(For this edition, I'm experimenting with a short personal intro at the beginning - sort of a 'where am I' and 'what's going on in my mind' as I write the edition. Let me know if you like it!)

It's one of those beautiful overcast evenings in Pune as I write this from my study. Pune is truly magical in the rains.

I'm having a bit of a break from training sessions this week and am actually happy. Because this means more time for writing the book. (Tell that to the procrastinating instant-gratification monkey in my mind though!). I honestly don't know how the book will be received, but this has been the most fun I have ever had while working!

Hopefully, down the line, I'll be able to share some thoughts on my experience of writing the book, the process, some extracts etc. Let me know if you'd like that.

And now, on to the newsletter.

Welcome to the eighty-first edition of '3-2-1 by Story Rules'.

A newsletter recommending good examples of storytelling across:

3 tweets
2 articles, and
1 long-form content piece

Let's dive in.

𝕏 3 Tweets of the week

Tough to do - but good to remember that 'Happiness = Reality minus Expectations'. Not easy to keep expecations low though.

One of the replies to the tweet referred to this lovely anecdote featuring Joseph Heller (the 'Catch-22' author):

The late novelist Kurt Vonnegut informed his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history.

Heller responded – “Yes, but I have something he will never have . . . enough.”

Correlation is not causation, but this is a pretty solid argument Nitin makes. (Touch wood!)

I once remember Nitin writing in an old article: "Our China policy is 8 per cent growth, our America policy is 8 per cent growth and our Pakistan policy is 8 per cent growth"

Can you believe this is Delhi?! Must be from Qutub Institutional Area?

While the picture is stunning, I also loved Ambarish's lovely description of the forest.

📄 2 Articles of the week

a. 'Sri Lanka do their bit to save Test cricket, the way only Sri Lanka can' by Andrew Fidel Fernando

I'm sharing a cricket piece after a long time. It's an excellent write-up by Andrew Fidel Fernando on Sri Lanka's inspiring victory against England in their third test at The Oval.

For context: before this test, Sri Lanka were looking like target practice for the English cricket team. They had been comfortably beaten by England, which was looking to complete their first unbeaten test summer since 2004. But something special happened in this test and Sri Lanka made a stirring comeback.

The piece is not so much about the cricket though - it is about global power dynamics in the sport. Unlike other sports, cricket is financially dominated by three countries - India, Australia and England (with India being the most dominant entity). The smaller nations are at the mercy of the giants when it comes to tour invites and scheduling.

Fernando sets what was at stake here for the Sri Lankan team - if their performance was not up to mark, they might not be invited again...:

It (Sri Lanka) is also a team that fans in the biggest cricket economies - England, Australia, India - do not necessarily believe are particularly serious rivals.

And so every big tour becomes a de-facto referendum on their invite-ability. Are they up to adapting to these conditions? If they won't beat an imperious England, can they at least sufficiently resist them? Will they compete? For the first time ever, Sri Lanka were in England for the fancy part of the English summer - their August/September fixtures. For the first time in almost six years, they were playing a three-Test series.

There is the pressure you feel when you go out to bat and the ball is hooping, and the slips are licking their lips. Then there is this pressure: don't let your team down here, because if you do, no team from Sri Lanka may ever get the chance again.

He ends with a well-deserved swipe at the dominance of the Big 3 in global cricket:

Perhaps it is a reminder that conversations about saving Test cricket can begin with recognition that there is a great world out there, in which teams concoct all sorts of mad new narratives. That there is a world beyond The Ashes, or the Border-Gavaskar, or England vs India series, that is full of life and vibrance that is worth taking more seriously than cricket currently seems to be.

b. The Ocean Death That Created Civilization by Tomas Pueyo

In this fascinating piece, Tomas Pueyo sheds light on an ancient geological event (several millions of years ago) that profoundly shaped the planet.

I love the use of mystery in his opening hook:

One event made all these things possible:

- Roman civilization

- Industrial Revolution

- The oil wealth of Arab countries

- Russia's invasions

- The Mongol Empire

- Globalization

- Southern Europe richer than Northern Africa

Intrigued much?

He piles on the surprising facts. For example, consider this interesting visual depiction of the breakup of known oil reserves by country:

I didn't know that Venezuela has more oil than Saudi Arabia!

