Sean D’Souza’s latest ‘PsychoTactics’ article is titled “How John Forde (and Sean D’Souza) Got Me To Write Articles”. [PsychoTactics Article]

Sean D’Souza’s latest ‘PsychoTactics’ article:

How John Forde (and Sean D’Souza) Got Me To Write Articles

Before I start, let me make one thing clear. John Forde is a copywriter who lives in Paris. And a good friend with a great newsletter.

And me, I’m Sean D’Souza. Which of course makes it really weird when I say I used myself for inspiration. It sounds a lot more than weird, actually. It sounds egocentric. Let me assure it’s got nothing to do with ego.

===================================================
And everything to do with desperation
===================================================
You see when I started writing articles for my website back in about 2001, I was at best a cartoonist. If you asked me to draw something, you had a bouncy volunteer right besides you.

But when you asked me to write, the bounciness would sure fade way pretty rapidly. You see not only did I consider myself an average writer, but I had enough reason to be afraid of writing.

And the reason I was afraid was because of girl named Clare.

===================================================
I remember writing an article way back in the year 1990-91
===================================================
I wanted to be a copywriter and in one of my diverse moods I decided to “make some money” writing for the newspapers as well. So I met up with this guy called CY Gopinath, who ran this writing agency. Well CY gave me an assignment, and I wrote about it.

And Clare, who worked with him, edited my assignment. And when Clare was done I couldn’t recognise the darned thing at all. There was so much edited; so much added; so much removed that it seemed to me
not my work at all. Today I can’t even remember the subject of the article.

===================================================
But I remember the memory of frustration
===================================================
I remember that I didn’t want to be a writer. Well who cares about writing articles anyway? I could be a cartoonist instead. I could write ad copy. Clare wouldn’t be around to edit my stuff.

And who died and made Clare queen anyway? And there I was, ten years into the future, and Clare was still bothering me.

===================================================
In fact most months, article writing was a drudgery
===================================================
I wrote articles because I was forced to do so. I knew I was supposed to update my website. I knew that one of our alliances, Allen Weiss (from MarketingProfs) would be asking me whether I’d completed my article.

Somehow I had to banish Clare from my head and take away the fear of writing.

===================================================
Article writing was intense drudgery
===================================================
I hated every bit of article writing. I hated the start, the middle, and I couldn’t be sure of the end. If I completed an article in one working day, I’d be ecstatic. Most days it would take me two days.

Two whole days and I couldn’t honestly tell you if the article wouldn’t end up in this article graveyard. Thankfully it was only two days in the whole month (Yup, I’d write once a month).

===================================================
And then I decided to get inspiration from my own articles
===================================================
I started looking back at the ones I’d completed, and felt this immense sense of satisfaction. Even inspiration. And so before writing, I’d look at my previous headlines. I’d read my own articles.

And feel a sense of accomplishment. That put in a little juice in my reserve tank. That propelled me off the starting point. And I coughed and sputtered, but at least I was writing a new article. It didn’t make things any better. I was still a foul person to be around on article writing days. So I had to search for inspiration.

===================================================
And inspiration came in the form of a guy named John Forde
===================================================
I loved the way John wrote. His writing was always so effortless. He seemed to be having so much fun. And he knew his topic (unlike me who mostly knew about cartooning).

And so I’d read many of John’s article. At one point, after getting to know him, I even asked him for an archive of sorts. Just so I could read and be inspired.

===================================================
John’s writing and mine: They both nudged me on
===================================================
And while I got a lot better over the years, there was a moment in time when I got radically better. That moment was when I promised my members that I would write 5 articles a week.

No one paid attention of course, but I had promised 5000bc members that they’d get this wealth of information week after week. And there I was trapped–in a way. I had to write those articles. If you thought
writing one is hard, five must be pure agony.

===================================================
Actually I found quite the opposite
===================================================
The moment I started writing five-six articles a week, something changed rapidly. Not all at once, of course, but in a few months I found that I could literally sit down at my computer and turn out five articles in the course of the day.

Fast forward to the year 2008, and I could write five articles in about 3 hours or fewer. In March 2010, I surprised myself.

===================================================
I wrote 350 pages of content in four weeks.
===================================================
Three whole books: One on “Chaos Planning”, one on “The Secret Life of Testimonials”, and one on “Black Belt Presentations: Part 1”. And this is while tending to forum posts on 5000bc.com and answering email and creating new websites, blogs, and doing at least two dozen projects at the same time.

And when you see all of this from the outside, it’s easy to think: This Sean is a genius. Or a mad man.

===================================================
I don’t see the same Sean as you do
===================================================
I see the Sean who struggled with Clare’s edit (she was only doing her job well). I see the plod, the drudgery of writing articles for MarketingProfs in the early days (I wrote almost 50 articles for them).

I see the fear in my eyes when I promised to write five articles a week in a moment of madness. And I know that anyone can do it.

===================================================
Anyone
===================================================
I don’t care who you are.
I don’t care what your education.
I don’t care if you can even read–or write.

The best part is that you don’t need to slave for almost ten years like I did. Or if you go back in time to Clare, twenty years. You can do it in three-six months. It’s still going to be a slog, but you can do it.

And then there are going to be times when you’re super frustrated. And the only inspiration you have is yourself. Or someone like John Forde. And if you persist, something magical will happen. You’ll get enormously better at writing.

And you’ll be an inspiration to others.

Imagine that!

Sean D’Souza

©Psychotactics Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wouldn’t you love to stumble upon a secret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas, on copywriting, public speaking, marketing strategies, sales conversion, psychological tactics and branding. Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com/ today and judge for yourself. Psychotactics Subscription Page.

*IMNewswatch would like to thank Sean D’Souza and Psychotactics for granting permission to reprint this latest article.

Sharing is caring