What can writers learn from comedians?
This was the topic of my recent talk at the Main Street Summit. It's for you if you struggle to find your main point whenever you write.
Here are some of the key ideas:
1. The first draft of any creative project is always messy.
2. At any company, the person who writes things down has an inordinate amount of power.
3. Conversations can be a fruitful way to test ideas. To see what resonates, look at other people's faces.
4. The paradox of creativity: Your work is done when it looks so simple that the consumer thinks they could've done it, which means they won't appreciate how hard you worked.
5. Comedians don't start working on jokes when they get on the big stage. They start in tiny comedy clubs around the country, where they throw out jokes in front of small audiences.
6. Love this definition of simplicity from Hans Hofmann: "The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."
7. Sometimes, you can only achieve clarity by rewriting and rewriting and rewriting some more.
8. To understand the essence of an idea, write it down in 1,000 words. Then, 200. Then, 50. Then, one sentence. Then, one phrase.
9. CEOs are professional sloganeers.
10. To improve your writing, vary your sentence length. Write with a combination of short, medium, and long ones.
There's so much more in the video, and I hope it makes you a better writer.
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