TA #77: 🐎 Actually the Year of the Horse

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Welcome to 2021 and the 77th issue of Total Annarchy, a fortnightly newsletter by me, Ann Handley, with a focus on writing, content, marketing, life. THANK YOU for being here.

Boston, Sunday, January 3, 2021

Happy New Year, friend!

I'm in a pondering mood today. Then again, the start of a new year requires a little reflection, doesn't it?

I re-posted the image above on Instagram a few days ago. Don't we go into any new project (or year) with a vision in our heads that often doesn't quite mirror the mess that ultimately spills out?

We might have a vision for a totally jacked stallion, lead-penciled rippling muscles capable of leaping straight at your face if they wanted to. We try our best to pull out what's in our head and shape it into something that could run wet and sweaty off the page.

And then—oof—what we end up with in first draft is something a not very talented preschooler might produce.

My own first drafts are like that: littered with typos and half-written phrases, like I'm typing with mittens on. Embarrassing.

In that Instagram post... I felt seen.

But the more I thought of it... the more I changed my mind about the Embarrassing thing. The more I thought: So what if the first draft isn't much to look at? I started to feel like a court-appointed advocate for untalented preschoolers everywhere.

Sure, it's easy to mock the lack of craft in that first draft. It's easy to feel the shame in it.

But then again...

At least the untalented preschooler tried.
At least they got it down on paper.
At least they took the first step.
And it kinda looks like a horse?

The more I thought of it... I couldn't help but wonder: But what's the second horse look like? Or the third? Or the seventh?

* * *

The Queen's Gambit has been a huge hit for Netflix, breaking records for the most viewers ever for a limited-run series.

The series felt groundbreaking, too: The subject (chess!). The way it turned worn Hollywood tropes on their heads (a little girl wanders into a creepy orphanage basement *without* getting murdered!).

The '50s clothes. The mid-century modern vibe. The wallpaper, FFS. (Haven't seen it? Skedaddle to your couch. Trust me.)

The Queen's Gambit seems to have sprung out of nowhere.

But, in reality, it took producer Allan Scott more than 30 years, 8 directors, and 9 rewrites before Netflix nibbled. And in a uniquely cruel 2020 twist (because 2020 = arsehole), Allan watched the Netflix premiere from a hospital bed while recovering from Covid.

Also, Allan is 81.

You can interpret his story as a metaphor for persevering. (Inc. did.)

You can also interpret it as a metaphor for chess itself—for playing the long game.

Or we could interpret it as a 2021 love letter to the horse.

Because the part of the story that's most important is what Allan actually did and didn't do in those 30 years.

Allan Scott acquired the rights, created the script... and found no takers. But he did not throw up the shrug emoji and shelve the project.

And Allan did not simply wait for three decades for someone to notice him or buy into his vision.

No, he absolutely did not, friend! Instead, he spent those 30 years reworking the horse.

He drew the first horse. Then redrew it. Then drew it again. And again. And again. He drew that horse...

Nine.

Effin.

Times.

* * *

Have we ever meant "Happy New Year" quite as much as we do at the dawn of 2021?

Yet, we're also starting 2021 a little unsure what it will bring: 2020 blindsided all of us, and we can't quite relax just yet, can we?

So it's hard to know what to say to you here as a way to welcome you and me and all our creative souls to the new dawn of 2021.

Maybe that's why I keep thinking of the horse.

Here's my wish for you this year: Forget 2020 to the degree we all can. That nincompoop is gone; we've bolted the door behind it.

Onward to 2021. A new start. A fresh page on which to draw a new horse—however you define your horse for yourself.

It doesn't have to be a Queen's Gambit-sized. The point is: Make 2021 the year we celebrate the preschooler's horse.

See it as that most wonderful and worthy part of the process: To everything that's ever been worthwhile there's been a first move, a first step. (First hoof? LOL)

Be it a chess game.

A book.

A blog post.

Or a brave new year.

* * *

Here are a few things I wanted to share with you this week.

▶️ How to Write the Very Best Call to Action Because "Click Here" or "Learn More" is a wasted opportunity, you know? (This was a top story on my blog last year.)

▶️ Does Your Marketing Make an Appointment with Your Audience? This was the runner-up. And it's my favorite, too.

▶️ Marketing Career Day: A Free One-Day Master Class in Getting the Gig You Want Spiff up your LinkedIn profile; supercharge your job-search efforts; see how the LinkedIn AI can work in your favor; ace a Zoom interview. So much good stuff here from Christoper S. Penn, Tamsen Webster, Tim Ash, Afiya Addison of the B2B Institute @ LinkedIn, + more.

▶️ 9 Landing Pages Rewritten with a Pro Copywriter Harry Dry at Marketing Examples phones a friend and together they rewrite landing pages, showing the old and new side-by-side. My favorite is the one above. In the old version, he says, "There's no emotional pull. People don't get excited by a new headlamp. They get excited by new adventures."

GO DEEPER ▶️▶️▶️ All of your writing should include an emotional pull. Here's how.

TOOLS

Content tools I used this week.

⚒️ Cliché Finder Avoid clichés like the plague. Or, at least, use them only once in a blue moon. LOL. This is a good self-editing tool to check in with.

DEPARTMENT OF SHENANIGANS

New year, new words!

LOVE LETTERS
Selected shouts from around the Internet.

💌 To SharpSpring for including me in its ebook on How to Accelerate Growth at Your Agency.
💌 To Lee Odden at TopRank Marketing for this honor.
💌 To Ashley Zeckman at Inprela for the shout in this piece on 8 content marketing lessons from 2020.

💌 To the wonderful Jen Smith at MarketingProfs for this roundup on 2021 trends.

💌 To Jason Miller at Active Campaign for launching my career as a recipe writer.

💌 To Dozie Anyaegbunam at Pointed Copywriting for the including me in this piece on B2B writing in the New Normal (whatever that means).

* * *

Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a mask.

I'll be back on January 17.

P.S. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, buy a book. Or forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe, right here: www.annhandley.com/newsletter.

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Ann Handley is the author of Everybody Writes and other books.
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TA #77: 🐎 Actually the Year of the Horse

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