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MODULE 2
Formulas for the Win!
OK, this module might freak you out. Or make you mad.

​​​​​​​Or...it might change the way you approach writing forever. I’m going for that last one.

NEW: We added two additional writing formulas in the written section below. Be sure to check those out and use them to your imperfect writing advantage!

My first question is what you think of when you think of writing formulas.

If you’re like 90% of my first-time editing clients, you think formulas are one of three things:

  1. A myth because “every writer has their own style and could never fit into some formula. This is creativity, not ALGEBRA, Chantel.”
  2. A crutch for lazy writers because “every writer SHOULD have their own style if they don’t already.”
  3. Only for genre fiction because “those books are all the same.”
I can’t tell you how many writers I’ve met who refuse to entertain the idea of following a formula in their writing, but then spend days or weeks staring at a blank screen and not knowing how to begin. Others will begin writing with all kinds of energy and inspiration, but then get trapped by the rabbit holes they’ve dug for themselves or the corners they’ve written themselves into. 

Worst-case scenario: they give up halfway through, or they don’t begin at all. They assume they’ll never be “real” writers, and that it’s not worth the effort when everyone but them has it all figured out. 

This is the curse of our cultural misunderstanding that creativity is some mythical force we can’t harness, leverage, or improve upon. We assume we’re at creativity’s mercy, and that this is the only “right” or “pure” way to approach the act of writing. We assume every other writer manages to create despite the fickleness of their own creativity, and that it’s always a struggle, and that to use something as dry as a formula in our writing is to suck all the life out of both the process and the end result. Ugh.

Sound familiar? In the words of Doctor Phil...how’s that working for you?


If the cultural myth of creativity has prevented you from writing as well and as frequently as you want, here’s some good news you may not have heard before: almost every talented, prolific writer out there is using a formula. Seriously. The ones you admire, read, and envy—from Malcolm Gladwell to Seth Godin to Pat Flynn to Marie Forleo—all of them are using formulas. 

You name the writer or entrepreneur, and I can tell you their favorite formula in under a minute. When they do it really well, we start to assume the formula they’re using is the same thing as their writing style, and that they invented that way of writing. Clever, huh? Writers are slick that way. 

But this is no trick. Using formulas is rooted entirely in service: the most prolific writers realize very quickly how well these babies work to help readers understand, learn from, remember, and share what they’ve read. As a bonus, they make writing about 10000% easier and faster. Less like reinventing the wheel every time, and more like playing a game of Mad Libs. You played Mad Libs as a kid, right? So fun.


Why everyone uses formulas, and why they work

Writing formulas are the invisible scaffolding, or structure, upon which the details of your article are hung. They’re the map you rely on to help your readers follow along from A to Z, particularly with topics you specialize in and your readers do not. If you want a third metaphor (and you’re a writer, so I know you do), formulas are the wind beneath your wings. 

(I apologize. That was not a good metaphor. Where’s an editor when you need one?)

Most importantly, formulas are proven, established ways to ensure that you don’t waste your time when you’re writing. They’re rooted in the psychology of how our brains absorb and process information, and they’re so well researched that I’ve included a list of resources at the end of this module if you want MOAR SCIENCE.

For our purposes, know that writing formulas have been around a lot longer than you or I have. They live on because they work, and because writers have figured out how to innovate within them. Soon enough, you’ll be one of them. 

Are they they only way to write? Not at all. Many writers have made a career of subverting readers’ expectations and ignoring the formulas, and that’s cool if it’s working for you...but if it’s not, keep reading. 


Let’s get two disclaimers out of the way...

Disclaimer #1:

The formulas in this module are for non-fiction writing: blog posts, newsletters, speeches, video scripts, and all that jazz. The kind of stuff you’ll be writing to build your personal brand, serve your audience, and grow your business. If you write fiction, formulas are still prevalent and necessary, but they’re different from the formulas we’re sharing here, and we’re not going to get into those in this course. Check out The Story Grid for more about formulas in fiction writing.

Disclaimer #2:

These formulas are just a few of the most popular and accessible ones that writers and content creators are using today. Are there others? You bet, and once you understand these ones, you’ll be even better equipped to recognize and adapt the others you see online and in print. Hooray for learning how to fish! 


