If you do a Google search, you’ll notice that a button called “+Show options” pops up in the upper left:

If you click on it, a new sidebar pops out; it includes “Blogs”:

Click on “Blogs,” and you will see:

your search results in blogs. You can use this to find the most popular blogs in your subject area, and learn what people most care about right now. Powerful. Free.

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

This old piece of sales advice holds true for authors. Your readers want authentic feeling, and human beings have amazingly good crap detectors. If you find yourself writing without caring, just stop. Either find your genuine feelings about your topic, or find another topic.

I spent a lot of my life discounting the value and the meaning of emotions. My father’s frequent rebuke to my mother was, “You are not being logical; you’re just being emotional.” I should have gotten a clue about a certain lack of consistency when he shouted those words at the top of his lungs, sometimes while breaking furniture… but what stuck with me for a very long time were his words.

I’ve learned in recent years that, while it is still a good idea to not be led by my emotions, they have a lot of information to offer me. The more I understand my emotions as an important part of all that is me, the wholer I get.

I shoot for congruence, for integrity; for being the same inside and out. And I believe my readers can tell when I am not in harmony with what I am writing. My shorthand for describing that desired state is “caring.”

Care. And if you don’t or can’t, change something.

A new friend sent me his white paper about an astonishing, world-changing invention. The white paper is nicely done; the writing is great, and it’s full of good illustrations. The invention is truly significant.

But most people won’t read the white paper. Why? Because it’s a white paper, redounding in detail.

Even people in the field need a context, a reason to add to their daily reading burden, and they need it fast. They don’t get one from this white paper.

Eli Goldratt, a brilliant inventor in the field of manufacturing operations, faced a similar challenge when he was promoting his nine-dimensional-math-based software solution to factory scheduling problems. The people who really stood to gain from the software could not even understand that he was addressing their problem.

So with Jeff Cox, he wrote a novel: “The Goal.” (Recommended reading, even if you are not in manufacturing.) The book brought all of the abstruse issues down to earth, in the context of a page-turner of a novel.

If you have a complex, technical story to tell, and are having trouble getting people to listen, consider contextualizing it as a human story, with real emotions, a plot line–and a believable ending.

Dalia and I are in Israel. We just took a rare day off from work and went to see an exhibit at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The main exhibit was “Human Nature,” by Tzadok Ben David. It included “Blackfield” and some other large pieces.

The work’s impact is hard to describe. It consists of many small and large natural shapes–figures of people, animals, and plants and trees–ranging from a few inches to 15 feet in height. Most are cut out of flat metal–different types of steel and aluminum–with a plasma cutting torch. (The link above is actually to a slide show; click  on the small right arrow beneath it to “walk through” the exhibit.)

When you come into the exhibit room, and realize what you are looking it, it is stunning. Thousands of tiny cutouts of plants, like Audubon drawings in their precision, all black. As you walk around to the other side, first you see all the little cutouts in profile, so that they are nothing more than black sticks. Then when you reach the back, you are amazed to see a rainbow of color! All the backs of the cutouts are painted in bright colors.

What can a book writer learn from this exhibit? Here are some of my thoughts:

• The viewers are fascinated by a lot of realistic detail. So are readers of a non-fiction back. Share a lot of facts.
• The presentation is unusual; one does not know what to expect. Think of appropriate ways to surprise your reader, to bring them depth and color in striking ways.
• The shapes–both of the tiny plants, and the other sculptures–are taken from life: People; plants; trees. No abstract geometry. People are interested in real things, presented interestingly, from different angles.

Another, smaller, exhibit showed paintings by Aram Gershuni, a self-taught artist who paints with photographic realism–see some of his work on his website.

His paintings are fascinating. They are like large photographs–yet, not. He doesn’t sign them, but I get the feeling that even this brief exposure would enable me to recognize his work.

Some book-writing thoughts I had as I enjoyed his paintings:

• I felt his love for his subjects in all of his paintings. Does your love for your subject come across in your writing?
• His portraits of his family members might be considered unforgivingly realistic; there is no attempt to mask or soften blemishes or wrinkles. Yet they come across as having integrity, as having character, as having a life journey that would be interesting to know more about, even if it has difficult and painful passages. I want my writing to have those characteristics.
• As photographic as Gershuni’s style is, there is no doubt of its subjectivity. He chose the people and other subjects, and how to present them. These representations are Gershuni’s representations, and they make no claim to being anything else. Do I always write with conviction, with a willingness to give my honest opinion and stand behind it?

