What Makes Tim Denning’s Articles so Addicting?

We pay good money to see people struck by lightning

I’m inspired by people who live meaningful lives, who grab life by the horns, ride it hard, and refuse to accept there are limits to what they can achieve. Tim Denning does this with his writing, publishing upwards of 10 articles per week, and frequently creating viral hits.

Tim’s a swell guy, I love his articles. I can’t get enough of them, and I wanted to figure out what makes Tim so addicting to read. How does Tim create such engaging art? What’s his magic for building an audience?

This is what I found — and the answers are especially relevant if you want to create art that finds a following.

Who is Tim Denning?

If you’re reading this, you likely know who Tim is. But if this your first encounter with Tim, or you need a refresh, Tim Denning is an Australian guy who:

• Has survived a cancer scare
• Works in finance
• Has failed a bunch of times, faced massive lows, and turned his life around
• Writes and publishes an astonishing amount of words each week
• Wants to inspire you to live your best life
• Has over 100k followers and more than 100 million views of his content
• Lives a simple life. He says “I write and I go to work. That’s it.”

He’s an ordinary and extraordinary fellow who loves to create articles that inspire his readers.

What makes Tim’s Writing so compelling?

Tim plans on being the most read writer on the internet, so he can help as many people as possible. For most writers, that would be an impossible goal. But, truthfully, Tim’s not far off, and a key reason for that is because his content is so compelling to read.

There are specific strategies Tim follows that make him such an engaging writer — and no, it’s not just good subheadings.

Tim’s writing is compelling due to:

• How he writes — his writing process, which directly contributes to his style
• What he writes — the content of his articles, which is typically raw, vulnerable, and relevant to you as the reader
• How much he writes — and the extent to which he’s published

How Tim writes — process and style

Tim fires lightning at you through his fingertips

Tim writes in intense bursts on Thursdays and Saturdays. On those two days each week, he ignores his email and phone, and lets his colleagues, friends and family know that he’s not available.

Given that he publishes 10 articles per week, that’s five articles on each writing day. Tim writes for 11 hours each day, so that works out as an article around every 120 minutes. You’d think to achieve that would be hard work, but Tim says not:

I don’t work hard. I chase flow states.

Flow was first decoded by the Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who described flow as:

“…being so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

By getting into flow, Tim is able to write quickly and to an excellent standard.

For writers and creatives, flow is like getting struck by lightning. To get into a flow state is to access your muse on demand. This allows Tim to write extremely fast, as though he can conduct the lightning of creativity

Ray Bradbury is another writer who created stories at a break-neck pace. He has this to say about fast writing:

In quickness is truth. The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. In hesitation is thought. In delay comes the effort for a style, instead of leaping upon truth which is the only style worth deadfalling or tiger-trapping.

Bradbury’s view was that fast writing is more engaging. When you write in a blaze, this comes across in how you write, and pulls in your readers. That sense of “leaping upon the truth” is part of what makes Tim Denning’s writing so exciting to read.

It’s like you’re watching Michael Jordan shooting hoops

Being in flow as he writes, Tim is in good company. Elite sportspeople are usually in a state of flow when they’re out on the field. Chess grandmasters are in flow when they’re playing at the top of their game. Most actors on screen are in flow. Musicians on stage are usually in a state of flow.

Watching others in a state of flow is highly attractive. Entrepreneur Salim Ismail has said:

“When we watch a live concert or a traditional sports event we’re essentially paying to watch people in a flow state… We pay to watch, read or be in the presence of a flow experience.”

Seeing people in a state of flow is so compelling, we’re willing to pay for it — and Ismail estimates this is to the tune of billions of dollars every year.

Reading Tim Denning is to watch him in the state of flow. His writing feels effortless to read. It’s intriguing to follow him through his mind as he chases down ideas and explores his own thinking in his articles.

You get to see inside his brain; it's raw and real in there. It’s also a rollercoaster ride. Much of what Tim writes takes a surprising turn, so as a reader you’re caught off-balance, which again pulls you forward through his articles.

He writes like his readers are in Grade 5

Tim writes in a simple, no-nonsense style. He never forces his readers to pause or read a paragraph for a second time. He does the heavy-lifting for you as a reader — he understands what he wants to say, which means he can convey it in a way that makes immediate sense.

