Free while shapepages is in beta. You can switch to a plain site, or change every word of this one, at any point.
Shape
One page, with the bar across the top as anchors into it
On it
The five days, Who sends it, Start
Blog
One article, published: “The last paragraph is almost always deletable”
Sells
Nothing yet — this one takes enquiries rather than payments
Member area
Off
Look
Bone, flat surfaces
The whole page
Drawn by the same code that renders a published site, at the width a visitor reads it at. The words are ordinary sentences rather than instructions — you replace them, you do not fill them in.
Five Days of Better SentencesThe five daysWho sends itStart
Five days. Five sentences you will keep using.
A free email course on the small moves that make writing readable. One email a day for five days, then it stops.
Free, and free of a catchFive emails, then it stopsTen minutes a day
Start here
Five emails. Then it stops.
Day one arrives in a minute
No account, no password, nothing to download. Leave whenever you like, with one click.
What arrives, day by day
01Day 1 — the first sentence8 min read
Why the opening is the only line everybody reads
Three openings, one of which is yours to fix
02Day 2 — cutting10 min read
A thousand words to seven hundred, live
03Day 3 — rhythm9 min read
Why three sentences of the same length put people to sleep
04Day 4 — the reader7 min read
Writing to one person instead of to an audience
05Day 5 — stopping6 min read
The last paragraph is almost always deletable
Who sends it
Your name here
Writer and editor
Three sentences about why you are the person sending this. What you write, who you edit, and why these five things are the five you chose.
Fourteen years editing
11,000 readers
Writes every one of these
Paste something somebody actually wrote to you. This is the one block on the page nobody should fill in for you.
A second one, from somebody at a different stage. The ones that convince are specific: what changed, and how long it took.
A third. If you have only one, delete the other two — three invented quotes are worse than one real one.
11,400people have done it
5emails, then it stops
0things to buy
Questions
Is this really free?
Yes, and there is nothing to buy at the end of it. The paid thing exists, it is mentioned twice a year, and the five days are useful whether or not you ever look at it.
What do you do with my address?
It goes in one list, it is never sold or shared, and one click removes it. Nobody is emailed about leaving.
Can I read them all now?
No, and that is deliberate: the gap between them is where the practice happens.
Start with day one
Five Days of Better Sentences, five mornings, then quiet.
Start with free mini-course
Your account is created, the site is built, and the first thing you see is your own home page in an editor.