I watched Inception about 37 times as a kid.

This was my first time watching it as an adult.

When you’re a kid, you think it’s about dreams.

When you’re an adult, you realize it’s about writing.

Writing is inception.

Inception:

The art of planting ideas in someone else’s mind.

Sound familiar?

Screenwriting:

The art of planting an idea in someone else’s mind in a way that entertains and moves them emotionally.

Copywriting:

The art of planting an idea in someone else’s mind in a way that gets them to pull out their credit card.

Tinder profile writing:

The art of planting an idea in someone else’s mind in a way that gets them to go on a date with you.

Doesn’t matter what kind of writing you do…

Your writing’s influence is directly correlated with your ability to successfully plant NEW IDEAS in people’s minds.

You can have a great idea…

But if you can’t articulate in a way that’s easily digestible for your audience?

It will fall flat.

On the flip side…

You can have the most beautiful, flowery writing…

But if your idea isn’t juicy enough, it will crash and burn.

However…

As Cobb and the gang quickly figure out in Inception…

You can’t just TELL someone what to think.

If it were that easy…

We’d all be best-selling authors and multi-million dollar copywriters.

You need to create an environment in which your audience feels like they hatched your idea on their own.

Sounds difficult when you put it like that, right?

Well, the good news is…

Christopher Nolan laid it out step-by-step…

So that anyone can perform inception with their writing, too.

Step 1: Simplify the idea.

For an idea to stick…

It must be as simple as:

“I will split up my father’s empire.”

That’s what they’re trying to plant inside Fischer’s mind in Inception.

7 simple words that pack a MONSTROUS punch.

They could’ve gotten cute with it… Gone into more detail… Tried to explain the complexities of splitting up a company.

But they didn’t.

They kept it simple and easy to understand.

I like to compare it to the dude who uses big words to sound smart.

Big words are easy.

All you have to do is pull out a thesaurus.

What’s hard is articulating a complex idea in a way that the MASSES can easily understand.

That’s how you move mountains with your words.

But simplicity is just step one.

Step 2: Appeal to emotion,

NOT logic.

We make decisions based on emotion and we justify those decisions with logic.

So your ideas must connect to a strong emotion in your audience…

Because emotion is what gives an idea its staying power in the subconscious.

This is why they couldn’t just stop at…

“I will split up my father’s empire.”

Not emotional enough.

So the team constructed dream layers that guide Fischer toward an emotional reconciliation with his dying father.

Then, the idea became…

"My father accepts me and wants me to be my own man."

Same idea…

10x more powerful.

But emotion isn’t enough.

Step 3: Make them believe it

was their OWN idea.

This is the crux of Inception and all great writing.

Your idea must feel self-generated, not implanted.

When an idea feels implanted, your audience repels it.

Nobody wants to be told what to think or believe — they must come to the conclusion on their own.

Cobb and the gang do this by engineering Fischer’s dream experiences so that he arrives at the emotional conclusion himself.

When they get to the second dream layer, they tell Fischer:

• You were kidnapped and are now in a dream
• Your godfather (Browning) is behind the kidnapping
• He wants whatever’s in your father’s safe, and we have to get there first to find out why.

Then…

When Fischer gets to the final dream layer…

He opens the safe in “Browning’s Dream” and finds what?

1. His father revealing the REAL reason he was disappointed in him (for trying to be him instead of being himself.)
2. The pinwheel from his childhood that ties the idea back to a time when he felt genuine love and approval from his father.

Check... Mate...

Simple ideas…

Deep emotion…

Let THEM connect the dots themselves.

That’s writing, bay-bee.

-Sven “Writing is Inception” Slattum

P.S. It’s time to vote on next week’s topic. Your fellow AI-FREE Writers Club members have been sending me secrets all week. These are my 2 favorites. Now, the fate of next week's correspondence lies in your hands...

As always — If you have a writing secret to share with the club, send it to my email: sven@aifreewritersclub.com

I will pick my favorites, and then put them in next week’s poll.

If your secret wins the vote?

• I’ll send you a free AI-FREE Writers Club hat
• You’ll get a free shoutout and/or advertising for whatever writing project (or non-writing project) you’re working on right now
• And your name will go on the AI-FREE Writers Club Wall of Fame… FOREVER.

Talk to you next Friday.

Write on!