Popular writing formulas for blog posts and articles

I’m going to give you three of the most popular writing formulas used today. Only three? Dudes, you could pick just one of these as your go-to for literally the rest of your career, and you’d be in great company. Again, becoming an expert in a single formula makes readers think you invented that style of writing, so it’d actually be awesome if you loved one of these enough to make it your default. Of course, many writers use different formulas from time to time, and that’s cool, too. There’s no right or wrong here.

  

FORMULA NUMBER 1: Story-study-lesson

If you’ve read anything non-fiction, ever before in your life, you’ve encountered this formula. And chances are, you loved it. This is Malcolm Gladwell’s preferred way to write his articles and books. It’s how Dr. Atul Gawande makes the medicine go down. It’s how nearly every entrepreneur with a one-word-title book in the Business section proves his or her argument. It is the single most popular formula in use right now, which means it’s everywhere. 

The best part is, being everywhere doesn’t make this formula predictable. In skilled hands, story-study-lesson is interesting every time, and we’ll get to why in just a minute. First, here’s how to write it:

Step 1: Scan your industry news items.

What’s happening in your niche that you want your audience to be aware of? What’s a thing they’re continually asking you about or struggling with? What are the industry academics and/or scientists studying these days that relates to you and your brand? 

(Yes, this is a thinly veiled directive to read your way to better, more impactful writing. There is no shortcut to this.) 

Step 2: Write a story about that news item, without mentioning the news item just yet.

Preferably you’ll have your own story to tell, and you’ll write it in the first person, but so be it if your story is about someone you know, or know of. 

Want an example? Let’s say you’re an entrepreneur in the productivity niche, and you come across a brand new study about how history’s most successful entrepreneurs have, collectively, since the beginning of time, taken Wednesdays off. Let’s say it’s Wednesday RIGHT NOW, and you’re at your desk, working. Do you get up, take the rest of the day off, and come back on Thursday to write about how “I Took Wednesday Off and This Is What Happened”? Or do you keep working, rebuffing what a bunch of dead entrepreneurs did 100 years ago in favor of modern working schedules?

You can do whatever you want, but now, my friend, you have a story to tell. You can align with the latest study to demonstrate how and why it’s awesome for your audience, or you can challenge that same study with your own experience. Ah, the power of a writer. 

The key to telling this story for your audience is to use a conversational tone. Pretend you and your readers are sitting down for coffee, and that you just can’t wait to tell them about why Wednesday is the new Saturday. Share the story as vividly as you can. Lots of cowbell, etc.

Some writers will choose to tell the whole story upfront, as in “My Wednesday off was the best day I’d had in years...until I returned to my desk and realized I’d lost out on a $10k project while I was away.” Womp womp. Others will save the punch line for later, good or bad. Either way works. Play around with it, and see what feels right. 

Step 3: Broaden the scope of your story to include some context.

The story itself is a great jumping-off point into the reason you’re writing this article at all. So why is it relevant to what you want to share today? What does it have to do with your business, brand, reader, or this article? Why does it matter?

The best part about this step is that you don’t have to think about it. The answer is that you read a study about it. Voila, here’s the “study” portion of the story-study-lesson formula. “I took Wednesday off, here’s what happened when I did, and oh, look, researchers have recently discovered that history’s greatest entrepreneurs took Wednesdays off, too!” 

If you don’t have an actual study to share, no worries. In this formula, “study” is interchangeable with all kinds of words: think “headline,” “news item,” “conference keynote,” or even “another expert’s ideas on the same topic”—among many, many others. Basically, you’re zooming out a little bit from your own personal experience into something of greater significance. This step is what separates a navel-gazing diary entry from an audience-focused article.

So why start your article with a personal story at all when the whole point is to get to the study? Because personal stories are your hook—they get a reader reading in the first place, and they establish/reinforce you as a trustworthy authority with valuable information to share. Before your readers will trust you (or buy from you), they want to know who you are, and stories are the best, most honest way to show them.

But back to the study. Share the scope and results of that study in your article, and include some stats and quotes from supporting or competing positions. Include all the relevant information you can find to ensure your article is a comprehensive take on why an entrepreneur should or should not take Wednesdays off. 

Step 4: Share the lesson.

Now that readers have all the information about how this article came about, they’re primed for (and expecting) a takeaway. Here’s where you drive your lesson home. What do you want your readers to do or know now that they’ve read your article? Taking action may be as simple as leaving a comment or hitting reply, or as bold as buying a course. (You can read more about writing to sell in Module #5.) Whatever it is you want readers to take action on, you must tell them explicitly. 

