Collaborative Fund

Readers leave within seconds, so make the point and get out. Morgan Housel, whose home base has been Collaborative Fund for seven years alongside his speaking and book income, says online tools show readers leave within seconds once writing rambles. One publisher saw the average reader gone by the third sentence.

He gives a piece about five seconds: the headline and first two sentences must hook. His mantra is a little bird on his shoulder chirping "What's your point?" His wife drops a recommended series five minutes into the first episode, and readers behave the same way.

How I Write

Brevity means no rambling, not short length. A 900-page Doris Kearns Goodwin book has no fluff. His test is to pretend every word costs you $100.

Leaving out the parts readers tend to skip is a rule he calls "tongue-in-cheek" but "so true."

How I Write

The best story beats the best idea, so lead with the story. Ken Burns's Civil War series had almost no new facts, yet more Americans watched it in 1990 than the Super Bowl. Steve Jobs said "a thousand songs in your pocket" instead of "MP3 player."

Housel always starts with a story and then asks what broader lesson it holds. He has never started from a concept like competitive advantage and hunted for a story.

How I Write

People remember sentences, so pack in highlightable ones. He asks whether each sentence is worth highlighting in Kindle and cuts it if not.

He varies sentence length: a long sentence followed by a four-word one creates a beat and a rhythm.

How I Write

Write about problems you are trying to solve for yourself. Howard Marks wrote memos for years that clients threw away, to crystallize his own thinking, and they later became a bestseller. Housel writes only what he doesn't already know.

He thinks knowing your audience turns into pandering. "Writing for others is hard and it shows, writing for yourself is easy and it shows."

How I Write

Only a few pieces ever matter, so expect to lose most of the time. Housel is proud of about 10 of his roughly 4,000 posts. Walt Disney made about 30 films and Snow White saved him; Stephen King's fame and income come mostly from about three of some 50 books.

He thinks 90% of virality is luck and that great books need word of mouth, not marketing. At The Motley Fool he was proud of about five of several hundred articles a year.

How I Write

Own the format you are good at instead of reinventing yourself. Housel accepted he is a blogger skilled at 1,500-word posts, so each chapter of Psychology of Money became a long blog post. Twenty long posts felt doable where a 75,000-word book felt daunting.

His writing has not changed in 17 years by choice. Seth Godin's books are mini blogs, and Michael Lewis's Boomerang grew out of Vanity Fair pieces.

How I Write

Chasing a word count made him pad instead of make a point. His first plan was 10 chapters of 6,000 words; he wrote two and neither made the book. Friends independently wrote back: "What is this? This is not you."

He kept adding examples just to stretch ideas; the fix was to make the point, wrap up and move on. The original Psychology of Money post ran about 10,000 words built from segments of roughly 500 words.

How I Write

Publishing daily with harsh feedback taught him what lands. At The Motley Fool he wrote about 3,500 articles in nine years, three a day, with hundreds of readers critiquing each one.

He started in 2007 out of desperation, with almost no writing behind him, planning to stay six months. It took about five years to feel this was what he does.

How I Write

Stories about finance stood out where data alone never would. Thousands of writers post "the Dow went up a hundred points," so he told stories about what goes on inside people's heads to keep his job.

Enjoyment came once he started telling stories; a job dumping charts from Excel would not have held his interest.

How I Write

Read slowly and question whether each paragraph is true. He once bragged about nine books a month but now reads one or two, pausing to think.

He admires Frederick Lewis Allen, who wrote history about ordinary people in a chatty voice, and finds Keynes unreadable.

How I Write

Raw archives are rich, but they can prove anything. FRED, the free Federal Reserve Economic Data, holds thousands of series, down to chicken harvests for one Kentucky county. He also read random 1922 New York Times issues at the Library of Congress.

Good history keeps hindsight out: in 1932, with unemployment at 25% and stocks down 91%, smart people thought capitalism had broken and it might never end.

How I Write