How to Write a Book Like Ryan Holiday

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Ryan Holiday is one of the world's most productive writers. He's published 16 books, hundreds of articles, grown a 700,000+ person newsletter, a 1.6 million subscriber KZbin channel, and built one heck of a business too. How does he do it all? 1) Don't lose momentum: When you get stuck, don't stop writing. Just move on to something else. 2) Marketing is not somebody else's job. It's yours. 3) When you're new to writing, focus on volume. Ryan published 44 blog posts in 2007 and 2008 when he was first honing his skills. 4) Ruin the ending: When you start a non-fiction history book, go straight to Wikipedia and spoil the ending for yourself. Why? It'll help you understand the book better if you're reading for understanding, not entertainment. 5) Find your next book in the bibliographies of your favorite books. This is how you build a knowledge base. This is how you trace a subject back to its core 6) Read hard books: Treat your brain as a muscle that only grows under tension and weight. 7) Before you start the writing process for a book, distill the core idea into one sentence, one paragraph, and one page. 8) Find your "chorus line," the recurring theme that you want to weave through your writing. For Chuck Palahniuk, when he was writing Fight Club, whenever the plot got off track, he came back to: “I am Jack’s sense of rejection.” 9) Always be reading, always be researching, always be collecting stories: Ryan now has somewhere between 10,000 note cards worth of insightful anecdotes from all the reading he's done. 10) Make your note-taking process laborious. Writing notes down by hand is time-consuming, but it forces Ryan to digest the ideas from every book he reads. 11) Whenever a reader tells you that something is wrong, they're right. Something isn't working for them. But does this mean they know how to fix it? Nope. That's your job.

[@mariavalente6304]

Where did you record this?

[@DavidPerellChannel]

@@mariavalente6304 His bookstore in Bastrop

[@kenneth1767]

I swim every morning and write morning pages, and these two disciplines are pushing me forward to get my stories written. Now I'll be interested learn how Ryan Holiday tackles it...

[@DavidPerellChannel]

You swim, he runs

[@cosmobiologist]

One of the best podcast episodes I've listened to in a long time. This conversation inspired me, especially given some things going on in my speaking career right now.

[@ICONS-podcast]

I literally just did an episode of the podcast on Ryan Holiday's 'Canvas Strategy' which seemed to be a big part of how he learned how to 'build' an entire book from start to finish - learning of course, from his mentor, Robert Greene. You added a lot of the color I was unaware of around that here David! Thank you for sharing!

[@jdcampolargo]

_Perennial Seller_ is one of Ryan's most underrated books!

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Haven't read it! I'll pick it up. What resonated about it?

[@jdcampolargo]

