Another Piece of Writing Advice, This Time From a Complete Newbie

If you haven’t seen the movie American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington, you must.

Photo by Eduardo Goody on Unsplash

Frank Lucas is a small time New York drug pusher towards the end of the Vietnam War.

He talks to one of his old army pals one day, and learns that the American soldiers in Vietnam are going crazy over heroin they are getting locally, from Vietnam and Thailand.

It’s especially pure.

Much purer than the stuff Frank is currently peddling in New York.

Frank realises that there’s a huge pent-up demand in the U.S. for this stuff, based on how quickly it has spread among the forces in Vietnam.

He flies to Thailand and ventures deep into the jungle to meet the source: the grower of the poppies who can sell his heroin to Frank in bulk and transport it to the U.S. in army transport planes.

Frank orders an initial 100kg, ships it to New York, and turns it into thousands of tiny blue packets of 100% pure heroin stamped ‘Blue Magic’. This he distributes at prices that nearly everyone can afford.

Blue Magic instantly becomes a sensation, and Frank goes on to build a thriving business, importing as much as 2,000kg from Thailand at a go.

Unfortunately, everything falls apart when the Vietnam War comes to an end, there are no more U.S. army transport planes to use, and a snitch rats him out to the cops.

Frank spends 15 years in jail.

I’m new to writing and I wonder if any of you newbies are suffering from the same ailments as me.

I learn how to prepare an outline, craft headlines and subheads, and design the page for readability.

But all this learning has gotten me stuck with actually writing.

I’m becoming obsessed with doing it all correctly — so much so that I am frightened to type out the article.

And when I do start to write, my words come out in an anal retentive, uptight way. It’s as if I’m not even a human being behind the message.

So I watched that movie and saw a way out.

I saw the movie in two parts: one, going to the source; and two, marketing under a fantastic brand name.

Getting the pure stuff first — then packaging it just right for the customer.

Letting the pure thoughts flow from the source first — then packaging the article just right for my reader.

So my solution to my writing ailments is:

Just sit down and write.

Write to think.

Let all my programming, life experiences, learnings and values come pouring out of me in a steady flow, helped by my muse.

Don’t brainstorm, plan or outline.

Sit somewhere quietly and let your thoughts come to you, get energised, and then hurry over to your computer. Let your own source feed you with all that addictive stuff.

Now you have some pure gold sitting on the screen. It’s time to get it ready for the market. It’s time to turn it into something that your reader will find irresistible.

Just as Frank Lucas packaged his heroin in small quantities with an appealing name — just what would appeal to his customers — so you can now edit your article so as to appeal to your reader.

You can now make sure that you hit her pain points: her fears or her desires.

You can massage and mould your words, sentences and paragraphs so that your reader takes one look — and is hooked.

That, my reader, is how I wrote this article. And that is how I intend to carry on writing.

So good luck to all of you newbies. Let’s get typing!