Day 23

Writing is a skill. In here, I send notes of my writing from the 50 days of writing course by David Perell, to reflect, develop and build my writing style.

Day 23
Photo by Giulia Bertelli / Unsplash

In the 23rd email from 50 days of writing course, David Perell mentions how a writer needs to have a "Story Box."

Story Box is similar to what designers call a Mood board. A mood board helps to build a library of approved images, patterns and fonts, saving time on managing opinions and approvals down the line. Instead of spending time deliberating over the type of look of a certain print ad should have, the mood board helps guide the process, getting your message to market faster.

Mood board example - 99designs.com
Mood board example - 99designs

For Designer's it is sort of notes of how the things must be designed such as what colors would pair nicely, which type would look good and what tone does the visuals put forward. Mood boards is sort of the first draft but for the mind in a way.

David states that we should have a similar model called Story Box. These must include:

  1. Stories from the personal life or the information you consume.
  2. Ideas that resonate with you.
  3. Concepts that don't make sense to unwind later.

After writing down stories you will have what is called a 'creative turbocharge' before sitting down to write. What David means by this is when you sit down to write on top of ideas you will have a box of stories and you can use those at times to illustrate your main idea.

My thoughts:

David Perell is a master at connecting the dots you can see from this video where he outlines an article, from the notes he has gathered for several years.

Observe how he pulls and remembers those notes that made him write an outline for the article.

Having a story box is similar to saving change we get from the shop after purchasing something. Adding it into a safe box and taking it when necessary feels so good.

Whenever you hear a conversation or read an article, take time out for two minutes and write down notes (also write down the reason why this note is highlighted.) This one step will build your story box over time and when you sit and go through the second brain(story box), you will find some article relevant to it that can be included along with your idea that resonated which made you highlight the note in the first place.

Key takeaways:

  1. Start by looking for inspiration everywhere possible.
  2. Develop the habit of writing down key ideas that resonate with you.
  3. Build one additional point as the reason behind highlighting a particular note.
  4. Before your next writing session look over the story box once and seek similarities or the opposite things that don't make sense. You will find something.

Thank you for reading.  


For more of Perell's work, you can signup for the 50 Days of Writing Course by clicking and signing up to receive one mail every day with amazing take on writing.

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