Page 48 - WritingMadlyV3

Three Hundred Li]le Words
When I got home, I thought about that article I’d
just agreed to write about making people like you. I
knew I had to focus on just one aspect, so I chose
eye contact.
“Warmth, words and trust” were the three words
that popped into my mind. So I wrote for ten min-
utes. I wrote about how eyes can project warmth or
hostility or cruelty, how your words go where your
eyes go and how eye contact sends an unconscious
signal that trust is in the air. I had also put down a
few incomplete thoughts that I went back to and
finished off. Then I tidied it all up, rearranged a
couple of things and dropped it off at the newspa-
per office.
The next week, the editor asked me for another
piece. So I wrote three hundred words about per-
sonal space. This time, my instant three words were:
social, personal and private.
Those two three-hundred-word articles became
the basis for two chapters in my first book. And two
chapters are enough to show a publisher whether or
not you can write. All I had to do next was come up
with eight more.
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