# How to Tell a Great Story ! [ rw-book-cover] (https://wsrv.nl/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmegaphone.imgix.net%2Fpodcasts%2Fb72a6a52-2f4c-11ee-920d-73de81dc1df9%2Fimage%2FFINALCOVER.png%3Fixlib%3Drails-4.3.1%26max-w%3D3000%26max-h%3D3000%26fit%3Dcrop%26auto%3Dformat%2Ccompress&w=100&h=100) URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/49fe3a4d-8679-4fff-99de-1448d759888b Author: How I Write  ## AI-Generated Summary None ## Highlights > - Self-doubt is essential for continuous improvement in creative work. > - Without it, complacency sets in, preventing the pursuit of better quality. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > It's gotten better. I know that I will solve it. But it's still a struggle and it's still painful. And still, there's a doubt in the back of my mind. Because you know what? If you don't have doubt, then you're never gonna make something better. Hmm. So, if I thought, yeah, this is good enough. Okay, it's fine, you know, I found it. I don't think the books would have the effect that they do because I keep trying to find something better. > Speaker 2 > When you use the word better, how do you think your words have improved? Like if you look at 48 Laws, where do you feel like you've had the largest margin of improvement? > Speaker 1 > Well, nothing in life is quite so linear. So things are better than the 48 laws, but they're also worse. So when you're younger, and I wrote and written about this a lot, I was in my 30s, late 30s at the time. You have, first of all, your mind is functioning more quickly. I wrote that book so fast I can't even believe it. You have spirit that's very fast, and I could write, and things would come to me very quickly. I've lost that. I've had a stroke, but I've also caged. I've lost that. I have to double the effort to create that kind of effervescent style that I like to have. So I've lost something. But what I've gained is, I think I've gained a little bit of depth in the actual thinking that I put into the process and how I try and always go deeper and deeper and deeper. So the laws of human nature ended up being a long book. It's because I really wanted to get at the core of what I was writing about. I didn't want to be superficial. I'm not saying 48 Laws is superficial at all, but it's a shorter book because I didn't agonize over things to try and get better and closer and closer. Thank God, because the shortness of it is what makes it such a bestseller. I put more thinking into things. So I don't think my style has gotten easier or better. I think my thinking has become after so many years, after so much experience, after so much digging, ([Time 0:14:02](https://share.snipd.com/snip/fcbf330c-f141-4fd3-b745-1e953ab95d47)) > - Self-doubt is essential for continuous improvement in creative work. > - If you think your work is good enough and stop questioning it, you'll likely plateau and create less impactful work. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > And still, there's a doubt in the back of my mind. Because you know what? If you don't have doubt, then you're never gonna make something better. Hmm. So, if I thought, yeah, this is good enough. Okay, it's fine, you know, I found it. I don't think the books would have the effect that they do because I keep trying to find something better. > Speaker 2 > When you use the word better, how do you think your words have improved? Like if you look at 48 Laws, where do you feel like you've had the largest margin of improvement? > Speaker 1 > Well, nothing in life is quite so linear. So things are better than the 48 laws, but they're also worse. So when you're younger, and I wrote and written about this a lot, I was in my 30s, late 30s at the time. You have, first of all, your mind is functioning more quickly. I wrote that book so fast I can't even believe it. You have spirit that's very fast, and I could write, and things would come to me very quickly. I've lost that. I've had a stroke, but I've also caged. I've lost that. ([Time 0:14:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/ce87aa27-bdfb-4044-8bc4-bd5e902341f5)) > - Robert Greene reflects on how his writing has evolved over time. > - While he's lost some youthful speed and style, he's gained depth and thoughtfulness, leading to more profound work, like *The Laws of Human Nature*. