Don’t Try to Recreate Your Past Hits (It Seldom Works)

You can’t predict if a post, book, or any sort of creation will be a hit. Once you have one, the temptation is trying to replicate it. Same post format. Same book outline. Same type of visuals. That seldom works. Some of my social media posts have gone viral, bringing book sales. But when I’ve tried to write anything viral by copying a hit, the copies pass unnoticed. No shame or glory. All art is theft. But as Picasso said copying oneself is pathetic—and doesn’t work.