From Jesus to Gladiator, how mundane details 🟰 credibility

Glad to have ya with me this morning. I’ve got a lot to talk about and brought my shower-thoughts game with me today. The Feature Story is about how the mundane parts of storytelling build credibility. And then we’ll roll through the following sections like a chainsaw through hot butter.

• The Knowledge Base  

• Self Help (“she knows everybody”) 

• Facts & Stats (AI Taco Bell update)  

• Get Hacking (yes man)

Now, let’s read that Feature Story like our life depends on it — ok, that’s a bit much - we’re not these guys...

How to Use the Mundane to Create Concrete Language

I’ll list off five mundane examples of how epic films have used this technique at the end of this Feature. 

Just know that the first time I ever heard of using mundane details to make your writing more concrete was….

Jesus using a stick to scribble around in the dirt (paraphrasing). That mundane detail is part of the concrete language describing the scene where a buncha men wanted to stone a woman to death. 

Jesus told ’em to go ahead, but let the sinless man throw the first stone. No takers, as you already know.

C.S. Lewis brought this mundane detail to my attention.

He said something to the effect of…

“Why include that unnecessary detail about scribbling in the dirt with a stick? It adds nothing to the background of the story. Adds nothing to the moral of the story. So why did it get written down?”

Lewis said, that to him, that makes the Bible (and that stoning story) incredibly real. He saw it as a historical report, not a fable or parable, precisely because of that mundane detail that would have been edited out if the story was meant only to impress the readers.

More Insights on Concrete Language

One of my favorite tools (and related books) is The Writer’s Diet. 

It’s a big help for cutting out useless words. However, it also keeps you from cutting out words you need to produce concrete language. 

Been a minute since I’ve used the tool, so I should get back into it. Writing is a practice. And in a world full of monstrous distractions, it’s easy to forget solid techniques. 

And writing skills can get rusty like any other skill.

Most Concrete Language I’ve Ever Heard

Lonesome Dove is one of my favorite movies. In 2024, I listened to the audio book and two more books in that Larry McMurtry series. Over 100 hours total I think.

McMurtry put in details that put you right in the saddle with Texas Ranger Augustus McCrae. The author made you feel like you might get speared by Comanche Chief Buffalo Hump as you turned the next page. 

The writing is vivid. That made it concrete… real as can be. But the mundane details also built up the concrete language, page by page.

Little things that didn’t mean a thing to the main story like:

• Prostitute snatching a turtle out of the river for breakfast

• Gus cheating at cards

• The cook ringing that “dadgum dinner bell”

• Minor characters with unforgettable nicknames

BTW, McMurtry’s writing highlights what I talk about in Today’s Hack (end of this email).

Bottom Line on Concrete Language

Don’t leave out the nitty-gritty when you’re writing content (content that ends up as video or audio content too, obviously)

The nitty-gritty is what makes up the blocks that make up the entire structure of the story you’re trying to tell.

Without the seemingly mundane details, a good story misses the chance to be a great story. Not only that…

2025 is almost here. AI content is gonna explode even more. And when you leave YOUR personal mundane details out of your content, it will become harder and harder to stand out from AI-created content that any person can produce without a lick of writing skill.

To put your mark on your content, you have to toss in pieces of yourself. AI writers are getting good.

But bots can never write from your angle - that sits waiting in your soul to be unleashed. AI does not know how to write about eating turtle soup on the Brazos River or rescuing a dog tied to a tree in Watkinsville, Georgia after the renters bounced in the middle of the night in their rusty yellow VW bug. 

Now, those films…

5 Films That Went Legend with Help from the Mundane 

1. Gladiator: Commodus fidgeting with his rings when nervous

2. Godfather II: Young Vito Corleone carefully wrapping a pear at his grocery job

3. Dune: Paul's habit of running his hand through sand

4. The Dark Knight: The creaking leather of Batman's suit as he moves

5. Young Guns: The Regulators' casual banter during meals

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Self-Help

Being social can fight off illness. I’m sick of telling people that (ironic😉).

Being social also helps you in your job or grow your organization.

One of the fastest-growing non-profits in my area is headed by a woman who “knows everybody.”

Knowing everybody is not a skill. It’s a go-getter, can’t-be-still mentality.

It’s also a willingness to go out in the physical world and talk to people. It’s also a refusal to take the easy way out by texting everyone and instead call them up on the phone and use one of the best social tools you’ve got - your voice. It’s unmistakable. 

A text is just digital pixels anyone could’ve sent.

Extra Help: If (effortless) walking were a pill, it would be the greatest medicine ever developed, says this doc.

Facts & Stats

Bonus: For the $7 million CNN was paying Chris Wallace, the network could afford to hire how many journalists at decent salaries? Answer at end of email.

Get Hacking

A specific strategy to implement today

I’ll make a bet with you.

Make your content longer and see if your conversions don’t tick up.

Gurus keep telling marketers to make content shorter and shorter. Attention span panic!

But how many great stories get left on the cutting room floor when we focus only on being as concise as possible?

More proof if you need it to get hacking on this marketing tip? Read a book and see how much of the text is personal stories and anecdotes from historical figures. It’s like 35% of most books.

I’ve never read a book with page after page of factoid bullet points. And never will. 

More evidence you should test lengthening your content is… book sales. Put those actual SALES against email and article clicks that are just that - clicks (and maybe bot clicks, at that).

Inbox Hacking is read by solid marketers like yourself at ESPN & Allstate. Please share this newsletter with your people.

Shane McLendon, Copy Kingpin 

Bonus answer from Facts & Stats section: CNN could (but won’t) hire 46 journalists at decent salaries with the $7 million they no longer have to pay Chris Wallace (Simon Owens Newsletter).

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