This Simple Trick Will Jumpstart Your Writing Career

And other lies we tell you so you pay our bills

I am deeply annoyed.

Every second or third article begins with the same promises of giving you any tangible value in its title. A life lesson that will turn your life upside down. A magical formula that will make you the next Elon Musk or H.R.R. Tolkien. Someone who lost XX pounds of weight in 4 weeks with one simple mindset change. Someone who just sold his company for half a million dollars with a management trick he learned.

It’s always the same story. And guess what? You and I are still reading them. Why? Shouldn’t the first story we read already have us catapulted forward in our career? We should be swimming in green by now and have our dream body.

But we don’t. We still go in circles.

And some of these stories amass an incredible amount of views and reads. Their authors have huge followership too. People buy into it. Every single time. It’s the same authors, selling the same ideas, with different titles and new bullet points to read.

My problem with it is not the scheme. Clickbaity titles are rather easy to expose. So some of those people make sure that their article can’t be interpreted as clickbaity. The problem is the content itself.

There is another detail that most people seem to look over when they indulge in one such article and are emotionally overwhelmed by the promises made. They feel like they just received a huge insight and may be able to benefit from this free lesson. So they choose not to ask the one important question:

“Where is your proof of concept?”

Without proof, a claim is worthless

Anyone can tell you that they just lost 20 pounds in 4 weeks, or that they just ranked in the top 100 startup companies or whatever excessive achievement they got. But they need to show you solid proof of concept. Otherwise, chances are that it’s been nothing but lies fed to you.

An easy way to hide the fact that I am missing proof of concept is to abuse scientific data and numbers. If I were to tell you about my (imaginary) super diet, I could do some research about the benefits of Broccoli for example. Maybe talk in-depth about the chemical processes that are involved, make your head spin with medical terms and statistics.

Do I show you pictures of myself before and after my diet? No? Why not? I should be able to show first hand that my approach worked, right?

I could blame it on my shyness. Maybe I’m an introvert and still hate my body. Enough reason to hide it, right?

Well, then I shouldn’t be writing an article about my super diet if I’m not able to stand in for it as proof to my claims.

Most diet talk without such proof of concept is just parroting articles that have existed elsewhere for years. Or generic advice like “eat healthily, but eat as you want.” (which stems from the common misconception that not limiting your eating can hinder your diet — in reality, as long as you monitor your intake, you could lose weight with Doritos and Mountain Dew)

The guy who explained to you how you can create a company that will become worth half a million dollars in one year, has he ever given you the name of his company? Were you ever able to verify its existence with his name on it? No? I would be skeptical.

The bottom line is, if someone offers you a way of winning, they need to show you their trophy. Most people don’t have any real trophies. Their trophy is you clicking on and reading their article. Because that brings in revenue. That’s what pays their bills.

People who are successful in their field rarely want to expand into a different avenue

A successful author, for example, is so busy working on their next book, that they feel opening up a Patreon page for donations or starting regular courses on Udemy is a waste of time.

Why would they try to actively market themselves to you on Youtube and co to sell a “how to write a bestseller” course? Wouldn’t it bring in more money to actually write another bestseller?

They got all the skills to write a compelling story. It’s their passion. They know their stuff. And when their publisher throws it out into the market, it’s raining money again. Or they could spend their weeks getting familiar with video editing, working on a script, setting up a course, maybe creating hours of learning material, collecting quotes from other famous authors and try and sell you the package for 100 bucks on Udemy.

If I were Stephen King, I’d never go down that road. And he doesn’t either.

He does give some advice on events. For free. He’s not trying to sell you his Patreon page. He’s not even trying to sell you his books. He knows you already bought them. They are his proof of concept. You wouldn’t be here if they weren’t good.

So if someone is eager to tell you about their Patreon, or their website with a newsletter, or their in-depth courses on Udemy, or their premium membership program for an exclusive circle of success, be skeptical.

Ask yourself, who’s really benefiting from it?

