Last week, I shared this story privately with my CopyCreator Club members.

I think you'll love it to 🙂

Amor Towles (Pronounced “Tolls”) wrote this story about a young gentlemen named Timothy Touchett.

Timothy was a young writer in the 1950s, attending Harvard University.

He dreamed of one day becoming a prolific novelist.

One who would someday be written in the history books right next to C.S. Lewis & J.R.R Tolkien.

BUT THERE WAS ONE PROBLEM...

Timothy didn’t have a story to tell.

He had no idea what to write about.

He even said to himself...

🤣

But there he was…

A young gentlemen who grew up with great parents and now attends one of the most prestigious universities of our generation.

And since he didn’t have a story to tell — he decided to study literature at a furious pace to feed his mind with greatness.

So everyday after serving tables at a cafe in downtown New York — he would walk to the local library, find a cozy spot, pull out some classics and begin gobbling down every great piece of writing he could get his hands on.

THEN ONE DAY...

An older gentlemen in his mid-60s saw him studying there.

Mr. Pennybrooke was his name.

He loved Timothy’s selection of books and complimented him on his deep respect of the classics.

After a short conversation, Mr. Pennybrooke invited young Timothy to come work for him at his bookshop.

Mr. Pennybrooke wanted a mind like young Timothy’s helping his guests.

And of course, young Timothy loved the idea of surrounding himself with books all day rather than serving coffee to petty provincials.

He accepted and immediately began working the next day.

While working at the bookstore...

Timothy noticed that Mr. Pennybrooke had an enormous collection of classics that were signed by the original authors themselves.

Making some of these books worth more than $50,000!

Out of curiosity...

Timothy asked Mr. Pennybrooke how he got his hands on these collections and in response — Mr. Pennybrooke told Timothy a story about his friend who is currently in the hospital with stage 4 cancer.

And how his dying wish was to have a copy of “Anna Karenina” signed by Leo Tolstoy himself.

But given the rarity of this book and the fact that Tolstoy is with the Good Lord now, he would die never having it.

YOUNG TIMOTHY'S HEART SUNK HEARING THIS STORY...

He immediately thought about the calligraphy classes he had taken at Harvard.

And how wonderfully he excelled at them.

So he offered to (just this ONCE) maybe… potentially… to sign a copy of "Anna Karenina" as Leo Tolstoy for Mr. Pennybrooke’s dying friend.

I mean what harm could it do?

It’s private.

It’s not hurting anyone.

And it would make this man’s dying wish.

So he did.

​
And Mr. Pennybrooke was ecstatic!

He delivered this book to his friend and told Timothy that his friend teared his last cry with it...

But unfortunately that wasn’t the last time that Timothy signed a book for Mr. Pennybrooke.

Because after that, Mr. Pennybrooke seemed to have incredibly compelling stories for all kind of books he needed exact replica signatures for.

Timothy, being the young and naive gentlemen that he was, decided to keep helping Mr. Pennybrooke.

Until eventually, one day, a police officer came to investigate Mr. Pennybrooke’s entire operation.

His book store.

His employees.

All off an anonymous tip of book forgery north of millions of dollars in sales.

But when the police officer came to investigate...

Timothy wasn’t on shift. He was at home.

And Mr. Pennybrooke gave another compelling story of how his book store has been around for over 40 years and never ever had such an accusation tossed at him.

Until…

He hired this young gentlemen — Timothy — to help serve the store.

In fact, Mr. Pennybrooke had an ample amount of evidence (naturally) that Timothy had been forging these signatures under his own nose for deep profits.

Within hours, the police arrived at Timothy’s quant little Brooklyn home.

Barged in and immediately arrested him!

Shocked and dumbfounded by the accusations…

Timothy sat in the police vehicle on the way to be put in jail and thought to himself…

“I guess I finally have a story to tell.”

🤣🤣🤣

The lesson for you…

If you want write great stories, do something interesting!

And if you're struggling to write great stories...

​You'd love this 6 minute video where I break down the simplest storytelling structure in the world

(Used by Jesus in the Bible & Katniss in Hunger Games).
​
Enjoy!

Your copywriting friend,

Alin "Tells Great Stories" Dragu