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > When you're younger, and I wrote and written about this a lot, I was in my 30s, late 30s at the time. You have, first of all, your mind is functioning more quickly. I wrote that book so fast I can't even believe it. You have spirit that's very fast, and I could write, and things would come to me very quickly. I've lost that. I've had a stroke, but I've also caged. I've lost that. I have to double the effort to create that kind of effervescent style that I like to have. So I've lost something. But what I've gained is, I think I've gained a little bit of depth in the actual thinking that I put into the process and how I try and always go deeper and deeper and deeper. So the laws of human nature ended up being a long book. It's because I really wanted to get at the core of what I was writing about. I didn't want to be superficial. I'm not saying 48 Laws is superficial at all, but it's a shorter book because I didn't agonize over things to try and get better and closer and closer. Thank God, because the shortness of it is what makes it such a bestseller. I put more thinking into things. So I don't think my style has gotten easier or better. I think my thinking has become after so many years, after so much experience, after so much digging, I think I've reached a higher level on that. > Speaker 2 > And is that a change in process? Is that something that just comes with maturity? Or is there something that you could say now back to yourself in your late 30s that would have helped you get here? No, ([Time 0:14:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/aa9e205f-b6a9-4618-bcf4-f494226fc3ce)) > - History can feel very much alive and present, not as a dead thing. > - Reading history, one can even feel like they are there, experiencing it firsthand. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > And I have this idea history is very alive. And sometimes when I read history, I feel like I'm there. ([Time 0:18:05](https://share.snipd.com/snip/52baaa52-cd71-4b4c-8507-1194de2ed96c)) > - Objects from early childhood, even those predating our birth, feel alive. > - History can evoke a similar feeling of familiarity and connection, like objects in our childhood home. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > Okay. And those objects were there before you were born. So they were there before you were born. The same. But when you see them now, they're very alive. And so they kind of predate your birth, but they have this aliveness to them. They have, particularly from your early childhood, they go, whoa, yeah, you can relate to that. So I'm thinking back like I'm born in the late 50s. The cars from the very year that I was born, I'll have no conscious memory of them. But when I see them on the screen, they feel familiar to me. It's kind of an eerie, uncanny experience. And you have that with things just before you were born. And I'm saying, history can have that effect. ([Time 0:20:05](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d4795634-5e53-4c17-a3f5-1010e1802a93)) > - Create visceral experiences in writing by extensive editing and rewriting. > - Focus on a central theme and cut extraneous material. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > You want the sensations, the visceral experiences. How do you create that in the writing? Well, a lot of editing and rewriting and rewriting and rewriting until I feel like I've gotten that point to that point. So particularly when I'm writing a story, I'll rewrite a story hundreds of times. I don't know, it's exaggerating, but a lot of times, until I feel like I'm getting that feeling. I'm cutting everything out that's extraneous. I have ([Time 0:22:25](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c667b80a-b8fa-4783-8d76-6b3c69819047)) > - Focus deeply on the experience and involve the reader by inviting them into the story. > - Use specific words and markers to grab their attention and pull them in. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > And if you just focus so deeply on these experiences and you create, you have a way of writing you involve the reader in, which is something you learn if you write for films or theater. You create a certain way, or you're inviting the reader into the story, you're making them feel it, certain markers, certain ways of words that you use that grab them and say, pull you Into the story, and you focus it very deeply on the theme, it will have that kind of visceral effect. ([Time 0:23:37](https://share.snipd.com/snip/cf598cec-75f4-4fb7-b28a-809473be48ee)) > - Guide readers to think for themselves, rather than telling them what to think. > - Avoid moralizing and judging; present ideas and let readers form their own conclusions. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > Friend. Yes. So first of all, there's, you have to be accepting of people. You can't be judging. So the judging, moralistic writer is looking down on the reader. Hmm. I don't want to tell people what to think. I want to guide them into thinking it on their own, to come to the same conclusion that I did, or to come to an opposite conclusion. But I don't tell you precisely, this is what you need to do with it. I want to leave it open-ended. And when I wrote like the 48 Laws of Power, it's kind of a, you know, just an evil side to it. There's a dark side to it. I won't deny it. And the tendency for people nowadays in our hyper partisan environment would be demoralized to judge, you know, manipulation is evil. These characters are evil. You know, Louis XIV, oh my God, Machiavelli, Napoleon, all that. They were horrible. They killed people. Whoa, whoa, whoa. And I find that treating the reader like a child. Like, if I told people already in the book that, crush your enemy totally is a very evil thing, don't do it ever. I'm already talking down and I'm treating them like a child. And instead I'm presenting to him then the idea throughout history of the lessons of crush your enemy totally and what it could actually mean in a world where people don't think like Without judging it, without saying this is bad or wrong or evil. ([Time 0:25:11](https://share.snipd.com/snip/10a4012f-a156-44d6-8268-ed84819c9bcb)) > - Writing style is unique to each writer, like a fingerprint. > - It's a combination of your authentic voice and conscious effort, shaping language to fit your ideas. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > A mix of things. It's you. It's your voice. It's something very unique to you. Although some writers don't have a style, I'm afraid. But if they do, it's unique to you. It's like your fingerprint. Nobody else can replicate that. But on the other hand, it's you, but it's enhanced. It's you being conscious. It's you working on it. It's you using the language that you didn't create, that other people created for you, and fitting your own ideas into it, and molding it, and creating a style. ([Time 0:29:45](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0d4f0042-04b0-4aa0-bcdf-1e7e642b85a9)) > - Writing style is unique to each individual, like a fingerprint. > - It's a combination of one's natural voice enhanced by conscious effort, adapting to language conventions and the cultural context. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > A mix of things. It's you. It's your voice. It's something very unique to you. Although some writers don't have a style, I'm afraid. But if they do, it's unique to you. It's like your fingerprint. Nobody else can replicate that. But on the other hand, it's you, but it's enhanced. It's you being conscious. It's you working on it. It's you using the language that you didn't create, that other people created for you, and fitting your own ideas into it, and molding it, and creating a style. > Speaker 2 > What do you mean by enhanced? > Speaker 1 > So if I just blurted out automatic writing-wise, my ideas, you know, they wouldn't, they'd have a style, but they'd be kind of gibberish. They wouldn't have any power to them. So I have to take my natural way of thinking, and I have to make it sophisticated. I have to elaborate on it. I have to make it fit into something that other people can understand. So you can't just be yourself. You have to bring yourself and mold it to the conventions of language, to the conventions of a book, to the conventions of the 21st century. You have to adapt it, right? So you enhance it. So in the end, your style is like a hybrid. It's you plus the culture ([Time 0:29:45](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5281a189-b5f8-4b26-9001-490db80cfd9b)) > 1min Snip > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > You have to bring yourself and mold it to the conventions of language, to the conventions of a book, to the conventions of the 21st century. You have to adapt it, right? So you enhance it. So in the end, your style is like a hybrid. It's you plus the culture that you live in plus, you know, language itself. And so for me, I probably had the style prior to the 48 Laws. I've been writing my whole life. And my wife, she edits my chapters, and sometimes she notices how strange it is. She likes to try and, you know, make it a little more not so strange. What do you mean by strange? I have rhythms. I like... I'm somebody who thinks orally. So when I'm writing, I'm hearing it. And sometimes putting in, and so, I like to put and so. It's not literary, it's like a way of talking. So I bring the kind of talking thing to it. I also will have parenthesis, a comma without using and afterwards. Because like a string of things, it's just how my thinking goes. ([Time 0:30:47](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d089cb01-6302-435d-8d5e-eff9af0dbf40)) > - Controlled anger is more powerful than simply venting. > - An undertone of controlled rage in writing, speaking or art allows the audience to connect with the emotion. > Transcript: > Speaker 1 > You didn't, the anger was like an undertone to it. He didn't go out and say all these nasty violent things. He controlled it. It's what I call a controlled rage. Controlled anger is 10 times more powerful than just venting. You feel it, ([Time 0:35:58](https://share.snipd.com/snip/24bea4aa-9dda-4afa-beca-1dcb45b86842))