Step 5: This is optional...

If you want to look super talented (and if you’ve saved the punchline from Step 2), finish the article by circling all the way back to your story from Step 1. In just a few sentences, remind us about about the “hook” that got us reading in the first place, and solidify the lessons we’ve learned. This technique is called a bookend, and it’s just a really nice way to convince everyone that you know exactly what you’re doing as a writer. Works like a charm every time.

Why this formula works

The short answer is that story-study-lesson works because we love stories. We love them beyond our capacity to even understand why we love them so much, which is why Business Storytelling has recently become its own industry and field of academic study. Our brains evolved to understand story, so when writers know and leverage that in their formulas, they’re giving a gift to their readers.

Examples of the story-study-lesson formula:

 
 
FORMULA NUMBER 2: Myth vs. Truth

You know who’s built an entire business and writing career on the myth vs. truth formula? Jeff Goins. You may have heard of him. Blogger, author, entrepreneur, and also a good friend and client of mine. Jeff writes a blog post every week, he’s published five books, and he’s hit some pretty prestigious bestseller lists talking to his huge international audience of writers and creatives about how to make a living doing work that matters.

If you spend any time reading Jeff’s blog, you’ll see pretty quickly that just about everything he has to say is in the myth vs. truth formula. How can a person write thousands of blog posts without repeating themselves or losing readers? That’s the power of the formula, my friends. 

Let’s dig into how this one works:

Step 1: Identify a myth.

Maybe that’s easier than it sounds, but if you consider your niche, chances are there’s something everyone else believes that just doesn’t jive for you. Maybe you’re a unicorn farmer, and every other unicorn farmer out there believes that the beautiful multi-colored unicorn manes are the result of rainbow sprinkles in the feed. Sounds plausible. An especially if every other unicorn farmer believes this, it’d be easy to go along with the herd and put your rainbow sprinkles order on auto-refill, right?

But you...well, you have a bone to pick with rainbow sprinkles. For one, your unicorns’ manes have been fading for the last year, and the blue has completely disappeared. There are still blue sprinkles in the feed, so what’s going on? 

Looks like you’ve got a myth to bust. You’ll spend this first step identifying the myth, figuring out all its parameters, and basically writing it out in such a way that your readers will nod along with all the things they already know about this topic. You want to get them on your side because you’re about to...

Step 2: Pick a fight.

The myth vs. truth formula requires a bit of writerly bravery because here in Step 2, you’re about to take on The Establishment. Whether they’re unicorn farmers, small business owners, or raw vegan recipe creators, The Establishment is a group in your niche that believes things should be done a certain way, and you’re about to confront them all, tell them they’re wrong, and then try to convince them of why you’re right.

In order to do so, you had better get clear on what the truth actually is, and why no one has discovered it until now. If rainbow sprinkles aren’t causing the multi-colored manes, what is? You’ve got some research to do, and you may or may not find the answer you need in studies, papers, or previously published content. After all, everyone else thinks rainbow sprinkles are the cause, so if you’ve got a counterpoint, it’s not up to them to prove you’re wrong—it’s up to you to prove you’re right. This may require independent research on your part, or personal experimentation, or transcendental revelation. However the truth manifests for you, make sure it stands up to intense scrutiny, and then get ready to confront The Establishment. 

They’re going to resist, of course. That’s the job of The Establishment in any arena—in words often misattributed to Mahatma Gandhi, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Oops. I just gave away the punch line. But since we’re here, you might as well know that this formula is the most likely of the bunch to make you a hero and an “influencer.” Brave truth tellers change the world by reframing the way everyone thinks about a thing, and they champion progress in their niches and in broader society. “Celebrity” myth busters include Brene Brown, who used her decade of professional research to transform the way we think and talk about shame; and Glennon Doyle Melton, whose “Don’t Carpe Diem” manifesto on her blog, Momastery, launched her career as a speaker, bestselling author, and eventual Oprah’s Book Club inductee. Truth tellers are serious, you guys. Even if they’re unicorn farmers.

As you pick your fight here in Step 2, consider the best way to dispel the myth so that you can speed through the unpleasantness of being ignored, laughed at, and fought. Address The Establishment’s primary and secondary objections, systematically dismantle the groupthink according to the research you’ve uncovered or concluded, and deliberately reveal the truth you’ve discovered. “It’s not the sprinkles causing multi-colored manes. It’s the Rainbow River they all drink from! We’re about to save millions on sprinkles!” 

