What hooks us is their consistency, their improvement over time, and most importantly, their ability to create something that resonates with us in th… - Nicolas Cole

What makes a great headline is getting someone to understand three things at the exact same time: What this piece of writing is about Who this piece of writing is for The PROMISE: the problem that will be solved, and/or the solution being offered This is what’s known as The Curiosity Gap. The Curiosity Gap is what tells the reader what this piece of writing is about, who it’s for, and what it’s promising — all without revealing the answer.

The 1/1/1+ structure is a mechanism you should use for very specific sections within your writing: beginnings and endings. Single sentences are great for calling out individual ideas, statements, or descriptions, and doing so several times in a row can elicit a powerful response in a reader. Here’s how it works: This first sentence is a strong statement. This second sentence builds on, reinforces, or repeats that strong statement. This third sentence builds on, reinforces, or repeats that strong statement. For example, I use this structure to emphasize a length of time in my article, “The 1 Thing I Did That Changed My Entire Life For The Better.” Step 2: Like I said, I did this for 2 years. Two. Years. Not 3 days. Not a few weeks. Two entire years. I started to see how the people I was surrounding myself with weren’t very conducive to who and what I wanted to become. I started to realize I was terrific at coming up with ideas but horrible at seeing them through to completion. I started to understand why I struggled to make friends, and how closed off I was from the world. If you notice, immediately following the 1/1/1/1 structure, I went into a lengthier paragraph. This was deliberate. When you use the 1/1/1+ structure, you are building momentum. You are moving a reader quickly from Point A to Point B. But after a few big steps, the reader is not going to want to run anymore. They’re going to want to take a quick break and settle into the thing you’re talking about. So, crescendo with the 1/1/1+ rhythm, and then decrescendo with a three, four, or even five-sentence paragraph. Then repeat.

Somewhere, someone else is practicing harder than you, faster than you, longer than you. They want it more than you. And when you meet them, they will win