Page 117 - Hypnotic Writing - How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words

HYPNOTIC WRITING
Mark Twain and Steve Allen got. By imitating great writing, you learn how to create great writing. It gives you something close to the same feelings the author probably had when he wrote the story. That’s powerful.
You can imitate anyone in order to learn new skills. I’ve taught harmonica players to imitate great players by slowing down the recordings and copying each note they hear. And when I was 16 and wanted to be a writer, I imitated Jack London and William Saroyan until I understood how they wrote their masterpieces.
Reading and copying great writing is comparable to what an athlete does when he watches videos of other athletes. A skier watches expert skiers handle tough slopes; tennis players watch films of tennis champions; swimmers watch videos of legendary swimmers. All of these people are training their minds (and bod- ies) to record the pattern for creating success.
Writers can’t watch videos of other writers and pick up what the authors are doing because writing is largely an internal experience. But if you pick up a piece of writing, something created by a mas- ter writer, and copy it, word for word, you begin to internalize the subtle intricacies used to create that writing.
Imitation isn’t stealing (unless you try to sell the imitation). It’s learning.
What I want you to do now is train your mind to create Hyp- notic Writing. How? First, you have to find some Hypnotic Writ- ing. Look around your room. What are the articles, letters, or books that have stuck with you over the years? What have you read recently that you could not forget? You might have read a novel, a short story, a letter, a direct mail advertisement, and even a memo. Collect examples of writing that you regard as hypnotic. Since this is a subjective judgment, there aren’t any wrong examples. Just gather examples of writing that you think is excellent.
Now select something from your pile of examples. Anything. Now write out the example. That is to say, take out a pad of paper and a pen and actually copy, word for word, the example in front of you. Simply reproduce it in your own handwriting.
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