Step 3: Challenge your readers.

Revealing the truth will instantly and automatically convert a certain percentage of The Establishment, but there will always be some who hang on to their old ways. Who knows why—maybe they just like rainbow sprinkles and are comfortable with what they already know. The most reluctant members of your audience are more likely to come aboard your train if you challenge them to do so rather than just expect that they will. Address them explicitly and directly—but not aggressively. Reiterate what your research reveals, why the myth no longer serves them, and what they stand to gain by embracing the truth. Will they save money, grow their business, be able to take Wednesdays off from now on? Make it so compelling to discard the myth and embrace the truth that even your strongest opponents eventually cross over. 

Why this formula works

If there’s anything readers love more than being right all along, it’s discovering new things. We’re compulsive knowledge seekers, constantly looking to improve ourselves, and whenever we come across something that challenges our preconceived notions, we instinctively do one of two things: read everything we can find about this new idea and pivot 180 degree to incorporate it into our lives; or resist it violently and publicly, sometimes writing our own myth vs. truth piece about it from the opposite perspective. 

Examples of the myth vs. truth formula:

  

FORMULA NUMBER 3: The human guinea pig

This formula has a number of notable writers in its fan base, among them Pat Flynn (whose moniker is “the crash test dummy of online business”), Tim Ferriss, James Altucher, and, as you probably already know, Jason Zook. All of these writers like to share their lives and experiments in almost real time, and to bring their audiences along on a journey of discovery and empowerment. 

This formula can be one of the easiest to write because it doesn’t require writing your article all at once. Instead, you’ll keep a journal for the length of your experiment, then compile your findings at the end prior to publishing. 

On the other hand, this formula is one of the more challenging ones to complete because you actually have to do an experiment on yourself first. And to get any traction, it had better be something interesting and somewhat eye-catching. 

Often, the writing process for this formula is as follows:

Step 1: Decide on your experiment.

A 30-day social media detox, for example, or a two-month email capture experiment, or a personal challenge to learn another language in a few months. Your experiment should be something you’re personally interested in and that has ties to your brand in some way. You will be the main character throughout this post, so get comfortable here in Step 1 with sharing your personality, your quirks, your reasons for taking on this experiment, and what you hope to get out of it. 

Step 2: Start.

This step is pretty self-explanatory. Whatever your experiment is, onward! Go do it. It’s probably gonna take a while, so keep a journal handy to record your experiences in real time. You may choose to record thoughts, results, challenges, motivations, or all of the above. The more of yourself you share, the better. And for the record, while the results of the experiment may matter to you personally and professionally, they don’t matter editorially. That is, whether you succeed or fail, you’ve got the complete premise for an article! (How’s that for a silver lining?)

Step 3: Publish.

After your experiment is over, compile your thoughts, tie them up with a bow (or a lesson—I guess that works, too), and send your Human Guinea Pig article out into the world.

One small shift to this formula is to publish your journal entries live, in real time, while you do the experiment. (Jason likes to do this, and so does writer/business owner Regina Anaejionu, who used Medium to chronicle every day of her 90-day transition from offering paid to free online courses. Her first entry is here: My New Business Model Might Be Insane.)

Why this formula works: 

Look at the headlines below. They basically beg to be clicked, even moreso (I think) than any of the other examples shared in this module. Experiments are compelling to readers because they open up a loop in our brains, and the brain cannot stand an open loop. We must click through to find out what happened. We must fill in those ellipses, we must close the loop. We feel compelled to find out what the writer learned, even if, until seeing the headline, we had no idea we were even interested in that topic.

Becoming a human guinea pig also allows readers to live vicariously through you for a little while. Jason’s article actually inspired me (and hundreds of others) to go 30 days without social media, too. I’d love to go 21 days without complaining like Tim Ferriss! I think it’d be cool to learn how to build a niche site like Pat Flynn or sell all my belongings like James Altucher. Don’t you? 

This formula doesn’t even need convincing. You’re not even reading this anymore. You’ve already clicked over to “find out what happened” to these writers.

Examples of the human guinea pig formula:


 
FORMULA NUMBER 4: The case study

Let’s say you’ve just wrapped up a great project with a client, and they’ve given you a glowing testimonial. You could happily publish that on your site’s Testimonials page...OR you could elevate the relationship and the value you offer your wider community of readers by chronicling the experience in a case study. This formula requires some design know-how, so skip it for now if you’re strictly text-based. For the rest of you, here’s how to write a good one (and we hope it goes without saying that your client deserves the chance to read and approve your case study before you publish it):

Step 1: Tell a story.

