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March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Write your book: Learn from improv

Improv–improvisational comedy–has become epidemic. Classes and performances pop up all over the place. Improv is taught to corporate teams as team-building.

It’s fun. It builds intimacy. It works.

Like I wrote in an earlier post, we had several young people in our Passover Seder on Monday night, and we wanted them to get involved in the Seder. These are people who are happy to be Jewish, but have little or nothing to do with synagogues or Jewish life in general.

Now, the central part of the Passover meal is the retelling of the coming out from Egypt. “We were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt…and the Lord brought us out, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.” The preservation of Jewish culture and spirituality hinges on the telling and retelling of this and other stories.

But it’s also important to know that it was Moses, not Charlton Heston, who led us out of Egypt. And reading through the traditional story, we felt, would not make much of an impact.

So my wise wife, Dalia, suggested we improvise. “Everyone can take a role, and tell the story from their point of view.” We did that.

At one point, one of the participants suggested we use the improv technique of telling the story sequentially, where each person says a sentence. That’s when it started to get really funny. (I think it helped that we served Pisco Sours as the “first cup”….)

A good time was definitely had by the diverse group. And it occurred to me that my book writing–and yours–could benefit from improv techniques:

  • Make statements, not questions; questions put too big a burden on the other party, unless they are simple, yes/no affairs.
  • Accept all offers. Take the context created by the person working with you and work with it. If you are writing alone, as most of us are, take your “offer” from the news, from blogs, from random people you engage with, from Twitter. Go from there.
  • Go with the flow. “Yes, and…” is an improv term; embellish what is given to you, rather than fight it.
  • Be generous in your own offers. Inspire your readers with big thoughts, lots of possibilities.

Improv is still kind of new to me. Can you think of other ways it can be applied to book writing? Comment below.

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March 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Telling and retelling

Storytelling: If you have small children, or remember being one, you know that they love to hear the same books read to them and the same stories told to them over and over. And if you skip something in the story, your four-year-old will be quick to point it out, and will insist that you rectify it.

Table set for the Passover Seder
Image via Wikipedia

While young parents are driven to the edge of madness by the demand for storytelling repetition, us book writers should pay close attention to this need. It teaches us something about a fundamental human “itch” that needs “scratching.”

In a larger context, culture is preserved through storytelling. I was reminded of this last night at our Passover Seder. “Seder” is a Hebrew word meaning, ”order.” This is the one meal on the Jewish holiday calendar where the order of food, drink, blessings, readings, songs, and more is prescribed. And it’s done at home, amidst one’s family and friends, not in a house of worship.

Central to the Passover meal is the Haggada, the telling of Israel’s coming out from Egypt. Storytelling. “We were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt…and the Lord brought us out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” We recite the plagues visited upon the Egyptions. We sing songs in praise of God, whose grace preserved us.

This year we had several thirty-somethings among us, whose interest in the full seder was polite but not deep. So my wise wife suggested we do a storytelling “improv” version of the Hagaddah. We went around the room–having first substituted a Pisco Sour for the first cup of wine, which helped to loosen tongues–and had each person tell a portion of the story, as they remembered it–no holds barred.

The result was hilarious, delightful–and profound. Feelings and thoughts came out that would not have been heard in a standard Seder.

The lesson for book writers: Make your storytelling personal. Tell a story, preferably one that has meaning in the context of your tribe. That is what will grab everyone’s attention, and enable them to hear what you are saying.

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March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

To be sure

Doubt is uncomfortable; certainty is absurd.

– Voltaire

Speaking about the faith of Abraham as described in Genesis 15, Rabbi Janet Marder shared this quote from the famous French atheist, to encourage the doubters in our Tora study class last Saturday.

The discomfort of doubt can lead to growth–of knowledge, of faith, or even of doubt. It’s a goad that moves us forward. Questions are much more powerful than answers.

Photogravure-Portrait of Rudyard Kipling

Image via Wikipedia

I keep six honest serving-men(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

Rudyard Kipling, “Just So Stories”

When you are trying to create the structure of your book, these are the questions to apply, over and over, to your ideas. If you ask them of yourself, and offer answers, you pre-empt your readers’ questions. They are not left feeling unsatisfied: “How did that happen? When was that? Why would she do that?”

