“Sometimes fixing your writing takes one small change. Sometimes it takes getting fired out of a cannon.”
GhostSlacker was stuffed inside a circus cannon, wearing a helmet that smelled like sweaty feet.
“Remind me why I’m doing this?”
The ringmaster smiled.
“Free pizza and a chance to change your life!”
“I was hoping for a coupon.”
GhostSlacker had agreed to write ads for a traveling circus.
His first headline?
“Come Experience Our Wonderful and Exciting Circus Entertainment.”
Ticket sales dropped.
The ringmaster blamed GhostSlacker.
GhostSlacker blamed the circus.
The circus blamed a monkey named Steve.
Now GhostSlacker was the main event.
A crowd of 900 people waited.
The cannon started smoking.
The ringmaster shouted, “You have sixty seconds to fix that headline!”
GhostSlacker pulled out his phone.
He had been trying to sound clever when the real selling point was sitting right in front of him.
People wanted to see something wild.
Not read a speech about entertainment.
He opened The Change Catalyst.
He fed it his mistake and the one thing that changed his thinking.
The tool fired back with a hook for Hook Miners:
“My hooks got better when I stopped trying to sound clever and started showing readers exactly what they were missing.”
GhostSlacker grinned.
“One change. Better opening. Less brain damage.”
The ringmaster read the hook.
“That’s brilliant!”
He grabbed the microphone.
“Folks, tonight you’ll see a lazy writer fly 200 feet through the air!”
The crowd roared.
Tickets started selling.
GhostSlacker smiled.
“See? Now THAT’S a headline.”
Then someone lit the fuse.
The cannon shook.
GhostSlacker looked toward the landing net.
There wasn’t one.
“Steve?”
The monkey waved from the control booth.
GhostSlacker swallowed.
“I really need to stop accepting jobs that pay in pizza.”
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