The Single Most Important Lesson For Every Writer

I can tell you why the Liberals won in Canada and it's solid evidence of the most important lesson every writer needs to know.

While our conscious minds understand negation the subconscious does not. Sounds unreal, right?

Back to the election:

Attack adds ran over and over "Justin Trudeau, he's just not ready!"

The conscious mind hears the statement as intended, the subconscious hears:

"Justin Trudeau, he's just ready!"

And here is the kicker for the writers of the attack ads - the real driver of all human action is the subconscious. It is our more primitive animal brains that drive our behaviours.

So the lesson is:

After every first draft of a piece you must read it again omitting the negation to understand what message will go into the subconscious of your reader. 

​Know the message you are really writing, be clear!