The 3 Pillars - A Writing Rule
Writing about Writing
As I write more and more about the writing that I do, I am regularly uncovering rules, principles, practices and ideas which I've ended up developing or sort of falling into by pattern.
These all in one way or another contributing to the way I write.
Ideally contributing to better writing.
One of the ways I approach writing projects which turns out to be different than many is that I can't just write one thing in a vacuum.
I'll try to explain what I mean ...
This is more apparent in copywriting work where a client (usually a business owner) is hiring someone to write marketing copy for specific things - such as emails, website pages, sales letters, video, etc.
So the way a lot of copywriters work is, they are hired by a business owner to write an intro email series. They take that project, write the series to sell the business owner's thing, and then they are done.
I can't do that.
Because I have to understand how it fits in the system. And I can SEE how it fits in the system.
So when I do work like that, my most immediate reaction is almost "ok why? why do you want to do that? why is that important? what do you really want to accomplish here?"
And then I create a strategy and approach which considers the entire system - it's another piece of the machine that has to fit perfectly.
Easy to see in copywriting work because it's focused around a specific goal.
Make more money for the client. Grow their business. Etc.
But my view and feeling about this extends to any kind of work I do. On TGA, I don't just write in a vacuum. While my imperative is to write, and I'm given license to write whatever the muse strikes me with, I always have the guiding light of understanding how that writing fits into the larger system.
In the case of TGA+ articles, I'm unraveling new perspectives, understanding, and ideas based on our foundational philosophies and principles for how to be a more effective human. These articles are pieces to a larger puzzle, but I know the puzzle so that when I do the work I understand how the work fits together.
In this Substack,
I ask myself the same.
What is the purpose here?
What am I doing and why does it all fit together?
I actually wrote an entire article digging into that very question, and in conjunction with some other exercises I'm going through, revealed a new old perspective to myself.
This very 3 Pillars Rule.
(And then I scrapped that article to write this one)
Because what I've found, when it comes to larger writing projects - when I'm writing for a client, for myself, for TGA, whatever it is - I tend to do the following:
I'll collect all the foundational philosophies and principles I can, and then I'll identify the 3 most common core pillars that these philosophies and principles stand on.
Why 3?
Because it feels right.
I mean,
It's the number 3.
Why not 4?
4 feels like too many, and is too symmetrical.
Why not 2?
Not enough. There's far more complexity in our lives and beliefs for things to stand on 2 pillars. Also it's too symmetrical.
3 feels just right.
And above those 3 are many many different philosophies and principles potentially. All connected down to the 3 pillars.
Sometimes there are outliers, but I find the outliers are not necessary to focus on in the short term (but might make sense in the longer term at the right moment).
This is a difficult concept for me to explain, because it's something I've just naturally come to through the process of my work.
The reason for that,
Is my writing work always settles on belief. "Belief" being a category I personally consider that encompasses Philosophy and Principle.
Read here to learn more about the Clarity Hierarchy (Philosophy, Principle, Strategies, Tactics, Tools)
Gonna stop myself from going deeper on that for now,
And bring it back to the 3 pillars.
Because when it comes to communicating, especially in copywriting, whatever the thing is you are writing will have greater impactful effect if it focuses on 1 thing. 1 Idea.
That isn't to say writing can't encompass or present multiple ideas, it just depends on the outcome you're looking to achieve.
And if you ARE writing something which encompasses multiple ideas, you still must address each of those ideas individually.
So,
If I'm looking to put together a larger project which encompasses a wide range of philosophies and beliefs ...
Such as a businesses email marketing strategy,
Or a publication like Substack,
How do I organize and present that information in a way which has a structure that is not only logically followable for the person writing and publishing, but also which feels well structured for the consumer?
That's a component to discuss all on it's own ... how someone consumes not just one article or email you write, but the entire flow of their experience with your work.
I came up with the 3 pillars to manage this.
Here are the 3 pillars for Growing Trees, and the reasons I came to them:
I have been, slowly, bit by bit, trying to uncover the root intensity and meaning of what this publication is to me. I recently landed on what feels like the best explanation of it ...
That this is really about How to Live with Soul In the Game - as a creator, as a writer, as someone who blends the path of living and passion in order to always do what I am most best at doing.
Learning to love the process (growing trees), vs obsessing over the outcome (the tallest tree) is one of the guiding lights on that path.
So,
How do I communicate this all? Living with Soul in the Game, as a writer, as a creator, to those of you reading?
Well, I turn to look at my audience, and I can see that most of the subscribers I have currently come from my work in The Guardian Academy and Man Bites Dog.
This works out great, because my Philosophies and Principles are either the same or highly aligned with TGA1 and MBD2.
One more thing about creating these pillars, and really all the content, I always try to ask myself "how can this be useful?"
I also wanted to find a structure and plan for Growing Trees which wouldn't cannibalize work I'm doing on TGA or MBD, but rather would support or add to it in ways I can't do on those publications. In that way I make Growing Trees a uniquely powerful but distinctly separate addition to the other publications.