I could have gladly spent hours more there, but I needed to get back to work. And write this for you.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to comment.

I love Randy Ingermanson’s writing and teaching. Among many other accomplishments (“Writing Fiction for Dummies,” for one), he is the inventor of “the Snowflake Method” of fiction writing, which you can read about on his website. Even though I have never written any fiction (not on purpose, anyway), and have none in the works right now (as far as I know), I read Randy’s blog and other stuff regularly.

Writing is communicating, whether it’s stories or “reality.” And Randy not only does it well, he teaches it interestingly and entertainingly. With his permission, here is a piece from his latest ezine, which I recommend to you:

Organizing: Does Multitasking Make You Stupid?

Computers are faster and smarter and more efficient
than ever. They run at gigahertz speeds, using
gigabytes of memory, giving you giga power to get
things done.

Even so, once in a while, most machines seem to freeze
for several seconds, stuck in some mysterious inner
world that you know nothing about.

If they’re so fast and so smart, why should they ever
freeze like that?

There are several reasons, but one common reason is
that your computer is multitasking — it’s doing
several things at once, and it’s gotten its scheduling
out of whack. It’s forgotten to get back to you, at
least for a while.

Multitasking is usually a wonderful thing, especially
on modern machines with multiple brains. A
well-programmed computer with several CPUs can work
dramatically faster than a computer with only one, all
other things being equal.

The problem is that it’s tricky to take account of all
possibilities. Once in a while, your computer gets
itself tied in a knot and it zones out on you, even
with multiple brains. Multitasking occasionally makes
your computer stupid.

It’s dangerous to make a direct analogy between
computers and human brains, because they really aren’t
the same thing. But it does appear that multitasking
makes us stupid too.

Let’s be clear about one thing — the human brain is a
fantastic computing device, capable of doing enormously
complex calculations, especially in image-processing
and in intuitive situations where logic isn’t enough.
So when I use the word “stupid” here, I mean it in a
relative sense.

Multitasking makes us less sharp than we would be if we
were focusing on only one thing.

Most times, this doesn’t matter. Most people most days
can walk and chew gum at the same time, and talk on the
phone and consume oxygen and watch the ducks build
snowmen.

But notice one thing — of the five things I just
listed, all but talking on the phone are pretty
automatic and don’t require conscious thought. You can
walk without thinking about it. Ditto for chewing gum.
Ditto oxygen. Ditto the ducks — unless they really are
building snowmen. If that’s the case, as soon as your
consciousness takes note of the snowmen, the phone
discussion is going to shift direction radically.

And that’s the point. Once one of your tasks percolates
up to the conscious level, you lose the ability to
focus on any of the others.

If you Google the phrase, “Does multitasking make you
stupid,” you’ll find an amusing array of articles to
choose from. (It’s best to read these one at a time.)
Here are some of the things you’ll learn:

* When you’re trying to switch rapidly between several
tasks that take conscious thought, you lose efficiency.
A lot of efficiency — as much as 30% to 50%.

* Some studies show that when you’re focusing on a task
that takes a lot of concentration, an interruption that
breaks your focus can cost you about 20 minutes of lost
focus. This means that if you get interrupted more
often than every 20 minutes, you might NEVER actually
get into a deeply focused, productive state.

* Multitasking can actually lower your performance on
IQ tests — by about 10 points. Smoking a joint only
costs you 4 points. So if you have to choose between
multitasking and marijuana, the choice should be clear,
although your boss and your government probably see
things differently. Bosses and governments love
multitasking.

When people say that “multitasking makes you stupid,”
all of the above is what they mean.

So what’s a busy writer to do? You can’t shut off the
world, can you?

No, but you can shut off some parts of the world. If
you’re doing something that takes concentration (such
as writing fiction), you can take a few steps to make
yourself more productive for a well-defined period of
time while you focus:

* Unplug the phone or disable it or feed it to the dog.
Do what it takes.