Those who want to sell you all this stuff while talking about your future success are often those who never tasted this success they preach. But if you buy their stuff and their merchandise and all that crap, you are giving them the success they want. Your money.

They don’t have a million-dollar company. They don’t have a secret way to buy stocks for 50% off. (And if they did, sharing this info would be a mistake)

But they need reads. They need views and exposure. Because they get paid for every person that comes and visits their page.

Half the time we don’t even learn anything new

The “tips” and “secrets” they share with you are either so vague that you can interpret them in any way you like (and we tend to be biased to look for the answer we want to hear), or it’s something someone else said last month using different words (maybe even the same author — seriously, look closely)

I avoid most of these articles by now. Especially if it promises any “hidden insight” into an industry that of course, many people try to get into.

Sometimes I click and skim through the article or video as quickly as possible, trying to find a proof of concept. Something that tells me the author is genuinely speaking the truth. Most of the time, I remain disappointed. At least I don’t promote their behavior by giving them valuable reading time or even likes and upvotes.

If an author has a bio that instead of telling about the human behind it starts with “I’m helping you doing X” or “I show you how you can achieve Y”, then that’s already the end of the line. The whole account exists only to sell us their truth. Not my cup of tea.

If someone, for example, has the title “Life coach” in his bio, that’s genuine. They can professionally work as such and probably have a good portfolio too. But “I’m helping you to become XY” sounds like a cheap sales pitch.

The bio should be about who you are, not what you want to promise me. I hate these cheap CTAs (call to action)

Exceptions prove the rule

Of course, not all people who use these questionable titles full of promises and “insights” are liars. I found a few who have genuine advice based on real first-hand-experience. I was able to search for their claims on Google and find compelling evidence that they speak the truth.

Ironically, those people, who in my opinion deserve support for their authenticity, have no huge followership. But those who sell the same stories again and again just to accumulate your reading time and views on their videos and all that, they tend to have thousands of people following them.

So I take the name of one of those “famous entrepreneurs” for example and put it into Google to see what comes up. And the results are in most cases links to other articles and videos on the same platforms, selling more advice. A Patreon maybe. A Udemy course page. So there’s tons of additional material to sell the same idea. But not a single link that reports on the person being successful with their idea, apart from selling it.

So to break away from these people for a moment, I’d like to mention someone who I found to be genuine.

Disclaimer: I’m not in any way affiliated with her, we don’t know each other apart from a small conversation on her article and she’s not writing with any of the publications I’m an editor of, either.

Though Elena, if you read this, you are invited to write for Illumination too, if you want :)

Elena Canty, (sorry for tagging you out of the blue) and her article

I stumbled upon her article, yesterday I think, and of course, was skeptical. I can’t even tell you why I clicked on it. Maybe I was curious about how you can use 3 words to jumpstart your creative writing engine from a stall.

I read the article and noticed that there was no link to the story she used as a foundation for this article. Seeing how many people use the same “no proof of concept” approach to beat around the bushes, I searched for her name. And I quickly was proven wrong in my skepticism. Her name is out there, having been part of writing competitions and won. Not just once by the way.

It was refreshing to see someone who’s not riding the same old train, but someone genuine about sharing their way of handling things in the real world. I found her writing too and found it great. Though I won’t share it here unless she wants me to.

She is the type of person we all should support by reading. Someone who doesn’t speak just to sell an idea. Someone who genuinely uses writing as an outlet.

Well Elena, I do wish you all the best for your ongoing writing career. :)

The bottom line is: Be skeptical

By supporting the wrong people, we keep this system of misinformation, false promises, and unproven facts alive. We help those people to reach the top undeservedly and keep them there.

If I ever promise you anything I can’t prove to keep, I’d rather have you all stop reading my articles altogether.

So if someone tells you about their incredible personal success, let them show you something tangible. Words are just words.

Would you let a cop into your house who refuses to show you his badge?

Then why do you let people into your head who refuse to show their success?

Be skeptical.