“If you like your prose with meat and hair…”

I read this line from a book critic once and instantly fell in love with the critic, rather than the book. This is what creative writing does, even in the mere span of a sentence: it creates instant, irrational affection—sort of like hosing a person down with mental pheromones.

Whether you write content for your business, write for a living as a freelancer, write for work, or simply want to learn how to make people fall in love with you without having ever met you, creative writing is all about packaging your ideas in a way that feels fresh, fun, interesting and new. Which, of course, makes you seem fresh, fun, interesting and new. (Even if you’ve been wearing the same pair of granny undies for years.)

And that’s critical in a world that now runs 99% on a screen. Hello, remote work! Today, more than ever, everything you do happens via writing: your LinkedIn bio, your emails with your boss, the Airbnb description to rent out your house, the essay to get into the program, the baby announcement, the client proposal, the newsletter you’re writing, the content you’re creating, the IG caption, the new website blog, the referral request to your client. Hell, even writing an obituary is a lot of pressure. (Oh yes, we cover that, too.)

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you have to say things in a way that make other people excited to hear from you. And that’s what Meat & Hair is all about—yes, named after that darling critic’s line, but also because it’s the perfect representation for what makes for brilliant writing:

Substance & style.

Meat and hair.

Because substance without style is boring, and style without substance is frivolous. You need both to get heard. You need both to be great. And you need both to create an instant, irrational attraction. To your work, to your writing, to your ideas, to your business, and beyond.

Ash Ambirge
Founder, Meat & Hair
Author, Penguin Random House

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