Certainty–actually, it’s probably more accurate to say, “certitude”–is often considered an important attribute of leaders. You have, I’m certain, your own examples of leaders who confidently led their followers astray. Somehow, the confidence of others inspires us to have confidence in them.

But certitude (a personal conviction about an external fact) is not the same as confidence. Certitude leaves no room for question, no room for doubt.

It is likely that your reader does not feel certitude about things you’re writing about. On the one hand, if you express certitude–”This is the way things are”–you may inspire confidence. On the other, if you share your doubts, and talk about your sources, you help your reader draw her or his own conclusions. That will be appreciated.

So show and tell your reader how you arrived at your conclusions, and on what you base your recommendations. Expose your sources. Your readers will thank you.

And read more.

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March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

4 things you can do today to get your book going

  1. Stop writing. If you’ve been filling pages, online or off, just stop. Don’t throw it out; it may fit in your book. But that’s not on the critical path to getting your book done.
  2. Identify your audience and their pain. If you don’t know to whom you are writing, you are unlikely to have a successful or even passable book. You have something to say to someone. It should address a specific point of pain, an ache your reader is desperate to get rid of. Who is that audience? Who is, in fact, your ideal reader? Write out a clear description. Test it! Find someone like that, and interview him or her.
  3. Name your book. The title and subtitle of your book articulate a promise to the reader. The promise is that they will be relieved of the pain alluded to in your title and subtitle. That’s what will get them to pick the thing up.
  4. Create your “diamond” structure (read about it here). Know the question and answer for the book, for each chapter, and for each subchapter. When that’s nailed down, you are ready to write.

For more details, read my free book.

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March 25, 2010 By 1 Comment

I woke up to a rainbow

Rainbow from my bedroom window

Rainbow from my bedroom window

It rained last night. When I awoke around 7:15, the sky was battleship grey. I decided to shut my eyes for a few more minutes.

When I opened them again, at about 7:30, the sky was even a bit darker. But there in awesome glory was a rainbow. I sleepily raced for my camera and caught it.

Somehow, the experience of a rainbow is so much more than the picture. There is so much promise in it. In Genesis, God gives Noah the rainbow as a promise that the world will never again be destroyed by water. But to me, there seems to be much more. It seems to say to me, “Spontaneous beauty is all around you! And you have no clue as to how or why it works. And it’s ok! Be grateful.”

Why is this important to book-writing? I want people who read my books to feel that way. I want to inspire a sense of awe and gratitude in people–not to me or for me, but for their lives, for the beauty and goodness that are theirs.

In this blog, I focus a lot on how your book can serve your business. But with all its utility, a book is your child. You love it because it is your child. You want it achieve its full potential. You want it to do well by doing good.

And you know that it is a mysterious creation, one whose totality is beyond your grasp.

On a recent visit to Israel, I saw a play, “The Same Sea” (“Oto Hayam”), based on a book by famous writer Amos Oz. He appeared on stage before the play to speak about his experience of writing the book, which was unlike anything he wrote before or has written since. “I feel like a cow who discovers she has given birth to a seagull,” he said.

Rainbows. You can’t see one whenever you want, but they are around us.

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March 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Surprised by people

Your book is going to be read by people. Do you know anything about them? If you say, “Well, whoever is attracted to it will read it,” you are right. But you will attract more of the kind of people that you want to reach if you know something about them.

I’ve written about having an “avatar” in mind when you are writing your book. And I try to do that as well. Within the past few days, I was twice surprised by people, who turned out to have backgrounds, interests, and experiences I would never have imagined.

A friend asked me to substitute for her at a BNI meeting. Having been a member myself, I knew I’d enjoy it–and I did. And I met a gentleman there who surprised me.

His name is Alex Lubin, and he has a business that employs professional handymen. (I highly recommend him if you’re within 50 miles of Sunnyvale, CA.) We chatted for a while. Turns out he has a PhD in computer science from Stanford; was vp of Cadence, an electronic computer-aided design company with which I am very familiar; created and sold an intellectual property company based on Russian inventions; and more. Now he runs handymen.

This morning, I needed a notary. I put “notary” and my zip code into Google, and came up with All Things Notary, just a couple of blocks away. I drove over and found an unassuming house at the address. The notary pulled up right after I did, and invited me inside.

