Finish What You’ve Started Writing. Always.

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This week, I had a bit of an epiphany. I’d just completed my STORY52 project and had to decide what to work on next. I started with four different ideas, and after writing two pages for each, none of them clicked. So I abandoned all of them.

However, abandoning them didn’t free my mind. It didn’t help me think about the next idea or dive into a new project clearheaded. Instead, my thoughts kept circling back to the ideas I had tossed aside. I kept asking myself: Should I return to them? Is there something in those ideas worth exploring after all?

I realized soon after that most story ideas will stick with you forever—until you finally flesh them out into full stories. The 52 short stories I wrote for STORY52 are on paper and therefore out of my head. But the four ideas I deemed “not good enough” are still lurking in the depths of my mind, creeping around a dark corner to remind me of their existence whenever I start thinking about writing something else.

The only way to get these idea-creatures out of my head is to actually work on them. Even if there are better ideas in my swipe file or floating around in my mind, the abandoned ones won’t let me go until I’ve at least finished a first draft.

That experience helped me formulate a simple rule for my writing: When you start working on an idea, finish it. Always. No excuses.

I intend to stick to that rule from now on. It will lead to more stories, more books, and a lot more sanity.

Don’t Be a 14-Year-Old Online Guru

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Social media has taught millions of kids to “fake it till they make it.” What nobody told them is that most people never make it. The result is an army of 14-year-olds pretending to be experts on fitness, crypto, politics, and life without having any knowledge or experience.

Influencers have learned that being early matters far more than being right, because algorithms reward novelty and anything that saturates a new niche. If you post a video about a rising shitcoin today, you’ll get more views than if you post about it next week—when its price has inevitably crashed back to near zero. Remember NFTs? All these NFT gurus have disappeared because the money flow has long dried up and with it: they hype.

Problem is: People love the hype.

So, in the race for views, jumping on hype trains becomes the bread and butter of anyone trying to blow up online as fast as possible.

But here’s the catch: you only have one reputation to lose. Once it’s gone, you’ll never get it back—just ask Jack Murphy.

The sad part is that some people really do succeed by faking it. There are those infamous twin influencers who’ve been riding the wave of low-IQ hype content since they were teenagers. And other 14-year-olds see this as a blueprint, because that one example turned into millions of dollars and supermodel girlfriends.

What they don’t see are the countless others who try the same thing, fail, and permanently stain their names in the process.

If you want real advice from someone who spent six years on YouTube just to reach 10K subscribers: be real, be honest, and never fake it. Real growth takes time. A few people blow up overnight—some are even handpicked by the powers that be. But for most of us, it takes years of daily work and authenticity to build even a small audience. And you rarely hear about that, because most people aren’t willing to stick it out for that long.

But if you are willing, you’ll be on the safe side. No one will dig up dirt on you. No one will uncover lies or fakery, because you built everything slowly, organically, and truthfully without dirt and fakes involved.

That’s exactly how I intend to handle my writing project.

So far, I’ve sold fewer than 100 copies of my personal “best-selling” novel Forever. By most standards, it’s a failure—for now. But that’s how things really work online: you’re a failure for days, weeks, months, and sometimes years.

Until one day, finally, you’ve turned into a success.

Writing Tips From Robert Heinlein

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Heinlein is one of my favorite Sci-Fi authors — if you haven’t seen it already, watch Predestination which is based on a Heinlein short-story for a nice mindfuck and a general idea of what a great writer (and thinker) Heinlein was.

During some reading about his work I stumbled across six simple rules Heinlein set up for aspiring writers:

  1. You must write
  2. Finish what you started
  3. You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order
  4. You must put your story on the market
  5. You must keep it on the market until it has sold
  6. Start working on something else

I love it. It is minimalist, it is based on free market principles, it is about doing the work.

Robert Heinlein was a libertarian which shines through his writing. And his approach to being a writer goes in the same direction: Do the work and let the people decide if you stuff is good enough or not. In the end: Not all good writing sells, but all writing that sells is good.

How far can I get as an indie writer?

I’ve decided to apply Heinlein’s rules to my own pursuit as a writer some time ago. 1,000 words a day is my minimum goal which will results in at least 365K words a year.

This leaves me with at least 4 full novels by the end of each year. By doing my own editing, translating, and cover design, I can keep the cost low. The marketing is a different beast, sure. I’m writing this blog, doing YouTube, and writing short stories on top to get something going.