* Close your e-mail program or at least disable it from
doing those useless automatic checks every five
minutes. The world is not going to end if you don’t get
e-mails instantly.

* Shut down all instant-messaging, texting, or anything
else that can interrupt you.

* Get a clock with a timer and set it for 50 minutes of
uninterrupted writing. Then write.

You can do a lot in 50 minutes of quality, productive,
uninterrupted, non-multitasking time. An awful lot.

Many writers find that they write more productively
when they’re listening to music. Some writers can’t
listen to vocal music but they thrive on instrumental
music. I’m the opposite — instrumental music bores me
into a potato-like state, but I can write 1000 words
per hour with the right kind of vocal music.

Oddly enough, certain European heavy metal groups work
best for me. I have no idea why, but it’s a fact that
just about any song by Nightwish or Hammerfall or
Dragonforce makes me more productive. I discovered them
on Pandora.com, a music streaming web site which is
smart enough to learn what kind of music you like and
bring you more of it.

If music gets you rolling, then find out what works
best and use that. Load up your favorite music on your
computer, or log into Pandora.com, or just turn on the
radio, and then pour out the words.

Writers often ask me what my secret is for being so
productive. If I have a secret, it’s this:

Singletasking makes you smart.

Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, “the
Snowflake Guy,” publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing
E-zine, with more than 19,000 readers, every month. If
you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction,
AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND
have FUN doing it, visit
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing
and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.

I’ve written many white papers, and Michael Stelzner has long been a source of inspiration to me in that realm. I just found an entry on his blog by John White, and it resonated with me. Perhaps it will with you:

Images as Bricks, Text as Mortar – A New Model for White Papers?

By John White

White papers are meant to persuade and inform. What if you did all of your persuading with images and all of your informing with text? (Click on title for full article)

Many people who want to write a book are held back by fear–of not being able to finish; of how the book will be judged; of being “found out.” These are common experiences. If you have any of these fears, do not berate yourself.

If you’ve never written a book, it’s a mysterious and daunting undertaking. Your discomfort is natural. And you can use it to help you move forward in the book-writing process. Here are two things you might consider doing:

1. Make a list of all the benefits you will gain by having a book published. Do it quickly, without thinking about it. List as many as you can.

   Next, make a list of all the good things that WON’T happen if you DON’T publish a book.

   Finally, list your fears, on a separate piece of paper.

   Now consider each fear. What will happen if it is realized? And what will happen if the opposite occurs? Write down those “good opposites” for each fear.

   Before each writing session, review your lists. Remind yourself of the benefits of publishing a book, and what you’ll miss if you don’t. Then go through your list of fears, asking yourself, “How will I feel if this happens?” And immediately after thinking about the answer to that question, ask yourself, “And how will I feel if this (“good opposite) happens?” Then move ahead.

   Every time a fear arises, take a moment to consider it. Then consider its opposite, and move ahead.

2. Get a copy of my book about my “Simple Secret.” (It’s free.) Read it through, then follow the simple steps. It is a method with small and easy-to-implement steps. Just commit to doing each step, then the next, then the next. Your book will be done before you know it, and you won’t give yourself a chance to be discouraged by fears.

Made famous by Covey in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” this dictum is perfect for the author of a non-fiction book. The word “end” in “begin with the end in mind” has two meanings: the last part, and the purpose. Both are applicable.

What is the last part of your book? In the chapter that starts something like, “Summing up…,” what will you say to your reader? You need to think about this before you start to write.

And in order to know what goes there, you must have a purpose for your book. What question does it answer? (See “The Diamond is Your Friend.”)

Don’t just start to write. Create your structure first. And know where you are headed.

I’m an expert in non-fiction book writing and publishing–why, how, and what. In my view, the best reason to write a book is if you want to promote your services as an expert.

By writing a book, you accomplish several things:

• You “credentialize” yourself
• You create a unique and inexpensive brochure
• You produce a vehicle to promote your work via press releases, interviews, and more
• Perhaps most importantly, you organize your expertise into a form that can then be turned into additional streams of income–teleseminars, speeches, recordings, courses, ebooks, and more.

Do you need a coach to write a book? No. You don’t really need a coach to do anything. But a coach can help you move more quickly toward your goals.

Check out my free book on how to write a book; it has more insights on how to proceed.