He took care of the notarizing, and we chatted a bit. He is Robin Roberts, PhD (business administration). He has a background in nuclear engineering; holds multiple patents; invented, built, and marketed the first device to print out (on paper) caller ID’s, then sold the company to Radio Shack; has been a professional photographer since the fifties; own a kennel (next door) together with his mother; has authored a book….

If I were writing for notaries, I wouldn’t have pictured anyone like Robin. If I were writing for handymen, or small business owners that rent out handymen, I would not have pictured Alex.

Yet the more I get to know people, the more I realize how wide a range of uniquenesses they exhibit.

So when you think of your readers, make room for a variety of qualities and interests.

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March 23, 2010 By

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March 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In writing your book, what’s your organizing principle?

qestion mark and exclamation mark
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One of the most powerful kinds of help you can give your reader is an organizing principle–a way to put together the pieces of what you are trying to teach. More often than not, that will be a metaphor of some kind.

What’s a metaphor? One definition is, “An answer to the question, ‘what is this like?’”

For example, in my approach to writing a book, I say, “The diamond is your friend.” The diamond is a shape that visually describes what for me is the “shape” of every good book: A question-mark at the top of the diamond indicates the question that the book promises to answer; an exclamation point at the bottom symbolizes the promised answer.

The wide part of the diamond are the points that must be established to help your reader make his or her way from the question to the answer. They are the chapters of the book–and each of them is a diamond.

In the wide part of each chapter are its intermediate points–the subchapters of that chapter.

So in a sense, the diamond, and two layers of diamonds nested within it, is the organizing principle of every book.

But your subject matter also needs an organizing principle. What is it? Perhaps it is

  • Chronology; first this happened, then that
  • Complexity; the topic divides naturally into 4 parts, then each part has sub-parts
  • Some kind of “natural” order; the US, then states, then counties and cities

Do you see a pattern? By appealing to a framework that is generally understood, you give your reader a way to find their way around your material, which may be new to them.

What’s your book’s organizing principle?

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March 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Your book stays

While I help authors of all kinds of books, my main focus is on people who want to enhance their business presence and their client-getting abilities by writing a book. So I want to remind you of some the benefits of having a book to share with prospects:

  • If you write a book, that makes you an author. An author is an authority. Whatever your area of endeavor, it’s not likely that many–or even any–of your direct competitors have written a book. The mere fact of having written a book sets you apart.
  • The process of writing a book–well, my book-writing process–forces you to take the information in your head, and put it into a form that is easy to communicate. A form that can easily serve as the basis for a wide variety of additional products. You can sell each of those products, and generate a separate income stream from each.
  • A book is a product you can sell. Many authors who are also public speakers find that after they have negotiate their speaking fee, it is easy to say, “Would you like everyone in the audience to have a copy of my book on the subject? Its cover price is $19.95, but I’ll be glad to provide 500 copies for $12 each.” (Your cost: $3/book.) Meeting planners generally agree enthusiastically.
  • Books are revered in our culture. We happily throw away expensive color brochures–at least, I do–but we keep books. You don’t throw away a book. Consequently, your book hangs around your prospect’s office or home, a constant reminder of who you are and what you offer.

    And if you’ve followed my recommendation, your website‘s url is in the footer of every page of the book. So when the book-owner decides to contact you, you are only a click away.

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March 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

What’s a book?

Here are a couple of definitions of “book” from the Web:

  • a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together); “I am reading a good book on economics“
  • physical objects consisting of a number of pages bound together; “he used a large book as a doorstop”

But if you think about it, you’ll realize that not every object that matches those definitions is considered a book. One big determining factor: Binding.

A saddle-stitched pamphlet–a stack of sheets folded in the middle and stapled–is not usually recognized as a book. Publications with spiral or comb bindings are generally not called books. Material distributed on 3-hole paper in binders is not typically regarded as a book.

Why does this matter? Because a book is written by an author, and an author is assumed to be an authority. A booklet is written by a pamphleteer, not by an author. A workbook or action guide is recognized as coming from a teacher, not from an author.

So if you want to be an author, your writing must be published as a book. The simplest distinguishing factor of a book is that it has a spine. And it is good if the spine has letters on it.

I’ve seen 120-page booklets; the people who wrote them are not considered authors. I’ve seen frankly lousy 48-page books that had a spine; their writers are authors.

It’s not particularly reasonable, but it is a fact of our culture.

So if you want to be an author, you must produce a book. With a spine.

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