Will I succeed?

Only time will tell—and the free market.

9 Reasons to Have Numbers in Your Headlines (Number 5 Will Surprise You)

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BuzzFeed used to do it with almost every single article. I once discovered a website that covered many of my interests—stories, tech, fitness, online growth, and more. On Medium and countless blogs, you’ll find the same pattern. I must have read thousands of those number/list-articles.

Why do they all use numbered headlines? Because they work — until they don’t.

BuzzFeed was the worst thing that ever happened to writing on the internet—but it wasn’t really BuzzFeed’s fault. They simply optimized for what people clicked on. At some point, they realized that “7 Ways to Lose Weight (Number 3 Will Surprise You)” performed far better than “A Comprehensive Guide to Losing Weight.” Since their goal was to maximize clicks, they leaned heavily into this style of writing.

However, I don’t use that structure—and I don’t recommend that you do either.

Here’s why: Despite reading thousands of articles with that format, I can’t remember a single website besides BuzzFeed where I found them. No joke, no exaggeration. I don’t remember the authors, the bloggers, or the magazines. They’ve simply vanished from my memory.

I can’t recall a single specific article that used this formula. “7 Ways to Build Muscle Fast”? I couldn’t tell you even one of the seven.

Why is that?

Because articles with numbered headlines are like fast food. They look tempting, they’re marketed well, but once you’ve consumed them, you realize you’ve gained nothing of lasting value. You still remember that night you had a steak at a five-star restaurant—but you probably don’t remember your first Big Mac.

Fast-food number/list-articles are the same. You consume them, digest them, shit them out, and forget them—almost immediately afterwards you crave something real.

Of course, not every numbered article is of low quality. But by now, too many creators have abused the formula, stuffing low-value content down our throats. Whenever I see a “numbers post,” I just skip it.

Write lists or write something personal.

Numbered posts are the opposite of personal writing. They don’t tell the reader who you are or give them a reason to come back.

Just like you don’t care about returning to McDonald’s because there is another one at every corner, you don’t care about that site with the numbers articles because they can be found all over the internet.

BuzzFeed News is already gone, and BuzzFeed Inc. is struggling financially. The biggest example of “number-post” success has turned into a case study in short-term rise and mid-term failure—and that doesn’t surprise me at all.

If you want to build a real relationship with your readers—or any relationship at all—stay away from numbered headlines and formulas.

How to Write a Good Remake (A Lesson From Frankenstein)

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I watched the newest Frankenstein remake on Netflix yesterday. Guillermo del Toro was behind it — one of the few filmmakers in Hollywood I still get genuinely excited about.

Still, I had my doubts. It’s a Netflix production, and quality on that platform is hard to find. But this time, they really delivered. Frankenstein is a fantastic film that honors the source material while adding meaningful details of its own.

One of the main things I thought about afterward was how del Toro managed to do something Hollywood almost always fails at: creating a good remake.

We live in an era where Jurassic Park gets remade every two years, and most superhero films feel like a variation of the previous twenty. Almost all Hollywood remakes of today are terrible.

But Frankenstein isn’t.

So how did del Toro succeed where so many others fail?

I think it comes down to genuine love for the source material. Whenever I’ve seen del Toro talk about his films in interviews, he always radiates a deep affection for the stories he tells — and Frankenstein is no exception.

By contrast, when today’s filmmakers discuss Terminator, Star Wars, or Ghostbusters, they rarely sound like fans. Instead, they talk about how they can “adapt it for modern audiences” – which is just code for pervert it until it’s not like the original anymore at all.

It often seems that many modern moviemakers never even liked the originals they were handed. They’re just thrilled to have the chance to reshape them in their own image. Sure, del Toro had a vision for Frankenstein too — but his vision came from a place of admiration. In contrast, people like Kathleen Kennedy often seem to approach their projects from a sense of superiority, as if they could “do it better.”

But you can’t — not when the original was already great.

You can make a good Star Wars movie, sure. But you’ll never outdo George Lucas’s Star Wars. You can make a solid Matrix sequel, but you’ll never surpass the first one.

When you take over an already successful story, your first job is to honor what came before. That’s exactly what del Toro did with Frankenstein. He new Frankenstein was already great before him. So he didn’t try to outdo it; he simply tried to honor what was there before him and added his own style only for as long as it didn’t take anything from the original away.

The result is great movie.