GordonJ
October 28, 2022, 10:21 AM
At 1 P.M. Travis was on the beach, just south of the Santa Monica pier. He had a white tee shirt, flip flops, khaki shorts and some blood stains on his legs.
His early morning meeting with well known Internet Marketing guru, Dan Kernal, an expert in NLP, hypnosis, and bull ****e, went as planned. Travis wanted his 15,000 dollars back, after all, Dan did not do what he said he would, in fact, Dan took the money and went to Acapulco to party and sniff cocaine he bought with Travis' money.
Anyhow, to the point. YES, but not only fiction, even very difficult reading, such as some physics books, and I like to read children's books. How does a reader progress from Charlotte's Web to The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to
Harry Potter as young adult readers...
Into the mystery, murder, mayhem pulp and the literary classics?
What we learn from our reading, is IF, we are paying attention or just reading for pleasure. I like Stephanie Plum, a Janet Evanovich character, in her several dozen best sellers. I can read her longest book in about 15 minutes.
About once a year, I revisit a few classics...THE RED PONY, by John Steinbeck, which was first published as a serial in magazines. A short novella, and Steinbeck was a must read for me, and all things Hemingway too.
Any written thing that ENGAGES your brain, gets and HOLDS attention, is a good source of human behavior.
Gordon
P.S. I don't do well with Stephen King, Dan Brown and Tom Clancy, best sellers all...but I struggle getting through them, they DO NOT hold my attention, too much detail bogs me down.
ALSO. I get a lot of good from both poetry and SONG LYRICS. Read Desolation Row by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and many of the stars of Pop music too.
Here's what I know!
Gary Halbert has recommended reading John D. MacDonald - who is the author of the Travis McGee series of books...
According to his protege, the late Scott Haines, reading the Travis McGee books made him a better storyteller!
Another very successful marketer (who I won't name) has recommended reading Hunter S. Thompson! (He did this in a personal email he sent to me.)
The reason why? You can learn from his turn of phrase - to get the words you use to capture attention, and also to delight the reader...
So, I think the answer is... "yes!" Reading fiction - and well-written nonfiction - can make you more persuasive.
The first rule in the well-known "formula" for persuasion is to get "attention"...
You can't persuade people if you don't first have their attention!
Getting attention is also the first rule in being a successful fiction writer... If you don't get the reader's attention, they'll put down the book, and may never come back!
Another marketer who I know is a fan of Dean Koontz... Here's one of Dean Koontz's opening paragraphs, from "Watchers"...
"On his thirty-sixth birthday, May 18, Travis Cornell rose at five o'clock in the morning. He dressed in sturdy hiking boots, jeans, and a long-sleeved, blue-plaid cotton shirt. He drove his pickup south from his home in Santa Barbara all the way to rural Santiago Canyon on the eastern edge of Orange County, south of Los Angeles. He took only a package of Oreo cookies, and a large canteen full of orange-flavored Kool-Aid, and a fully loaded Smith & Wesson .38 Chief's Special."
Already it makes you wonder... Why is he bringing a gun? What is he planning to do?
Gets you invested in the story!
Best wishes,
Dien
His early morning meeting with well known Internet Marketing guru, Dan Kernal, an expert in NLP, hypnosis, and bull ****e, went as planned. Travis wanted his 15,000 dollars back, after all, Dan did not do what he said he would, in fact, Dan took the money and went to Acapulco to party and sniff cocaine he bought with Travis' money.
Anyhow, to the point. YES, but not only fiction, even very difficult reading, such as some physics books, and I like to read children's books. How does a reader progress from Charlotte's Web to The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe to
Harry Potter as young adult readers...
Into the mystery, murder, mayhem pulp and the literary classics?
What we learn from our reading, is IF, we are paying attention or just reading for pleasure. I like Stephanie Plum, a Janet Evanovich character, in her several dozen best sellers. I can read her longest book in about 15 minutes.
About once a year, I revisit a few classics...THE RED PONY, by John Steinbeck, which was first published as a serial in magazines. A short novella, and Steinbeck was a must read for me, and all things Hemingway too.
Any written thing that ENGAGES your brain, gets and HOLDS attention, is a good source of human behavior.
Gordon
P.S. I don't do well with Stephen King, Dan Brown and Tom Clancy, best sellers all...but I struggle getting through them, they DO NOT hold my attention, too much detail bogs me down.
ALSO. I get a lot of good from both poetry and SONG LYRICS. Read Desolation Row by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and many of the stars of Pop music too.
Here's what I know!
Gary Halbert has recommended reading John D. MacDonald - who is the author of the Travis McGee series of books...
According to his protege, the late Scott Haines, reading the Travis McGee books made him a better storyteller!
Another very successful marketer (who I won't name) has recommended reading Hunter S. Thompson! (He did this in a personal email he sent to me.)
The reason why? You can learn from his turn of phrase - to get the words you use to capture attention, and also to delight the reader...
So, I think the answer is... "yes!" Reading fiction - and well-written nonfiction - can make you more persuasive.
The first rule in the well-known "formula" for persuasion is to get "attention"...
You can't persuade people if you don't first have their attention!
Getting attention is also the first rule in being a successful fiction writer... If you don't get the reader's attention, they'll put down the book, and may never come back!
Another marketer who I know is a fan of Dean Koontz... Here's one of Dean Koontz's opening paragraphs, from "Watchers"...
"On his thirty-sixth birthday, May 18, Travis Cornell rose at five o'clock in the morning. He dressed in sturdy hiking boots, jeans, and a long-sleeved, blue-plaid cotton shirt. He drove his pickup south from his home in Santa Barbara all the way to rural Santiago Canyon on the eastern edge of Orange County, south of Los Angeles. He took only a package of Oreo cookies, and a large canteen full of orange-flavored Kool-Aid, and a fully loaded Smith & Wesson .38 Chief's Special."
Already it makes you wonder... Why is he bringing a gun? What is he planning to do?
Gets you invested in the story!
Best wishes,
Dien
