Today I’d like to tell you about the time I forgot how to write emails.
In the interest of keeping this story under 130,000 words, let me just give you four quick snapshots:
1. Friday, Oct 22 2021. I’m walking along the sea in Opatija, Croatia when I have a bright idea.
All these people have been telling me I’m so good at writing emails. So why don’t I finally offer a training on how I write emails?
Yes! I take out my phone, and write down a bunch of ideas for the offer, the sales page, and the actual content of the training.
Later that evening, I send out an email about it. Then I watch in wonder as thousands of dollars start to pour into my PayPal account from people who trust me enough to preorder this training.
2. Two weeks later. I’m sitting at my desk, head in hands, a pained grimace on my face. I’m staring at the pages of notes I’ve taken in preparation for the training, which is now called Influential Emails. But all I see are a bunch of half-baked ideas and vague fluff.
I start to despair that I will be able to give people their money’s worth. And the deadline is nearing.
3. Thursday, Dec 2, 2021. The Influential Emails training has completed. It consisted of me talking about a bunch of writing techniques, which I’d unconsciously used for a long time, but which I’ve now identified and given names to, such as stacking… layering… S. Morgenstern transitions… and bait-and-switch email closes.
According to the feedback I get, people loved the training. I’m amazed and very happy with how well it went.
4. The gray, rainy weeks and months that follow. Real despair sets in. After the Influential Emails training, whenever I sit down to write one of my daily emails, I am filled with confusion and doubt. Instead of writing spontaneously and enjoying the process, I hesitate.
“Should I stack something here? Or add another layer to the email? Maybe I could take out this whole section and replace it with an S. Morgenstern transition?”
Each email takes forever to write. I hate the process. And from what I can see in terms of engagement, people don’t love reading the results either.
I curse that Influential Emails training that I gave. “Why is fate like this?” I ask out loud, but nobody answers. I wish I could forget the techniques I have identified so I could enjoy writing my email newsletter again.
Let’s cut the story off at this point so I can tell what I just tried to show you. It’s the last of the six canonical story formats.
This one is called the Oedipus format. It goes like this: \/\. Start high… go low… then go back up… and finally end down, way down.
And now that I’ve told you that… and now that you know about all six canonical story formats… maybe it’s best if you forget all about it.
Because these story formulas are fun to learn about. But they are not good to consciously follow. At least in my experience.
From what I’ve seen and tried myself, when you consciously write according to a formula or recipe, something feels wooden and off. And people can sense it, particularly in an intimate setting like daily emails.
Besides, there are a lot of fun stories that work well as anecdotes, which don’t fit any of these canonical structures, not unless you really give it some brutal massage.
So if you wanna have fun writing, and produce something that’s fun to read… then forget about the canonical story structure formats. Let them sink into the darkness of your subconscious, and let them guide you from there.
But if you really insist on conscious guidelines to help you write better stories, then remember the higher-level points I brought up over the past few days.
Be mindful of where you start your story… where you end it… what details you choose to include, what you omit… and of course, make sure there is drama, conflict, contrast, twists and turns of some kind.
Do this, and you won’t need an exact recipe. Your brain will surprise you with how creative you can be. And you’ll even enjoy the process.
And finally:
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