Just as in the story-study-lesson formula, we’re buttering people up a bit here. Case studies can sound like they’re going to be work to read, and if your reader is busy (your reader is always busy), they may be inclined to bookmark your case study, only to never return to it. You don’t want that to happen, so instead of launching right in with stats and graphs, begin instead with a personal story about how you met the client and what challenges they were experiencing at the time. Frame the introduction so your client is relatable, and so their project represents the kind of work you do best and want to do more of.

Step 2: Summarize the project.

In laymen’s terms, describe the project you and the client partnered on. Define its scope, its expectations, its processes, and its deliverables—each with its own separate subhead. This doesn’t need to be long, but it does need to be thorough.

Step 3: Detail the results.

What specific results did you attain for your client, and how were those results measured?

This is where the design stuff comes in. By this point in any case study, your readers will be ready to be wowed, so use the tools in Word, Google Docs, InDesign, Canva—whatever setup you already have—to communicate results with more than just words. Use colorful graphics, screenshots, graphs, charts, and other visual elements to quantify precisely how well this project went.

Step 4: Tie up any loose ends.

Many writers will return to the client’s story here, share the testimonial for additional perspective, and summarize the before-and-afters to really drive home the effects and results of the partnership.

Step 5: Conclude with a call to action.

If your prospective clients make it all the way to the end of your case study, they’ll be expecting an opportunity to act. Show them exactly how to connect with you if they want the kinds of results you’ve just demonstrated you can help them get. So many writers forget this step, but it’s a crucial element—don’t just assume they’ll go to their website if they want to email you. Consider extending a special offer here for case study readers only. A freebie, a bonus, a discount? Up to you, but make it good and exclusive.

Step 6: Give it all away in the headline.

The headline for your case study should do two things:

  1. Have the words “Case Study” in it (even though those are boring words on their own, they serve the important function of distinguishing this piece of writing from a blog post or article, and they’re good for SEO, too).
  2. 2. Make explicit the result you got for your client. If you made your client $500k or saved them $1M, say it right in the headline. Focus on the result, and let the actual text of the case study discuss the process.


Why this formula works:

Case studies have an inherent air of authority to them. We trust them because they are called case studies (even though they are often published in the exact same manner as blog posts), and we seek them out when we want measured, objective conclusions to help us make buying decisions.

As a bonus, case studies have a longer shelf life than most other formulas. As long as your offerings remain the same, your case studies will be current, which means they can support future launches, prospective client engagements, and marketing opportunities.

Examples of the case study formula*:

And here are a couple case studies you’ll love if you’re looking to sell your products and services online instead of work one-on-one with clients:

*Note that case studies rarely follow the exact order presented in this formula—rather, you’ll see all of the necessary elements presented in different ways each time. That’s because a case study is, by nature, a custom-made document, tailored to a particular project or initiative. The formula here will get you started, and the examples will help you see what we mean about innovating within the formulas.
  

FORMULA NUMBER 5: Everything old is new again

In many ways, this formula is the opposite of the story-study-lesson one you learned about earlier. If that one is about bringing a NEW piece of information (a study) to your readers, this one is about bringing back a very OLD piece and examining it under modern lights.

Somewhat ironically, this formula is very trendy right now as a way to subvert the content-with-an-expiry-date trend, but the trend itself is deceiving. An authority in any area will read widely from history and the present day, and will inevitably come across nuggets of wisdom that seekers have discovered and shared in generations past. Chances are good you’re already aware of a piece of time-tested genius in your niche that you can share with your audience today.

Logistically speaking, this formula can be presented in any number of different ways. You could technically just replace “study” with “ancient piece of wisdom” in the story-study-lesson formula as a way to innovate within that formula, or you can check out the examples below to see how others have done it. There’s no right or wrong way to present your ancient wisdom, so this one isn’t a step-by-step formula as much as it is a list of elements that must be present to fulfill the formula;

  1. A modern dilemma shared by many
  2. An old or ancient solution that proves humans have been struggling with the same dilemma since forever, and that men and women who died long before we were born came up with the perfect solution
  3. A direct quote from the source (bonus points and extra credibility if you can link to a digitized version of the original so your extra-curious readers can find out more)
  4. An exploration of how you (or those you’ve observed) have incorporated this old/ancient solution into their lives and businesses (bonus points if you can prove it’s even more effective than modern-day solutions, apps, programs, etc.)


