I’m writing this opening sentence in a ham-handed attempt to intrigue you, so you read on. And I’m announcing that fact because it relates to the following leaked media news:
Netflix execs have started telling their screenwriters to announce what the character is doing. Here’s an example, from Netflix’s #1 hit movie, Irish Wish, starring Lindsey Lohan:
===
“We spent a day together,” Lohan tells her lover, James. “I admit it was a beautiful day filled with dramatic vistas and romantic rain, but that doesn’t give you the right to question my life choices. Tomorrow I’m marrying Paul Kennedy.”
“Fine,” says James. “That will be the last you see of me because after this job is over I’m off to Bolivia to photograph an endangered tree lizard.”
===
Billy Wilder it’s not.
So why are Netflix execs mandating this? Why are they breaking the basic rules of good writing? Why do they want to make screenplays intentionally heavy and plodding, repeating what’s already happened, stating the obvious, telling instead of showing?
There’s a good reason. It’s because people are watching Netflix shows in the background.
I’ve seen this first-hand. My ex-girlfriend used to “watch” Netflix shows while cooking. She’d have the headphones in and move around the kitchen, her phone propped up somewhere in the corner of the counter. She’d glance over at it only occasionally, if she was not chopping carrots or peeking inside the fridge at the moment.
If you write emails to connect with your audience, what does this mean for you?
You might think it means you have to get with the times. To make your writing shorter, punchier, more comic book-like. After all, attention spans are dropping! People are distracted! Content is superabundant! Gotta hook ’em in with memes, emojis, and ellipses!
And yet, I’ve consciously gone in the other direction with this newsletter. This ugly Times New Roman font, big blocky paragraphs, stories that require careful parsing to make sense.
I’ve done it all to encourage people to sit and actually read, instead of skimming my emails while they chop carrots. And I’ve done just fine, even well, by taking this approach.
Point being:
Netflix has 282 million subscribers worldwide. That’s a gargantuan number. But even that is only 3.45% of the world’s population.
Today, you can do things the way that you want, the way that pleases you. If you are persistent and unapologetic about it, and if you deliver value as part of what you do, you will find enough people who resonate with your way of doing things, even if the mainstream is going in the exact opposite direction.
And now I’m going to transition to the sales pitch in this email. Because my opening sentence today is not the only place where I ham-handedly announce things that I’m going to do.
I also do it daily inside my Daily Email Habit service. I do it so you can do it too, for your own audience, in your own tone and voice, and so you can stay consistent in connecting with your audience. For more info on Daily Email Habit: