Writing tips from Daniel Day Lewis
Writing about your product or service can be a bit of a tightrope between talking passionately about what you do, and boring the pants off your audience.
How do you get the balance right?
You have to put your audience first, which means scrapping things that might seem important to you, but will leave them cold.
This is what they in the trade call 'killing your darlings'. It’s an ego-shattering moment, but it’s what makes great writing.
So how do you get there without the killing spree?
I recommend going the full Daniel Day Lewis
Day Lewis is known for getting deep into character by either living as them or learning new skills. To say he’s a method actor is an understatement:
🥄 He spent almost the entire shoot of My Left Foot in a wheelchair, demanding to be spoon fed
🛶 He learnt how to build canoes for his role in The Last of the Mohicans
😳 He went into solitary confinement and stayed awake for 3 nights in prep for In the Name of the Father
🇨🇿 He taught himself Czech for The Unbearable Lightness of Being, even though the film was in English.
👻 He may (or may not) have seen his father’s ghost during a production of Hamlet
His ability to believe so fervently that he is the character he’s playing ensures that audiences are swept along with him.
And don’t knock it: he’s the only actor to ever win three Best Actor Oscars.
Of course, you don’t need to be quite so extreme in your approach, but it does help.
Putting yourself in your target audience's shoes enables you to dig deep, tunnel past the jargon and get to the all-important "What’s in it for them?" bit.
People only care about themselves, not about you or how much you know about a topic. So you have to think like them - but without disappearing into the role so far that you forget to come out the other side of course!
Shameless plug #1
The 'advice gap' is more than a label, it’s a barrier preventing people from accessing the financial support they need, say I in this week's Money Marketing.
Shameless plug #2
Part 4 of my ‘money story’ is out now - this time we cover what it was like to grow up in a run down pub in the 90s. Head over to Substack where you can read from a range of interesting authors - including Ruth Sturkey whose blog is 1000 Weeks.
Risky business
A Chinese grandfather who refused to leave his house has ended up living in the middle of a motorway. He turned down the offer of £180,000 after deeming it too low.
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