Perennial Seller - It's a marketing book that is not about marketing, meaning it's all about what it takes to build great work (as well as how). What resonated with me the most is the desire to build work that becomes a Perennial Seller. - Perennial Seller? Yes. In the book, he gives you constant questions and exercises to go through as you work on your project - Questions PART 1: So the creator of any project should try to answer some variant of these questions: What does this teach? What does this solve? How am I entertaining? What am I giving? What are we offering? What are we sharing? In short: What are these people going to be paying for? If you don’t know-if the answer isn’t overwhelming-then keep thinking. - Questions PART 2: “The higher and more exciting standard for every project should force you to ask questions like this: What sacred cows am I slaying? What dominant institution am I displacing? What groups am I disrupting? What people am I pissing off? ” - Questions PART 3: “One sentence. One paragraph. One page. This is a ______ that does ______. This helps people ______. Fill in this template at the three varying lengths. It’s best to do this exercise in the third person, creating a bit of artificial distance from the project so you can’t fall back on, “Well, I think that . . .” Deal with facts instead.” The one sentence I do for all my essays and projects, and also learned first during Write of Passage. “The intended audience is the final blank in the “This is a ______ that does ______” exercise. It’s what ties the rest all together: “This is a ______ that does ______ for ______.” “Who this is for Who this is not for Why it is special What it will do for them Why anyone should care ” - Build a list (which I've learned in Write of Passage). He says it's the most important thing you can do. You know this. But his email list is huge, especially the monthly books one, which he started with the purpose of building a list. Whenever he releases a new book, he tells people about the book. I can forward you that specific email in case you'd like to see it. “If I could give a prospective creative only one piece of advice, it would be this: Build a list. Specifically, an email list. Why? Imagine that, for reasons entirely outside your control, there was a media and industry blackout of your work. Imagine that, due to some controversy or sudden change in public tastes, you were suddenly persona non grata. Imagine if no publisher, no crowdfunding platform, no retailer, no distributors, and no investors would touch what you’ve made.” - Build a list PART 2: “If I could give a prospective creative only one piece of advice, it would be this: Build a list. Specifically, an email list. Why? Imagine that, for reasons entirely outside your control, there was a media and industry blackout of your work. Imagine that, due to some controversy or sudden change in public tastes, you were suddenly persona non grata. Imagine if no publisher, no crowdfunding platform, no retailer, no distributors, and no investors would touch what you’ve made.” - The other half is about marketing, and techniques stories of how he does marketing, one of my favorite stories about The Obstacle Is the Way. At one point, he started getting emails from coaches, so he gave them as many free books as they wanted. “Two years after the journey began, I pitched the story to Sports Illustrated and they were into it. That article-“How a Book on Stoicism Became Wildly Popular at Every Level of the NFL”-sold so many books that the publisher ran out of copies for nearly a month.” - The importance of giving stuff for free, the importance of true fans, etc. - The best marketing for a project is to start working on the next - For any future projects, I plan to read Perennial Seller and War of Art. Both give you a great mindset to have. If you ever talk to him again, talking about some of the ideas from the books would be great. Also, if you ever need help researching people/ideas for interviews, let me know. I became so good with The UIUC Talkshow that I could crack open any person no matter who they are.

[@iLoveWriting365]

You got Ryan Holiday??? Omg love it. Keep up the great work!

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Was one of our most requested interviews

[@AfzalHussein]

That clip at the beginning. Wow. Mad powerful and motivating. What a beast lol

[@AfzalHussein]

That wall/room/background is f*cking sick! Love it!

[@aryansayeed]

The collab I've been waiting for!

[@janbeesmusings]

I greatly respect Ryan Holiday. He sounds so levelheaded, wise and genuine.

[@DavidPerellChannel]

I think those things shined through in this interview as well

[@janbeesmusings]

@@DavidPerellChanneltotally. Just to say you come across like that as well. And I especially like how you complement your speakers from a strong place of intellect and passion for writing. I have been a regular visitor to your site and been following all your episodes. I just love all things writing and good writers. 👏

[@ankitalohote2722]

Thanks David! He is a gem. Also, thanks for putting the main points in writing.

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Sure thing! Enjoy

[@robo3456]

we finally got this

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Yep, had a bunch of people requesting this one

[@scottscheper]

40 stoic pushups for every like.

[@DavidPerellChannel]

** creates new KZbin accounts to help Scott get jacked **

[@humdog64]

Was a great podcast, thx!

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Thanks for listening

[@funent9611]

I try not to listen to the Music in Loop too much 😭It takes over my brain, I dont want to end up writing the song into the story XD

[@josiahganymede]

Honest question: what’s his typing speed or words-per-minute? 😅

[@flor.7797]

28:00 interesting mentioned

[@DrBrianKeating]

The goat 🐐

[@DavidPerellChannel]

Insane consistency

[@justinpfortier]

Thumbnail is missing his 2 best books Conspiracy and Trust Me I’m Lying. Highly recommend

[@DavidPerellChannel]

A good line from Conspiracy: "Peter is of two minds on everything. If you were able to open his skill, you would see a number of Mexican standoffs between powerful antagonistic ideas you wouldn't think could be safely housed in the same brain."