Morgan Housel is known for his two famous finance books, “The Art of Spending Money” and “The Psychology of Money” (which has sold more than 8 million copies).

I like his books not only for their content, but also the way they’re written.

Morgan has a way to suck you in through stories, quotes, statistics, and sentences that don’t require you to read them over and over to understand.

I was so impressed with the way he writes that I decided to research his technique (sources at the bottom). Here are some of the takeaways that resonated with me.

Storytelling

It’s not the best idea or the right answer that wins. It’s the best story.

If you tell a good story, the reader can contextualize it in their own life and empathize with it.

Instead of saying something generally, put it in an anecdote. Rather than saying there are wealthy families that end up going broke, say the Vanderbilts had the equivalent of $300 billion, and within 60 years they basically had no money.

Collect a story about a person. If you’re trying to write about how small towns in America are disappearing, don’t write about the town. Write about a business. Write about a person.

Everything has already been written. That’s nothing to worry about, though, because original framing and storytelling are what actually matter.

How to tell a story?

Find the story first and then the lesson.

You can use AI to find anecdotes for you. You don’t have to read through niche books anymore.

Showmanship

People remember sentences and not books. He structures his chapters around high-density, memorable statements that readers want to highlight and quote.

Get to the point. Mark Twain used to read aloud to his wife and kids, and watch their facial expressions. When they leaned forward, he realized he was on to something, and when he could see them getting bored, he’d cut it. The writing must be heavily curated to get to the point.

Write things that you want to read in a style that you enjoy.

No matter what it is, there’s always going to be someone that says they didn’t like it and that you’re wrong. Just try to appease yourself, not anyone else.

Make the piece the right length. Know when you’ve lost the reader. “Quit while you’re ahead.”

Don’t build up to the point because it causes you to ramble. Don’t use big words as an attempt to fool the reader into thinking you’re smart. “Whoever says the most stuff in the fewest words wins.” Pretend every word costs you $100. Housel also polishes each sentence immediately after typing it instead of editing all at once.

Don’t do this:

Nobody likes a lecture.

Nobody likes being told they’ve been doing it wrong the whole time. Just give broad ideas and then let people figure it out (note: this goes against other advice I follow about persuasive writing, which says I need to provide a solution or a CTA or a piece of advice that the reader can take away).

Don’t try to know your reader, because it turns into pandering to your reader. Pretend you’re writing a diary and get to the point. Don’t explain things too much. Get the reader to look it up

Don’t pretend you’re the smartest person on the page. Defer wisdom to other people.

Say you did the research, and these are the gems I’ve collected from other people who have more experience than me (like I’m doing here).

Don’t try to plan creativity. It comes to you at any random time. Don’t structure your day too much. Be an unstructured wanderer.

TL;DR

It’s not the best idea or the right answer that wins. It’s the best story.
Find the story first and then the lesson.
People remember sentences and not books.
Nobody likes a lecture.
Defer wisdom to other people.

Bonus tip:

If you delete something like paragraphs or unused stories, add it to a new Google Doc. Housel has a massive doc called “Scrap Bits” approaching 100,000 words, which he recycles into new articles years later.

Sources: [1] https://howiwrite.substack.com/p/morgan-housel-how-to-master-writing [2] https://collabfund.com/blog/the-written-word/ [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o84GXnrHdgg

@armaanagrawal_