Most How-To Stories Are Lying

Why they probably won’t work for you

So I write for a number of publications. Quite a few want the ubiquitous how-to stories, rather than the what or why. But truth be told, I’m getting a bit jack of writing such formulaic nonsense. Why?

Because, most of those stories boil down into nifty little 7-step dot points or little listicles because that’s how Google has (wrongly) taught us is the way to write. And subsequently we think that’s how we should learn. IT IS NOT SO. In fact, so many of those 7-step outlines that make up a 4-6 minute article could happily be 100 words or less TL;DRs. Seriously.

The real problem with all those pieces of how-to fluff? The way I’ve discovered how to do something that works for me, might be interesting to read, but chances are, it won’t necessarily work the same for you.

Why wont’ they work for you?

Well, because I have a whole different set of learned understandings, experiences, skill sets and approaches than you do.

How I discovered what works, might have taken me 10–20–1000 attempts to get right, learning all the small nuances along the way. And sure, because I’ve already trodden that path and written some directions down, your own path might be quicker. But that doesn’t mean it won’t take you 5, 10 or 20 goes to achieve the same thing — after all those nuances are largely left out of pithy instructions.

What’s worse, if I write it down as a 7-step process, you will almost automatically assume, it should work first time around. You will likely be disappointed. And because it didn’t work, you will assume the information is wrong (even if it is not).

Information doesn’t equal knowledge

Plus, just because it works for me, doesn’t mean it will work the same way for you. If fact, it probably won’t. Your climate, market, business, season, soil, oven, weight, age, experience, life stage or gender (add anything or everything else that could possibly matter) might be different.

But it’s so much more inviting to the reader to say “do these 7 easy things” than “here’s a book, work it out for yourself, then have a go and if that doesn’t work, try a whole series of other ways”.

If I told you ‘the way’ to write was to nail your butt to a chair and pound out 50–100,000 words, that’s probably not helpful to you really at all. But, truth be told, that’s how most published authors do it. I could even break that down further to include working to a Pomodoro timer and break your writing sessions into 25 minute chunks with tiny breaks in between so you don’t fry your brain if you’re at it for big chunks of time (it works for some but not all writers).

However, what’s not covered in there, is coming up with your story concept, the world, your characters, their flaws, the ability to kill your darlings, a knowledge of narrative, character arcs, spelling, grammar and brutal editing skills and a million other things. But that’s all too hard (and waaaay too long and boring) to go into in a ‘7-step do these things to succeed at writing’ article.

As humans, we want (and have learned to expect) things to be quick and easy. Hence the TL:DR 7-step approach. I once had a first year university student tell me, out loud in a lecture in front of her peers, if anything was longer than two sentences, she didn’t bother reading on. I only just managed to not laugh hysterically and declare she was in the wrong place. Big sigh.

Seriously what was she expecting? Crib notes for the entire degree?

But that crap is everywhere.

Don’t believe me? Have a look at your stats. You’ll see that the majority of people don’t spend six minutes reading your six minute article, they spend 2.5 or less — they’re not interested in investing time, enjoying the journey of learning. Rather they want ‘the’ answer, and they want it now. And if you’re not going to give it to them, they’ll move on to someone else who will (even if ‘the’ answer they’re given is the wrong one).

This is a problem. Once upon a time, in ye olde olden days (since people started reading until Google dumbed us all down), people read to absorb, to soak up information, to take it in, to assimilate it into themselves — not just to ‘do’ information. Those nifty 7-step type pieces dumb down all that learning and experience that has gone into truly informing what we writers have to share. And in so doing, they dumb all of us down in the sharing.

Perpetrating writing clickbait

Not allowing for a deeper why and the what behind our stories isn’t smart and it’s not truthful. The why and what provides context needed for broader applicability. It gives the reader both a moment of deeper education on the topic they’re reading about and the ability to see if their experience matches (or can be substituted) for the writer’s. And whether or not, such advice could possibly work for them. To leave all that out and replace it with thoughtless ‘doing’ is a lie. It’s the writing equivalent of clickbait.

If everyone could follow the 7-steps of whatever and have the same level of success, we’d all be doing it and we’d all be successful. But we’re not. True success comes from sticking the path, gritting your teeth in the hard stuff. It’s about learning the nuances of the thing and then tweaking to make something uniquely your own.

Claude Debussy (famous composer) once said,

“music is the space between the notes.”

And so it is with those sharing our learning. The real learning, the knowledge, the guts of how to do something, isn’t in the dot points, it’s found in the surrounding material.

So the next time you’re tempted to read a 7-steps to succeed at (insert your topic here), please understand that you’re likely being misled. By all means, enjoy the article, but know it’s probably not going to serve you the way you hope. Take what you need from it, tweak it, practice until you get it right.

I wish you well

Kristin Austin is the creator of the 1st in business revenue building game. And is writing an e-book version because it’s much, much easier to ship internationally. Thanks for reading. You can also hire me as a habit coach to help you build your sales revenue.

Like reading Medium and want to read lots more great articles? You can support my writing and thousands of amazing writers on Medium by subscribing. You’ll get access to every story whenever you’re wanting to read them — it’s just $5/mth — that’s probably less than a single morning coffee. You can subscribe here.