Why this formula works:

Because very old writing predates the internet (and often even the printing press), it comes with the inherent authority of having stood the test of time. When you share ancient secrets with your audience, you not only have the collective opportunity to discuss it and learn from it together, but you establish yourself as the kind of expert who reads widely and thoughtfully well beyond the confines of the web’s daily trending stories.

Examples of the everything-old-is-new-again formula:


TWO POPULAR FORMULAS WE'RE NOT TELLING YOU ABOUT

The listicle.

The listicle is not our favorite formula...which means we kinda hate it. I think (hope) we’re all getting sick of the click-baity 37 Shocking Secrets About Your Jawline and Become Steve Jobs in 10 Easy Steps cliches because we all know by now that the value for the reader is never there on these articles. They’re just looking for clicks in a broken pageview-oriented system, guys. Listicles continue to be one of the most popular formulas out there because they’re so easy to read and write, but this is our course, so we’re going to use this platform to ignore the listicle. Maybe we’ll even call it a myth and challenge you to embrace the truth of one of the other formulas instead. 

The how-to.

Like the listicle, the how-to formula is getting a little tired. We’re in the minority here since self help isn’t going away any time soon, but I think Jason and I agree that readers need less “This is how to do something” and more “Here’s how I did something.” It’s a subtle shift, but an important and empowering one. It’s teaching your readers to fish.


A word about formula vs. formulaic

If you’re concerned about your writing sounding formulaic when using a formula...well, yes, that’s a valid concern. But not for the reason you think. 

Formulas do not inherently result in formulaic writing—as we covered above, nearly every writer uses formulas. You’ve got a dozen examples above of how these things play out in real life for some of the most recognized and celebrated writers and entrepreneurs out there. So the formulas themselves are not the thing to be concerned about when you’re worried about formulaic writing.

The real dangers are going to surprise you. There are two of them:

Thinking that formulaic is always a bad thing.

Now, yes, it would be a bad thing if all your writing about every topic started to sound exactly the same. But if you wrote 10 articles about the same thing, using the same formula (or a few different formulas), and coming at it from a slightly different angle each time...well, my friends, that’s actually really smart. That is what builds a brand and makes you a recognized expert in your niche. A lot of accomplished entrepreneurs and writers, Jason included, will tell you how important it is to stick with one topic longer than you think you should. You don’t get to write just one article about it, and then wait for the passive income to roll in. You have to keep hitting it, over and over again. It may feel to you like you’re sharing the same message every time, but if you have a different story to share, a different angle to start from, that’s all the fuel you need to keep each new article sounding fresh from the ones that came before. Ask Jason how many articles he’s written about getting things done. Go ahead, ask him. 

Not innovating within the formulas themselves.

There is endless variety provided within the structure of a formula. The more comfortable you get with them, the more confident you’ll be in adapting them to suit your purposes.

Remember back to the beginning of this module, when you may have been resistant to formulas on the grounds that they were myths, or crutches, or only for genre writers? You know better than that now, and you’re probably surprised to discover how many writers are using the same handful of formulas every time they sit down to write. The danger would be if they all used these formulas the same way, but they don’t. They put their own spin on them, just as you will, and the result is a unique piece of writing that reflects your personality, promotes your business, and connects with your audience. If you find your own writing too “on the nose” when following a formula, know that there’s room to move here, and that we expect you will innovate within the formulas you’ve just learned. Read the provided examples again, see how these writers have adapted these formulas for their own purposes, and tap into that creativity muscle to make them work for you, too. 


Now what? Practical assignment time!

Choose one of the formulas you’ve just learned, and, keeping your descriptive words in mind from the last module, write 500+ words to answer 1 or more of the following prompts:

  • Your biggest takeaway from the last business book you read
  • An unexpected lesson from an unexpected mentor
  • A 48-hour experiment in ____________
  • One thing you wish more people knew about your industry
  • A business goal you want to be held accountable for in 2017


MOAR SCIENCE (i.e., resources)

1. All scientists should be storytellers
2. Why are stories so powerful? Insights from the psychology of memory
3. Why academics stink at writing by Steve Plinker
4. Headline Hacks (formulas to help you write compelling headlines)
5. For fiction writers: Story Grid and The 7 Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories by Christopher Booker

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