The Shiny Dime Challenge

A Shiny Dime is a specific and surprising idea. It's the singular focus of a piece of writing. And it's a concept that will help you capture attention in a crowded world.

Hey writers,

 
This week, you learned how to write one-sentence summaries that stick in your reader’s mind better than LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem.” Now, it’s time to put it into practice. Here’s your writing prompt for the week:

Write a summary of your favorite book or movie. 

We know, there’s a lot worth celebrating about your favorite book. But we have the perfect exercise to help you compress it into a succinct summary. We call it the Russian Doll Exercise. 

Balaji Srinivasan wrote a 474-page book. Then, he turned it into a 2,000 word essay. Then, a 500-word blog post. And finally, a one-sentence summary. This is the mark of a good writer: the ability to compress ideas.

You could say that Balaji’s idea of The Network State is structured like a Russian doll. Why? Russian dolls are exact replicas of one another, just different sizes, nested within one another. You see the same image in different levels of resolution. The smallest doll is still an accurate depiction of the largest; it’s just more compact.

The same is true for ideas. Like the smallest doll in the chain, your Shiny Dime is the most compressed version of a specific and surprising idea. It may be small, but it still paints a vivid, accurate picture of the overall message of your essay or article. 

Enter: the Russian Doll Exercise. This exercise helps you compress your ideas into a one-sentence summary. We are naturally better at compression in speech than in writing. So, rather than writing, you’re going to talk through your ideas aloud. (This exercise is a student-favorite at Write of Passage, so buckle up!) 

Here’s how it works: 

• Open an audio-recording tool.
  You can use anything that will capture your voice, whether it’s an app for audio or a voice-to-text, live transcription tool. 
  
  
• Summarize your favorite book in 60 seconds.
  Set a timer for one minute, and record yourself talking through your favorite book. Pretend like you’re explaining it to a friend over coffee (or actually do that as you record yourself). Then, think about what you said. What sentences stood out to you? Where did the idea come alive? 
  
  
• Summarize your favorite book in 30 seconds.
  Now, it’s time to zoom in on your Shiny Dime. Set a timer for 30 seconds, and record yourself talking through the book’s main idea again. This time, try to get to the point quicker. Let your words flow and lean into your intuition. You’ll naturally cut the fluff to make room for your Shiny Dime. 
  
  
• Summarize your favorite book in 10 seconds.
  Pressure’s on! Record yourself talking through your idea one last time, and this time, compress your words into a ten-second summary. Like the smallest Russian doll, this will be the most compact possible version of the book’s message.

(Note: the Russian Doll exercise works best if you practice with a friend. That way, they can give you feedback in real-time, and help you identify the best parts of your idea. But a one-way convo will work just fine too.)

The Russian Doll Exercise is one of the quickest, most effective ways to gain clarity on your Shiny Dime, and whittle your idea down to a one-sentence summary. Don’t worry if this exercise is difficult at first — it’s supposed to be! Compressing your thinking is a skill that takes practice. But compression happens more naturally in speech than it does in writing. 

So, start thinking about your favorite book or movie. What’s the storyline? What do you love most about it? What did you learn from it? And how can you distill its essence into a one-line zinger that piques other people’s interest? And remember, a snappy one-liner is just one type of Shiny Dime. Next week, you’ll learn about coined phrases.

Don't forget that one-sentence summaries are just one type of Shiny Dime. They're a way to spread a specific and surprising idea around the Internet. 

Good luck, and happy summarizing!

The Write of Passage Team 

Don't forget to post your writing in Circle. That way, others can read your work. And while you’re at it, like, comment, and leave feedback! Use the Circle community to connect with your peers and find inspiration.