Anyway, I love how Tomas sets the context and piques your curiosity:

If you notice, the vast majority of (Russian oil and gas) reserves are in West Siberia and the Urals-Volga, which are the two big areas of the Eurasian Plain on Russian soil. Why is all this oil and gas so concentrated around here?

Is this enough torment? Are you yearning for answers already? Are you dying to know?! OK, here’s the answer. All these factors—and more that we’re going to see—are because of this:

Oh, I'm not going to share the answer with you - you should read Tomas' article to know!

🎧 1 long-form listen of the week

a. 'How to Make Your Writing Memorable' | Mark Forsyth on the How I Write Podcast with David Perell

Mark Forsyth's book, 'The Elements of Eloquence' is probably the most fun I have had reading non-fiction (and there are some serious contenders). Forsyth covers 39 (yes THIRTY-NINE) figures of rhetoric, each getting a chapter of its own. Think alliteration, hyperbole, metaphors, but much more evolved forms.

In this fascinating conversation with David Perell, Forsyth shares some of the rhetorical techniques and examples. Bonus: he delivers some of the lines in his soaring, wonderfully British-accented voice.

For instance, they speak about how JFK loved to use 'chiasmus' - symmetrical sentence construction - to make his point:

Perell: What did John F Kennedy do to be such a memorable speechwriter?

Forsyth: He did chiasmus, which is just when you say something and then say it in reverse. So 'Tea for two and two for tea' is the most obvious chiasmus. But he had so many in that inauguration speech. 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country'; 'Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind''; 'Let us never negotiate out of fear but let us never fear to negotiate'... just astonishing how many times he uses it.

The magic of three:

Forsyth: ...we love groups of three. 'I came I saw I conquered'; 'The Good the Bad and the Ugly'; 'Of all the Gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine'; 'Lies, damned lies and statistics'... just arranging anything in threes works very nicely because you can especially... you sort of line things up for a conclusion. It's the shortest group of things that can have a conclusion.

I was gobsmacked when I heard Mark's process of writing the book - just remembering extracts from memory! Saashtang namaskar to this guy:

Perell: When you were writing Elements of Eloquence you'd go to the British Library and you would sit down in your chair and you would stare at the ceiling and wait for them to come to you... that's not how I would have expected you to write that book at all

Forsyth: Yeah well it's the only way of doing it because there wasn't another book doing this. I just had to sit there basically staring at the ceiling and trying to go through... it was awful! I memorize poetry for fun because I'm a very lonely man basically... um but yeah going through every poem I know and then through every film I could think of from memorable lines anything I could remember from the Bible from Shakespeare from hymns from anywhere... jazz music, advertising, the whole lot, politics, history where was this formula used... and get a bunch of them together I'd write the chapter then I'd inevitably think of another really good one immediately after finishing the chapter which I then can fit in...

Mark makes an interesting point - that as compared to the pre-smartphone era, we are actually writing more:

Forsyth: ...language (is) changing now with the invention of texting. We're now typing more than we talk. I've always thought it's weird. I love texting because I grew up in the 1980s as a child and it was... the world was all about phones (and) talking... actual conversations on a phone and television... And writing wasn't a thing. Whereas writing has become very much a thing now. Writing is how we communicate. We message each other all the time. Writing is how you get a job, get a girl, get a whatever. It's suddenly immensely important to know how to write, which means that my strange childhood obsession with poetry and stuff is actually useful all of a sudden.

I loved this idea - if the ideas flow out your mind (as a writer), it'll flow into the reader's mind too:

I like to have everything prepared. I think an awful lot of writing for me is taking sort of a walk around the block thinking about things, trying to get it all ready in my head and as clear as it possibly can be... and have all the facts and figures ready and then go and sit down and write the whole thing very fast, as fast as I can. Why? Because I think if it flows out of you then it will flow into the reader.

This was perhaps the most engaging and insightful one-hour podcast conversations I have heard. Highly recommend it.

That's all from this week's edition.

Ravi

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Ravishankar Iyer

The Magic of Rhetoric in Writing (3-2-1 by Story Rules 81)

𝕏 3 Tweets of the week

📄 2 Articles of the week

🎧 1 long-form listen of the week

The Fascinating Story of Oil (3-2-1 by Story Rules #90)

India's Centre-State Fiscal Schisms (3-2-1 by Story Rules #89)

How to Build Lasting Memories with your Children (3-2-1 by Story Rules #88)