. I have no interest in Africa. But it was a great book. I began reading it after I stumbled onto something Ernest Hemingway wrote in a 1942 letter to […]
Business Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by at least two distinct identities or dissociated personality states that show up in a company’s behavior. BPD emerges when unrelated teams work independently in the areas of (1.) Advertising (2.) Web Presence (3.) Sales Training. If a person encounters your ads, then visits your website, then comes to […]
There are two kinds of advertising. The goal of the first is to make yours the company the customer thinks of immediately and feels the best about when they – or any of their friends – need what you sell. This is called a “relational” ad campaign. It works better and better with each passing year. […]
Four words have echoed in my head for several days. “Not everyone. Not always.” Why do such thoughts leap sparkling like swordfish from the dark waters of the mind? I can’t be sure, but I suspect my heart is responding to all those authoritative voices making silly statements about “the customer” with misguided certainty. They whisper […]
Hi, everyone! My name is _____________________. Because Wizard Academy appreciates your generous donation to help keep Chapel Dulcinea open, free and beautiful, I’m going to take you on a 4-minute walk to Wizard’s Tower, where we’ll enter the underground art gallery, then go straight up to the Star Deck where I’ll tell you a 2-minute story, then […]
I’m experimenting with radio in a way that, for me, is new and different. Many of those who understand what I’m doing won’t agree with the fundamental premise of my experiment. But that’s not what worries me. I’m concerned about those who will agree and then attempt it – and fail. I believe they’ll fail […]
We encounter “meta” most often in the word metaphor. We create metaphors when we see the same pattern in two, unrelated things. Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.” But Shakespeare wasn’t […]
If you don’t understand the title of today’s memo, just ask a 12 year-old boy. (If you didn’t grow up in the South, your 12 year-olds may be more familiar with “He who smelt it, dealt it.”) With a title like “The Smeller’s the Feller,” does it surprise you that today’s memo is about a tried-and-true management tool? […]
Successful advertising touches the hungers, wants and needs of a person. My job as a professional ad writer is to identify these needs and speak to them. If you have a heart beating in your chest, you have hungers, wants and needs. We can intellectualize our conscious needs, but we cannot intellectualize our unconscious ones. All […]
Some lessons we never learn. For me, the familiar face of failure hangs like a Royal Portrait above the grand staircase of my social behavior. Lest my meaning be obscured by that flowery metaphor, I am simply stating for the record – before God, the world and you – that my greatest recurring mistake is that I often […]
“Don’t need a Buddha head.” What are those 5 words telling us? Are we being warned that “need” is the antithesis of Zen? Are we being told that a desire to think like Buddha is the opposite of thinking like Buddha? “Don’t need a Buddha head?” Or are those 5 words a repudiation of Buddhist beliefs? […]
I was in the middle of a storm at sea last week when my lover, wife and partner of 40 years spoke some wisdom into my life. She said, “Tell me what happened, step-by-step, play-by-play.” So I did. She said, “Honey sometimes when you’re talking with someone face-to-face, you think you’re being clear when you’re […]
Bad ads are about you, your company, your product, your service. Good ads are about the customer and how their sun will shine brighter, the air around them will glitter with magic, and the stars in their darkness will twinkle more richly if they choose to bring you into their world. I’m going to hire […]
People would rather be angry than bored. Anger is a form of excitement. That explains a lot of behavior, doesn’t it? But if you can choose, choose laughter. “Man is the laughing animal…” 1 Anger is dangerous and crying is much less fun. I’m talking about storytelling and communication. I’m talking about books and movies. I’m talking […]
Henri Poincaré did not discover Chaos Theory but he clearly heard its footsteps in 1887 when he published The Three Body Problem. His math is still used by NASA today. In astrophysics, stars and planets are “gravitating bodies” because they attract and hold mass and alter the orbits of one another. Gravity is a useful […]
I still call it Christmas. I’m told you’re not supposed to do that any more. You’re not supposed to do a lot of things. Forget the religion called Christianity for a moment. Ignore the historical blunders of Christians. I’m talking about Christmas. Those opening few sentences are going to land me in real trouble unless you […]
I was 16 during the winter of 1974. Ted was 52. We worked together in a steel fabrication shop in Oklahoma. I was known as “Schoolboy.” Standing near the heat of the coffee pot waiting for the horn to signal the end of our break, Ted would tell stories about World War II. Those stories […]
When Kermit Roosevelt was fifteen, he shared a book of poems he admired with his father, the President of the United States. As an encouragement to Kermit, his father sent a lengthy review of that book to The Outlook, an important publication of the time, saying, “There is an undoubted touch of genius in the […]
1. Use Words that have Specific Meanings. “The bug moved along the ground, deciding which way it should go.” “The ant crawled between the blades of grass, peeking left and right at every intersection.” Bug is nonspecific. Ant is specific. “…moved along the ground” is mildly specific, but not vivid. “…crawled between the blades of […]
Your life is a singular journey; a generation is a collective journey. We’re circling an 11,000-degree fireball as it shoots through a limitless vacuum at 52 times the speed of a rifle bullet. If this dirt-covered rock we occupy was the size of a standard schoolroom globe covered with a coat of varnish, the thickness […]
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