I agree. I started the podcast in 2014. Now we're up to about or beyond 500 episodes. I was a speedy 800 word writer, but writing a script for a 30 min podcast meant writing 3000-5000 words per podcast per week. That killed me for almost two years because it wasn't just writing, but recording etc. But I got better.
Did it make my life better? I don't know, but I'm happy to have the skills.
The thing that you have created doing that is a vast back catalogue....which is a great way for someone to find you via a topic, check out three or four similar episoders and go from knowing little or nothing about you to being a warm prospect pretty quickly and with little effort on your time as that effort has already been spent. I think having that kind of back list is an incredible resource for your business.
I think if you'd posted a long form 5000 word article every week that would have had a similar effect.
There is a maths to the words themselves, but a lot of other elements need to get in place too. I see a LOT of work that's just bordering on terrible-average. I suspect Brandon Sanderson's level is different because he seems to have put out quite a lot. Nonetheless, the idea is sound. If you learn 3 words a day in Japanese, you learn at least 300 a year (that's not faulty maths, just that you also forget).
Anyway, that was a rambling comment. Back to writing.
I agree that there is a lot of work out there that's average (let's be polite). The thing that goes hand in hand with getting the words down, is doing separate practice so that as well as getting regular words in, writers are also improving. One of the big myths in the writing community is that regular word automatically leads to an improvement in quality of those words. I'll debunk that in a future issue.
But I'm a big believer in compound interest. When I published the weekly music newsletter, I wrote on average 50 to 60 pages an issue. Over 10 years that's around 30,000 pages of content. If you'd said to me at the start: in 10 years time you'll have tens of thousands of pages of content I'd have not believed you.
One of my favourite quotes ( original source unknown) is: most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year but underestimate what they can achieve in 10 years. Just 500 words a day, 7 days a week, 50 weeks a year, delivers nearly 2 million words in 10 years.
Another quote: the best time to start was 10 years ago. The second best time is now.
I agree. I started the podcast in 2014. Now we're up to about or beyond 500 episodes. I was a speedy 800 word writer, but writing a script for a 30 min podcast meant writing 3000-5000 words per podcast per week. That killed me for almost two years because it wasn't just writing, but recording etc. But I got better.
Did it make my life better? I don't know, but I'm happy to have the skills.
The thing that you have created doing that is a vast back catalogue....which is a great way for someone to find you via a topic, check out three or four similar episoders and go from knowing little or nothing about you to being a warm prospect pretty quickly and with little effort on your time as that effort has already been spent. I think having that kind of back list is an incredible resource for your business.
I think if you'd posted a long form 5000 word article every week that would have had a similar effect.
There is a maths to the words themselves, but a lot of other elements need to get in place too. I see a LOT of work that's just bordering on terrible-average. I suspect Brandon Sanderson's level is different because he seems to have put out quite a lot. Nonetheless, the idea is sound. If you learn 3 words a day in Japanese, you learn at least 300 a year (that's not faulty maths, just that you also forget).
Anyway, that was a rambling comment. Back to writing.
Hey Sean
I agree that there is a lot of work out there that's average (let's be polite). The thing that goes hand in hand with getting the words down, is doing separate practice so that as well as getting regular words in, writers are also improving. One of the big myths in the writing community is that regular word automatically leads to an improvement in quality of those words. I'll debunk that in a future issue.
But I'm a big believer in compound interest. When I published the weekly music newsletter, I wrote on average 50 to 60 pages an issue. Over 10 years that's around 30,000 pages of content. If you'd said to me at the start: in 10 years time you'll have tens of thousands of pages of content I'd have not believed you.
One of my favourite quotes ( original source unknown) is: most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year but underestimate what they can achieve in 10 years. Just 500 words a day, 7 days a week, 50 weeks a year, delivers nearly 2 million words in 10 years.
Another quote: the best time to start was 10 years ago. The second best time is now.
Looking forwards to catching up in Lisbon.