CREATIVITY

I Hit Tim Denning in the Face with My Words — then He Wrote a Sequel

I got curious about Tim’s wizardry —then the magic happened

A couple of months back I got obsessed with Tim Denning. I found his articles super-addicting. The more I read of them, the more I wanted to read.

I was picking up my phone and looking for another article by Tim, then another. Once I started I couldn’t stop.

I love to read, but I’m also easily bored. Few writers keep me engaged like Tim Denning does. I got curious about Tim’s magic.

I asked myself: “What makes Tim Denning’s articles so addicting?” And I decided to dive deep finding out.

I copied out one of Tim’s top-performing articles, by hand, on my mobile phone. I was standing outside in the freezing winter cold, waiting for the take-out fish and chips I’d ordered. It was painful on my fingers, the sweet agony of writing. I felt like a lonesome desperado, an anti-hero loser writing in the frosty air. I could see my breath. It wasn’t snowing, but it might as well have been.

I tore apart dozens of Tim’s articles. I looked at how he structures his articles, how he writes subheadings, and how he builds his sentences and paragraphs. I was determined to find everything I could.

Then I wrote an article exploring what I’d learned.

I put in a ton of work to develop that article. It wasn’t only copying out Tim’s articles. I wanted to really understand how he creates. I wanted to learn to think like him. One commenter said that my write up read like a Tim Denning article —that’s the biggest compliment I could have received. I wanted to reflect his style and structure in my own writing.

Even so, I was pretty shocked at what happened next, especially because it starts with Tim ghosting me (no hard feelings).

Tim Denning once got rejected by James Altucher. How?

Here’s how Tim tells the story:

I sent James an email early morning. I made sure that I got straight to the point and didn’t waste his time. I told him my credentials, lowered my ego and offered to help with no hidden agenda. I even told him that there was no obligation to reply.

James rejected me. How?

The way all influential people do: by not responding.

James Altucher rejected Tim by not responding.

Tim did the same to me. After I’d written up my article about what makes Tim’s writing so addicting, I sent the draft over to him.

My reason for messaging Tim? Right of reply. If I was writing about Tim, I wanted him to have a chance to put across his own side of the story. There was something in it for me too. I thought it would look super cool if the article had “Thanks to Tim Denning” in the footer. That’s what happens if a writer leaves a comment on your draft — they get an auto-generated thank you note at the end.

I had high hopes Tim would reply. But I was also realistic about the chances of this happening, knowing how precious his writing time is.

I’ve no idea if he saw my message. He didn’t reply. I felt downhearted, but I was still determined to publish the article.

Then it got worse from there.

I’d poured my heart and soul into the article about Tim. It’s a solid article about how to write engaging articles. And I thought it would be perfect for a specific publication that rhymes with Letter Marketing.

They rejected it. Ouch. No matter how many times it happens, rejection always hurts.

Then three more publications rejected it too. Four rejections really sting.

Still, I kept submitting to publications I felt were relevant for the story, updating the story each time to match their style guides.

I was so pumped when The Innovation agreed to publish the article. They’d rejected my work previously, so I had no idea whether they would take this article.

I was so happy about it, I set up a Twitter account just to promote the article.

It’s impossible to explain how excited I was when Tim Denning saw my tweet and replied to it! Then I noticed he’d read the article, highlighted a couple of sentences, and even left applause.

Plus he replied to my tweet saying the article was “really well written”. Happy days!

I knew that Tim sometimes writes articles based on highlights he’s made on other articles. But I had no idea he had that planned for my article.

Then, six days after my article was published, I saw a new Tim Denning article on my homepage feed:

You Pay Money To See Someone In A Flow State

The title of Tim’s article was a key part of the theme in the article I’d written. The same part Tim said was awesome. And now he’d written a whole article on it himself. He’d effectively written a sequel to my article.

Tim said the idea for his article had “hit [him] in the face the other day”. I would never advocate violence, but I don’t mind if my writing has that effect on Tim. I inspired Tim Denning — one of my favorite writers — to write an article!

What’s the lesson here?

First, write about what matters to you. I got obsessed with Tim’s articles, and so I asked myself what was so engaging to them. I invested hours in researching and writing an article about it, but it felt like very little time because I loved every minute of it.

Second, you never know when an idea will come in handy. The part of my article that inspired Tim was based on a quote I read seven years ago in a book by Steven Kotler, The Rise of Superman. I liked that quote so much that it stayed spinning in my mind all these years.

Third, your favorite writers are human, just like you. They’ve got busy lives. They’re probably too busy to read your email. Take the moonshot anyway. Be polite and respectful when you reach out, but don’t be afraid to ask. Just accept you might not get a response.

Fourth, rejection is part of writing. Tim Denning gets rejected every week, without fail. I’ve also been rejected more times than I can count since I started submitting to publications. When you believe in an article, keep pitching it to relevant publications, as long as you’re meeting their guidelines. You never know which editor will love your work.

This article makes it a trilogy. Here are the first two articles in the sequence:

The initial article I wrote (published in The Innovation):

Tim Denning’s sequel (published in The Ascent):