“ I CUT A LADY OFF ON KATELLA. You have to be brutal in Disneyland traffic. I’m not some goofy, dumbo out-of-towner looking to spend the day with Goofy and Dumbo, I came to the Disneyland hotel on business!
a sentence that i like from an article i wrote last year.
i’m going on this press trip to ski in utah today and i’m reading through old pieces to figure out which things i do as a writer that are already good, and how i can do more of them in newer long form pieces.
the list includes:
- be efficient
- use more puns
- reveal philosophy
- write more formally
- showcase personality
- document exuberance
- write for your writer not your editor
- pay attention to detail, but zoom too
- be more comfortable offending people
- try to answer a question, and then ask a dozen more
- note the ubiquity of technology, and its shortcomings
- if you come up with a premise for a joke, fully complete it
- talk about crazy people as if what they’re doing is mundane
- notice underprivileged people , talk about your own privilege
- put a mirror to tourism, but don’t overdue this it becomes boring
- admit when you’re being a ratfink (the above pulled quote is an example)
- make yourself feel like you’re writing schmaltzy, because it probably isn’t and readers might enjoy it as “heartfelt”
- include an ‘®’ when I write out brand names that insist on being registered trademarks, to reveal them as scumbags. #Cinnabon®
- help people escape, not as escapism, but through helping empower them to do exactly what they want to do… ”There is no alternative to the life you want to live.”