Keeping that in mind, and the people I'm most likely writing too, I came to these 3 Pillars of Belief Based Content:
Pillar 1 - Writing About Writing
This is kind of where the current iteration started. As Nic3 put it, "great writing about writing great." I like that, but I felt like theres more to this.
Now I understand why.
Writing about writing feels like one of the correct choices as a pillar. Because this is a way I can unpack what I've done and also add new insight through analysis of the process and creation. For the right people that is always valuable.
In this category I can write about the articles I've written whenever I feel like it would be useful to unpack the process. An example being "Making of - The Pendulum." I also have "Making of - The Learning Lens" coming.
In this category is also writing about my writing processes in general.
This article is an example. This is writing about writing, and it's a topic that doesn't fit on The Guardian Academy Substack, and doesn't really fit into Man Bites Dog which is specifically about marketing and business growth. However I could reference this article in something about copywriting or email strategy development over on MBD.
Pillar 2 - Over The Shoulder Learning Lens
I figured this one out by asking myself how I can be most useful to the TGA and MBD audience, and to do so in a way that would be really useful to anyone new NOT from those audiences who came here.
The “obvious answer” that I kept coming to is I should do something demonstrative. Show what’s happening. Etc.
The thing is, I've long struggled with the concept of "Building in Public." I don't like Building in Public, at all. I'm not sure I can succinctly explain. But I don't like the scrutiny over experimental processes. When I'm building and growing it's very messy. I try to do and see what happens. Even when I slow down and make deliberate steps, I still just don't want to deal with showing that off.
There's an entire marketing strategy many people take which is built around Building in Public, but I just don't want to do that.
HOWEVER, I do think it's useful to look back and say "here's what was done and what happened." Classic Over the Shoulder. In working out that perspective I realized,
What I believe I would find enjoyable to write about, which would be useful to me AND to TGA and MBD audience members AND to new people stumbling on this, is if I walk through The Learning Lens with my work.
This is The Learning Process:
1 - Get Idea (reading, watching a video, etc), 2 - Reflect on the idea, 3 - put the idea into action, 4 - reflect on what happened, 5 - repeat.
This is how we structured The Arena. When you get on a call you say (for example), I read an article on Man Bites Dog about structuring email series, I decided to try it out and set my opening email series so that only people who read the email get the next one, what happened was I ended up with twice as many conversations this week compared to last - but my sales haven't increased, what do I do now?
I realized writing The Learning Lens, reflecting on this and being in The Arena that I'm actually really bad at intentionally going through the process, but when I DO it results in much more effective and useful outcomes.
I'm applying it right now in this article and setting my 3 pillars for Growing Trees. This is the outcome of having gone through it. I also realized that i could possibly write about my experience going through these processes.
So I'm inclined to do this, try it out and see what happens.
This article I'm considering in Pillar 1, so it doesn't count. But I'm currently writing some articles to accompany the intro podcast series on The Arena over on The Guardian Academy.
So Pillar 2 is really about how to learn - and in the context of ME, how to learn to be a better writer, entrepreneur, teammate, father, etc. (I'm not going to tell you how to do it, I'm just going to show you the process I go through, which is the same process anyone can go through to learn and grow).
Pillar 3 - Life Appreciation
I came to this 3rd pillar because I have a selection of content I have written and continue to write which isn't directly about writing and isn't directly about TGA or MBD principles. It's about all the other stuff which makes up my life. Parenting. Appreciating life. Breathing. Possible future stuff on fitness, taekwondo, etc.
An example being “Why I Love the Rain”.
As I worked this out, I realized what's really going on here is, this Pillar is the reason for it all. This is life. This is about why I do what I do. The shit that really matters. Not making money. Not getting more readers.
Appreciating and enjoying the life I'm living right now. Growing the Garden of Myself. It's the broadest category, but its the most important one. Because here I can unravel all the stuff that matters most to me and that feeds the rest.
One element to this which is important, and maybe would take an entirely different article to unravel (perhaps on through The Learning Lens), is that I felt like my work here couldn't just be "writing about writing."
It's easy to get into that frame of mind. Because a lot of what I started off this publication with was writing about writing ...
But what matters is so much more.
As I considered what to do with Growing Trees, the logical response was "keep writing about writing," but that felt limiting to me.
I would be doing a disservice to myself and anyone who's interested if I didn't accompany it all with the other important related work.
But that work must come (in my opinion) in a form which makes sense in the context of everything else I'm doing ...
Hence,
The 3 Pillars Rule.
I believe you can take whatever work you have, pick apart all the guiding philosophies and principles underlying that work, and organize it into 3 foundational pillars, and that in doing so you'll find yourself with a much stronger more interestingly varied array of content both for yourself and anyone reading.
That has, at least, been my experience.
PS.
Saying this out loud because I’m giving myself permission here to change my mind on all of this if something else reveals itself to be a more aligned path.
Always stay receptive to the possible, but move forward with boldness.
Hmm... Noodling on-what are my own three pillars? Thank you for sharing yours!
Appreciate the thoughtful reflections, Joseph. I’m also a big fan of distilling things down to three essentials.