7 months ago, life sucked.

I read the Damn Fine Words scholarship post.

And then something happened.

Here’s what:

I was a struggling freelance writer. I worked 12-hour days. Just enough time to write – at most – ten $7 SEO articles per week. The only requirement for these articles was to write something readable. SEO writers can whip them out in 20 minutes or less.

The articles took me HOURS.

I’d come across the Damn Fine Words writing course and wished like hell I could join – it seemed like the perfect solution. I knew if I joined, I’d be able to write faster, and better, and leave those 12-hour days and $7 articles behind.

But I couldn’t afford it.

Not only could I not afford it, I had another problem:

I hate online courses.

I had already spent at least $4,500 on blogging, writing, and copywriting courses. These were all legitimate courses, and they all said,

“This is not a magic bullet. But if you’re willing to sweat, we’ll help you actually do it.”

I learned the how-tos. But I remained stuck. The blank page still paralyzed me. The thought of writing still agitated me. These courses had failed me. They promised that if I just follow instructions, I would finally break through. Just like they did.

But I didn’t.

Worse, I felt like I failed them.

I learned to hate these courses and ruthlessly asked for refunds. I thought,

“You sold me a promise. I bought it. But you broke your promise, so you shouldn’t get to keep my money.”

Damn Fine Words seemed different, somehow. And actually…

It’s the closest thing to the proverbial magic wand.

I never could raise the money to register for Damn Fine Words. But each time the course opens to new students, there’s a contest, and first prize is a full scholarship.

I considered entering. But given how slow I write, and how insecure I felt, it would take me at least a week to write a good entry.

Should I submit one?

Is it worth it?

What if I waste all that time… and fail again?

But then, whatever… You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take and all that, right? So I took a shot.

It was hard. It took me a pathetically long time, speculating on a long shot, while losing out on money I could be making. I cursed myself the whole time. But I finally did it.

And what happened next blew me away.

“Chiara, I’m very pleased to say that by unanimous vote from the panel of judges… you won the contest. You’ve won a scholarship to the September session of the Damn Fine Words writing course.”

James Chartrand promised to change my life with the Damn Fine Words course. That promise is right there on the home page of the course site:

“It may even change your life.”

This sounds like an exaggeration, but it did.

In fact, it over-delivered.

Three ways it changed mine:

• I learned how to write using just three sentences. I now face the blank page with clarity and focus. When I sit down to write, I know exactly what to write about. No more feeling stressed and overwhelmed.
• Where others failed, James convinced me to embrace shitty first drafts. I now give my ideas permission to be ugly, as well as a fighting chance to bloom. I’ve stopped trying to create perfection from nothing.
• James taught me the one thing I have to do before writing a draft. I’ve stopped wasting hours and eliminated the rambling nonsense.Now everything I free-write makes sense and can be polished later.

It’s not just the lessons. It’s the exercises. It’s the emotional support from James and your classmates.

Like I said, I’ve taken lots of courses. Most of them have exercises and forum support. But I think they do that mostly to inflate price.

Damn Fine Words hammers the lessons into your brain. It hard wires you to write. But here’s what really makes this course stand out from all the rest:

James Chartrand: she’s the difference.

She wants this course to make you the writer you crave to be. It doesn’t exist to make her passive income. It exists because it’s that thing James can’t not do.

You have passion and value to share to the world. And it hurts – HURTS – James that you don’t, or can’t, just because nobody taught you how.

James can and will. In fact, she invests A LOT of time and energy into coaxing you to do what you have to. And she’s damned good at it. Before Damn Fine Words, I would have been thrilled to get paid $25 for an article.

James helped me write words that deserve more. And she made me believe it.

Should you do everything in your power to join DFW?

Yes. A thousand times, YES.

Even if you have to go in debt. Even if you have to starve for six months. Even if you have to suck it up and pour your heart and soul out for a few days to try and win the scholarship.

If you win, great! But if you don’t? It would still be worth it. The course is an investment that can help you in significant ways.

And for me, that’s the point: James would be doing you a disservice by not making you realize it.

Oh yeah, you know how she over-delivered?

James warned me: While the course will help me become a better writer and make me more confident with my skills, new clients wouldn’t suddenly start falling from the sky just because I took the course.

But a client did magically appear. I was hired to help someone with his website… and I was hired just because I had taken that course.

Do yourself a favor. Write that entry. Join Damn Fine Words. Let it change your life.

Need help?

Grab a slot on my schedule and I’ll tell you what I did and researched to get in James’s head, uncover her motivation, and write a winning post to persuade her that I deserve to win.

You won’t blabber at how much you REALLY want this (just like everyone else). Or stare at your screen for days.

You’ll come away with a serious advantage over your competitors who aren’t even serious enough to do their research.

So grab a slot on my schedule and let’s jam.

Who knows?

It may even change your life ;)

Ok, ok, you can also email me at cokieng.chiara@gmail.com.