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,

Congratulations! You’ve officially completed the Shiny Dime Challenge. Over the course of the past ten weeks, you’ve learned to communicate your best ideas by saying more with less. This isAnd we'd love to hear about your experience. 

If you have the time, kindly take three minutes to fill out this seven-question survey. Your feedback will help us improve the experience for all the students who come after you.

Now, let’s take a look at what you’ve learned, shall we? Here’s your victory-lap recap of all the lessons from the Shiny Dime Challenge.

The Fundamentals

1. Say One Thing

Don’t make the mistake of trying to cram every experience, story, or lesson you’ve ever learned into one piece. That will just confuse your reader and exhaust your energy. So, instead of writing your magnum opus, make it easier on yourself. Narrow your scope. Zoom in on one idea. Then, go deeper on that idea — not broader.

Focus on one specific and surprising idea: your Shiny Dime.

2. Embrace Complexity, Arrive at Simplicity 

Like an archaeological dig, writing is a process of excavation. As you write, you discover beliefs you didn’t know you had, emerging opinions, and stories you’ve long forgotten. Which means, a polished piece requires a messy first draft. 

Don’t expect to immediately have a snappy one-liner to summarize your entire idea. Instead, embrace complexity. Explore your idea by writing through it. Keep digging. Your snappy, clear idea will emerge over time. Simplicity is on the other side of complexity.

3. Go for Density, Not Brevity

Many writers confuse “concise” with “short.” And, by trying to make their work shorter, they end up stripping their ideas of richness and depth. Really, concision means more richness and more depth. Brevity omits meaning. Density enriches it. 

As you write, ask yourself: “How can I say more with less?” Go only as wide as a dime but as deep as the Mariana Trench. (Pro tip for compressing your work: use descriptive, active verbs.)

The Three Types of Shiny Dimes

4. The One-Sentence Summary

Most online writers don’t know how to compress their ideas, so impactful one-liners are valuable because they’re rare. A one-sentence summary is memorable and meme-able, sticky and spiky. And most importantly, it’s shareable. 

What gets compressed gets remembered. (Pro tip: practice writing one-sentence summaries using the Russian Doll exercise — explain your idea in 60 seconds, then 30 seconds, then 10.) 

5. Coined Phrases and Catchy Titles

A coined phrase takes your Shiny Dime and turns it into a concept with a catchy name, something that readers can grab onto and carry in their pockets. 

“The Golden Rule.” “FOMO.” “Digital Detox.” “Staycation.” 

Coined phrases also make great titles, because they package ideas in a way that sparks interest. If it’s easy to understand and easy to remember, it’s easy to share. That’s how coined phrases as titles can help you reach new readers.

6. Stories as Shiny Dimes

The point of a Shiny Dime is to communicate a clear, valuable idea with your readers. The fun part of a Shiny Dime is that you get to choose how you do that. And stories can be a challenging, unique way to package the central idea of your piece.

A simple story can compress a complicated message with ease. No matter what your idea is, you can support it with an anecdote or embed it in a narrative, like David Foster Wallace did in his famous speech “This Is Water.”

• A one-sentence summary is a stand-alone idea (e.g., “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”).
• A coined phrase repackages your idea and gives it a catchy name (e.g., “The Golden Rule”).
• A story embeds your idea in a narrative (e.g., “The good Samaritan cared for his neighbor”).

Advanced Tactics

7. Drown Your Kittens 

At Write of Passage, we like to say “drown your kittens” to mean “cut what doesn’t serve your Shiny Dime.” This advice is (surprise!) not advising pet-icide. It’s about writing with objectivity.

You can use your Shiny Dime as a razor for revision. As you write, step back and evaluate: Does this story, quote, or fact support my Shiny Dime, or does it belong in a different piece? Doing so will help you cut unnecessary context, drown your kittens, and keep your central idea in the spotlight — exactly where it should be. (Pro tip: Try reverse-outlining to sift through your first draft and create a revision plan.)

8. The Anatomy of a Coined Phrase 

How do you actually craft a killer coined phrase? There are three main characteristics to go for. A good coined phrase is: 

• Lean, not long-winded. It’s easy to drop in conversation.
• Phonetic, not flat. It’s fun to say out loud. 
• Mysterious, not mundane. It piques interest without giving anything away.

Some of the most memorable ideas are wrapped in the simplest language (e.g., The Great Gatsby or Star Wars). The goal is to package your main idea (no matter how complex and rigorous) in a way that’s simple and memorable, so that it’s easy to share. A good coined phrase can warp you to the Promised Land of writing: reaching readers who will actually read your work. 

9. Discovering Your Core Idea

Your Core Idea is your shiniest dime, the most important thing that you uniquely have to say. It can be a story you need to tell, an idea you need to share, or a message you need to spread. It’s the most distilled expression of what you believe to be true; it's the combination of what you’ve done, what you know, and what you stand for. It’s the pit of the whole avocado.

A Core Idea isn't just any ol’ idea. It's impactful enough to influence society and change the way people think. And by sharing your Core Idea, you could change your life. Your Core Idea bridges the gap between online and offline, between writing and doing significant work in the world. To find it, remember the 10-10-10 Heuristic. Your Core Idea should: 

• Pique a stranger’s interest in 10 seconds
• Be interesting enough to read about for 10 minutes
• And be compelling enough for you to explore for 10 years. 

(Phew… How’s that for nine lessons in about nineteen seconds?) We’re not going to make the lofty promise that “this is everything you will ever need to know about communicating your ideas clearly online,” but it’s no doubt a good start. Mastering the concept of the Shiny Dime means communicating clearly and sharing valuable ideas with the world. It will help you become a better writer, and it will help you reach new readers.

And, if you ever need some inspiration, just look back at what you’ve written throughout the Challenge: 

• A rule you live by
• Something that’s confusing to others but simple to you
• An obstacle you overcame 
• A summary of your favorite book or movie
• Something you think is underrated
• The biggest epiphany you've had lately
• An idea you could talk about for 30 minutes without preparation
• Something that comes easily to you that's hard for others
• And finally, your Core Idea. 

Think of all the new ideas you’ve stirred up over the past 10 weeks. Revisit those ideas, and go deeper, or write about them from new angles.

Maybe you want to try your hand at writing alone for a while. Or, maybe these ideas stirred something within you, and you’re ready to become an exceptional writer and expand your reach online right now. If that’s the case, then you couldn’t have picked a better time. 

The Write of Passage Bootcamp is a rigorous writing bootcamp that helps you seriously level up your writing skills and grow your audience online. 

In our five-week Bootcamp, we guide you in three main ways:

1. Live Instruction: You’ll learn to write like your keyboard is made of gold and create work that makes you proud. 
2. Coaching: You’ll get line-by-line feedback on everything you write. No looking foolish on the Internet.
3. People: You’ll “find the others,” the people who genuinely care about what you have to say, both inside the Bootcamp and beyond.

As you discovered during the Shiny Dime Challenge, you have something to say — and there are people who need to hear it. We help you reach those people. And that can change your life. It has for hundreds of our students. And it can for you, too.  You can save your seat in the next Bootcamp right here. 

Keep on writing,

The Write of Passage Team