The Writing Secrets I Learned from Genius Turner

This is why he goes viral continuously, based on my research and conversations with him

Reading the work of Genius Turner feels like reading the Da Vinci Code.

His writing has a timeless feel to it. He uses roman numerals to mark different sections. His stories are unpredictable.

This isn’t a bro hug for my friend Genius. This isn’t content marketing with an affiliate link at the end or a special favor. Genius doesn’t know I’m writing this story. This story is one that has to be shared.

You may think Genius’ writing is the result of luck. It’s not. I studied a lot of his work since his Quora glory days (no pun intended). As his name suggests, he is a genius but not for the reasons you might think.

These writing secrets came from my research of Genius Turner and direct conversations I’ve had with him.

Make it hard to know which century we’re in

When I read his work I can’t work out which century we are in because a lot of the advice and thoughts are timeless. His thoughts are not wrapped in pop culture or timely news items. Why? He’s not chasing viral trends because he’s not trying to go viral.

The distortion of time is what makes Genius’ work stand out in a world full of repeatable content about billionaire’s morning routines. This distortion of time creates strange forces that work in favor of Genius’ work.

It’s as though centuries of people in the after-life are looking down on him and sharing their wisdom, and he’s channeling their thoughts. I can’t explain it — not even the X-Files can.

Example 1: Rewind Father Time’s hands back a few years ago, and there I sat in our living room.

Example 2: Picture, if [you] will, having just survived a car accident and lying in a coma — that extended version of what Shakespeare called “sleep [which] is the cousin of death.”

Distort time with your writing.

Publish less. When demand rises, publish even fewer stories.

This is counter-intuitive to my approach. I preach volume.

When I asked Genius about this he did what I expected him to do: he used a story from Michael Jackson. His point was Michael Jackson only released 6 studio albums over the span of 22 years.

“There seems to exist an inverse relationship between supply and demand. In other words, the higher the demand for your work goes, the less you publish. This creates an almost hypnotic effect on the readers, upon seeing one of your new pieces.”

Channel the good side of Michael Jackson. Experiment with supply and demand.

Leave the reader feeling mystically better than before

“Leave the world better than you found it,” is the advice I got from a youtube clip of motivational guru Eric Thomas. Genius does this too.

Every time I read one of his stories I feel better than before. He teleports me from the present and into a different dimension. Nobody else’s stories do that to me. It’s because Genius isn’t trying to be anything. He’s just being his quirky self, and having a conversation through writing as though you’re renting a house together. He has found a way to be your older sibling.

There is so much hateful content online. There are so many writers who project mental illness through their words and don’t even realize it. Instead of getting help, they drag you down with them. It’s not their fault but it does negatively impact you.

People feel mystically better when you open their minds to ideas and possible solutions. This is what Genius does to me with his Harry Potter wand.

Sharing conversations puts you in a completely different lane

The genius of Genius is simple: he shares conversations. They’re unfiltered. You feel as though you’re listening to his life with a hidden microphone he has taped to his chest.

All of the cultural turns of phrase are there. The abbreviations are on point. You can see where Genius grew up through his conversations. You live as Genius because he allows you to through conversations.

I wrote for years without adding conversations to my writing. This was a huge mistake. Adding conversations helps bring the reader within an inch of your words. They hold on tight. It’s an intimate experience too erotic for Romeo and Juliet.

Add extremely raw conversations to your writing to unlock your genius.

People follow you all around the internet when you’re interesting

The cult of readers who follow Genius formed on Quora. Over the years Genius has leapfrogged from one writing platform to another, leaving his mark. It’s no accident.

When you do well on one platform, people want to join you on another. You can expand your audience by using multiple platforms. I turn LinkedIn posts into tweets. And I turn tweets into full-length blog posts with data I collect about what problems people want help with or find interesting.

Being like everybody else and chasing viral trends makes you boring. Being unique makes you interesting enough to chase all around the internet. So rather than replicate, be yourself.

Your story can jump all over the place

The structure of Genius’ work is remarkable. He jumps from one scene to another and back again. Following a timeline is tough. There are very few transitions between sections. This way of writing removes a lot of the filler, so you’re left with the killer parts people fall in love with.

Structure equals following the rules. To be inspired to write like Genius, you’ve got to learn to break the rules and jump all over the place. Everything is related to everything. Therefore, you don’t need to hold a reader’s hand by using too many transitions and trying to have every sentence relate back to the main headline.

In fact, a lot of Genius’ stories contain huge sections that have nothing to do with the headline. The headline of his work is often just a quote. This is a badass way to write.

Before reading Genius’s work, I was too afraid to jump in the deep end and play with structure so much. Now, I’m merging multiple sections under one subheading, leaving out labeling certain sections, putting quotes wherever the hell I want, going off on tangents, and turning points from a listicle into unexpected stories.

Break conventional structure to take readers on an unpredictable journey.

Dare to use sound effects and actions

Too much writing reads like a series of facts out of an encyclopedia.

Genius taught me to add sound effects into my writing and describe actions I’m taking as if they were happening right in front of the reader. These subtleties, combined with human dialogue, help you go from having the limited range of a Tesla, to the interplanetary range of a NASA spacecraft.

Bring your writing to life and get your head out of the encyclopedia. Write about all the senses on display when a person performs an action or tells a story.

Extract golden nuggets from history

Religion. Philosophy. Ancient times. Stoicism. The Holocaust.

Nuggets from history help ground your story in humanity. They help your story reach a wider audience. History helps the reader remember where they were when that moment in history occurred or when they learned about it from their grandparents.

Taking people back in time with your writing is more powerful than a Delorean time machine from the movie Back to The Future.

Think big with an idea

“If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big!”

That’s what Genius said to me in a message. He’s not afraid to dream big with a story, the way Martin Luther King did with his famous “I have a dream” speech. Don’t make your story small to please people or stop yourself stepping on a comment masquerading as a landmine.

It’s okay to leave out the intro

Genius often cuts straight to the body of the story. Many intros are lackluster and repeat the same information a reader can get from the headline and subtitle. Genius assumes you’re not in grade one anymore and allows you to get straight to the first act.

An intro can provide context to a story. But no context can be a beautiful thing.

Dare to leave out the intro.

Bring your hometown voice to your writing

You can hear Genius’ culture in his writing. I try to do the same with the desert surrounded by kangaroos that I come from. Places on earth help people relate to your story. Let the place you’re from shine through your writing.

A blogger is same-same. A blogger from Antarctica is, well, different.

Intrigue the reader

Genius intrigues you. There is no other writer like him. You can’t copy his exact style unless your consciousness was injected into his brain and got to live his life.

You never know what is next. You never know what dark alley he is going to take you down. You have no idea what he’s going to teach you. His headlines intrigue you but they don’t tell you what you’ll takeaway. The takeaways from his work are unexpected.

Light up a reader’s curiosity with your writing. Dare to be unconventional.

Key Insights

• Take readers through different scenes like a play.
• Tap into all periods of history.
• Experiment with publishing less stories when demand rises.
• Leave the reader feeling better than you found them.
• Insert real-world conversations into your writing. Record conversations with your phone if you’re afraid you’ll forget them.
• Think big with a writing idea.
• Speak like you talk in your hometown.
• Try leaving out the foreplay of an intro.

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