How to ruin people’s lives with your writing

Standing by the canoe, my friend P looks up the hill and shouts out, “You’re sure you don’t want to come?”

I look back down at him with a gnawing feeling in my stomach.

“Yeah, I’m just going to stay here and chill. Have fun!”

The gnawing feeling was there for two reasons.

First: guilt at not going on an adventure, when I LOVE going on adventures.

Second: because ALL I WANT TO DO is get back to reading — I had to know what happens next.

Frankie Scott’s book “Chasing Summer” almost ruined my camping trip.

The “almost” is only because I love camping SO MUCH that the parts when I was engaged in it (walking through the woods, swimming first thing in the otherwise-deserted lake, sunbathing on the Big Rock) were heaven. But I could have spent twice as long doing all those things if I wasn’t constantly squirreling away to the hammock or the small rock or my tent so I could just read three more chapters.

So how does the author Frankie Scott (the romance pen name of Zoe Whittall, who has also ruined other times of my life by getting me addicted to her incredible books The Fake and The Best Kinds Of People) do it?

A lot of it is her EXCELLENT writing. But a huge part is this:

Her editing. No sentence is wasted.

You know how sometimes you’re reading a novel and then you get to a part that drags, put it down, and it’s a few weeks before you pick it back up again? I didn’t have that ONCE with Chasing Summer.

How do you do that in your writing? By doing these two steps when you’re editing what you’ve written.

1) Ask yourself, “What is this piece of writing about?”

Why are you saying this? What is the point you’re trying to get across?

If you’re writing a talk or blog or video, the question can relate to the whole thing. If it’s a book, ask yourself what this chapter, page or paragraph is about.

Then, as you re-read through each sentence, ask yourself “is this serving the point I am trying to make?” If it is, great! If it’s not, cut it.

2) Imagine every word costs twenty dollars

(hat tip to my chum Liz Scully for teaching me this device!)

See how many imaginary dollars you can save.

So eg.: “What I believe to be true, is that Storytelling helps your audience feel intimately connected to you as a person”

Ok, so we KNOW you believe it to be true — YOU’RE THE ONE SAYING IT. Which means we can cut out the first eight words of that sentence. We just saved $160 imaginary dollars!!! Let’s go for a fancy imaginary dinner!!!

(and do we need “as a person”? Another $60 imaginary dollars! Let’s buy the fancy imaginary wine!)

As they say in literature, don’t be afraid to murder your darlings. They use such violent language because THAT’S how it FEELS when you’re like “But that bit’s reaaaaaaallly gooooood”.

Don’t delete it forever: keep a “Boneyard” at the bottom of the page or in another file — you might need that writing another time. But don’t be afraid to slice anything that doesn’t help you support your answer to question #1. (hat tip to my client Steve Moran for “Boneyard”!)

So {{ subscriber.first_name }}, what book has ruined your life recently? And do you suspect the author did these two things? Let me know in the comments!

Also, if you want a more comprehensive review of WHY ELSE i loved Frankie Lane’s Chasing Summer, you can get one on my insta here or Tiktok here.

You rule,

PS Want my free guide to the magic bullet for captivating storytelling, along with free coaching via email on storytelling and writing captivating presentations? Join the Yes Yes Family — it’s FREE! Just pop your details in below and I’ll ship the guide over**:

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