I ran a few of Tim’s articles through a Flesch–Kincaid readability test, and all of them had a reading level between grades five and seven. That’s the sweet spot for writing that’s engaging without seeming like it’s dumbed down. To check your own writing for readability, I recommend the Hemingway Editor.

What Tim writes — the content of his writing

He disarms readers with raw honesty

As stated in the Ray Bradbury quote I shared above, fast writing leads to truth-telling. Tim is someone who writes from the heart and pours out everything he’s got into his keyboard.

Tim is not shy about bleeding on the page, and sharing what he learned from some of his most difficult experiences, from surviving a cancer scare, to living for 26 years with an eating disorder, to the breakdown of his relationship with his brother. He digs to emotionally raw places and is willing to allow himself to cry as he writes. This vulnerability forges an emotional bond with you as a reader — you’re invested in Tim’s life story.

Brené Brown says:

Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.

By being vulnerable in his writing, Tim creates a connection with his readers and supports them in living more meaningful lives. He credits his vulnerability as the reason he’s reached millions of people with his words.

He’s seen how dark life can be

Tim once focused his life on climbing the corporate ladder and making a million dollars. He says he lived the most selfish existence you could imagine. Then his life took a turn, and he started volunteering in a homeless shelter, serving soup and listening to peoples’ stories. He met people who slept under bridges, people whose entire possessions were kept in a shopping trolley, people whose partners beat them up.

As a result, he’s got a much broader perspective than “get rich to be happy”. Living a rich life, for Tim, is no longer about stashing away millions in a bank account. It’s about knowing how dark life can be, ignoring the noise, and living with confidence and conviction. That’s what Tim shares with his readers.

Having been into dark places, Tim writes with hope for the future, and high regard for other people and their journeys.

He tells real stories from his life — and shows how they apply to his readers

Ask Tim where to start with his writing, and he’ll point you to articles with titles like:

• 14 Ways I Completely Changed My Life And So Can You
• How I Became Obsessed With Personal Development And So Can You
• 13 Ways I Completely Changed My Life in a Year and So Can You

These headlines exemplify Tim’s approach to writing. In almost everything he writes, he shares his experience, what he learned, and then he shows how it’s relevant to you as a reader.

Browse the subheadings of any Tim Denning article, and you’ll see the word “you” again and again. While he shares from his own experience, Tim’s writing never loses sight of his audience, and how what he writes applies to them. As Dale Carnegie famously said:

“Talk to someone about themselves and they’ll listen for hours.”

No wonder millions of readers spend hours reading Tim’s articles.

How much Tim writes

He leverages the rule of seven

In marketing, the rule of seven states that your customer will need to come across your brand seven times before they’re ready to buy from you. Recognition builds familiarity, and familiarity builds trust.

By writing so much, Tim ensures that his words are everywhere. As a reader you’re likely to encounter his articles over and over again, so you’ll quickly hit seven reads of his content. This, combined with the engaging way Tim writes, means that casual readers quickly convert into subscribers.

He aims to hit the jackpot — and misses 90% of the time

Tim has found that only one in ten of his articles make a splash, the rest end up in relative obscurity.

By writing and publishing so much content, Tim gives himself more chances to resonate with his readers and go viral. As a result, he’s got more top-level content for you to read, so if you come across one of his articles, you’ll almost certainly get a “wow!” feeling from it. That’s because the articles you see are ones that have already resonated with thousands of readers, so they’re likely to resonate with you too.

Tim Denning catches lightning in a bottle

Reading Tim’s writing, it can feel like he’s discovered the secret of catching lightning in a bottle. Reading Tim, I’m inspired to put the same level of energy and spark in my own art.

Here’s the good news: the source of this lightning is available to anyone — including you — because the source of the lightning is your own life. By following Tim’s techniques for creating, you can learn to conduct that lightning and create an incredible display.

Reflecting on his success as a writer Tim shares:

It turns out there is a market for everything — including failures, deadbeats, or misfits who have been left behind by society.

In other words, whoever you are, whatever your life experience, you’ve got a story to share. Go share it — that’s your lightning in a bottle.