The Power of Example

Welcome to Write and Grow with Anna, a newsletter for writers and self-publishers: “friendly advice away from the hoopla.” In the first series of letters, I’m covering a wide variety of topics to get us started. After a few weeks, we’ll settle into a rhythm of deeper learning. Please “take what you need and leave the rest” and feel free to respond to the questions at the end of each newsletter.

Today’s letter is about how we can use examples to deepen our learning.

Hearing advice is great, but an example is like the old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Ideas become clearer when we see them in action.

Sometimes I buy books just to see how the author made the book even if the subject of the book is not especially appealing. A while back, I was watching a self-published writer (Natalia Leigh) on YouTube. She taught me how to format a book in MS Word in about 25 minutes, and I diligently worked along, pausing the video and toggling over to my Word document to do everything she said. In the end, I had a nicely formatted book and a heart full of gratitude.

“I wonder what that book she keeps mentioning looks like in real life,” I thought. I also thought I owed her at least some little thing for being such a nice teacher, so I ordered her book, Pistol Daisy. (You can click to see its Amazon page.)

It was beautiful. The cover was gorgeous and the interior had not only clear font and margins but even shading and illustrations. I wondered how I could ever make something so pretty.

But when I read the story, what I noticed gave me confidence. Something inside me said, “Hm. I’m pretty sure I could write at least as well as this. If this is the standard, I can definitely meet it.”

All in all, buying that book was a good investment in my learning.

As a writer, I’m sure you’ve heard that you should read a lot. Other people’s writing can be a good example.

Once, I was struck by a line in one of Stephen King’s books, where he spoke so colloquially with this reader that he started a sentence with “Hell, I…” I don’t remember exactly what followed, but it was something like, “I couldn’t believe what she said. Hell, I wasn’t even sure she believed it herself.”

Guess who was writing “Hell, I…” in all her stories for the next year and a half?!

When you signed on to Write and Grow, you came here to get insights about your writing life – maybe writing itself, maybe building a routine or getting a novel or essay done, maybe self-publishing and promoting a book, or maybe growing your Substack. Whatever your priority is at the moment, EXAMPLE is a powerful learning tool.

Examples can be people you follow, publications you look at, or books you read, anything which puts into practice the thing you want to learn about. I encourage you to pick 1-3 examples and observe them for at least two weeks.

Because example is so powerful, I have been very intentional in setting up this Substack for learning.

For example, I want you to learn with me as I explore writing life, so I didn’t wait and launch it until everything was perfect, all the “paint had dried,” so to speak. For instance, I’m going to add a textmark – wait, I just Googled the word again and had remembered it wrong – a wordmark. That, in case you’re learning along with me, is the special font at the top of a Substack newsletter, or more broadly, a text-based logo.

Those are fancy wordmarks which I’m sure you recognize. I want one desperately! (Why? Because other newsletters have them, and I tend to be envious.) I made one last week and was SO excited — but the picture was too small, darn it. Going to try again and share what I learned.

In other ways, too, I am very intentional in how I present Write and Grow. Here are some features you might note:

• conversational tone, nothing too fancy

• short, clear titles

• similar pictures at the top of each letter

• orange, brown, and green colors

• orange and brown logo

• paid subscriptions, but not pay-to-read

• encouragement to click on a link

• invitation to buy something you value

• invitation to my newsletter The Heart Connection

• information which lifts up other writers

These features are intentional and part of the learning I hope to provide here so you can benefit from these techniques, too! As we learn together, I will address WHY I made those choices.

Next time, I’ll tell you about the power of emotion in both writing and promoting a project. For today, I hope you’ll consider finding examples that move you in the direction you want to go.

Warmly, Anna

Today’s Questions

1. What are you focused on learning about right now, today, in your writing life?

2. Have you found any examples to help you learn more?