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April 22, 2010 By 1 Comment

How NOT to write a book–I think…

BoingBoing.net often has really interesting pieces on a wide variety of topics.  I ran across this 1/2009 post from Steven Johnson that is illuminating (how one really good writer writes),

1990 Boing Boing logo, from a t-shirt
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thought-provoking (what a wide range of interests), and befuddling (how in the world does a coherent book emerge from such a chaotic process?).

Now, it may not make sense to compare the style of a frequent NYTimes contributor and multiple-bestseller author to the method I have adopted and teach. But I would have expected to find within his approach something that I might identify as my “structure precedes content” principle.

But maybe I’ve been looking in the wrong place. What Johnson describes as being the major part of his collecting process is really what happens for me before I begin my writing process. I, too, read a lot. I too grab all kinds of articles and Web pages and notes. I stuff them into Evernote (for reasons I’ve elaborated upon here) rather than Devonthink. I just haven’t identified that magpie-like activity as part of my writing process.

Johnson says how having a collection of notes, quotes, and Web pages gives him a starting point for each chapter. What he tells about his structuring is that a unique approach for each book’s structure is suggested to him by the material, and he converges from there.

I love his books and his writing. But I don’t think the process he uses is easy to replicate, although I love reading about it. I like my method better.

What do you think?

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April 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Check out our new Author Forum!

In the menu bar at the top of the blog, there is a new tab: “Forum.” Come check it out! Post your questions, comments, thoughts.

Warmly,

Joel

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April 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Passion!

A newborn macaque imitates tongue protrusion
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Sex! Greed! Pathos! Pain! Does the word “passion” evoke these for you? They are what literary people think of.

When I think “passion” in the context of non-fiction books, I think of things people really, really care about. Things with which they are deeply involved. Things that they can talk about for hours on end. Things they believe are basically good, even if they are frivolous.

Both are powerful. (Maybe because of mirror neurons.) We echo the feelings represented by the words, and that gets our juices flowing.

I’ve heard it said that the reason bad news dominates newspapers is so that people’s adrenalin will be pumping when they see the ads, so that they’ll have an emotional reaction. And it doesn’t much matter if the reaction is positive or negative; it’s just that strong negative reactions are easier to generate. So that’s why “if it bleeds, it leads.”

When you are writing your book, ignore Sgt. Joe Friday, of the old “Dragnet” tv series, who famously said, “Just the facts, Ma’am.” Your facts need to be dressed in story, something to help your reader identify with what you are saying. Without story and passion, what you write will not hold anyone’s interest.

On the other hand, gratuitous references to body parts or fluids will not accomplish that for most audiences; they will evoke disgust, even revulsion. The passion you convey should relate to the reader’s pain, the thing they want to resolve. Now. If you can, in the well-known advice of copywriters, tap into the conversation that is already taking place in the reader’s head, you have a much better chance of communicating your message to them.

And that’s why you are writing a book, isn’t it? To say something to someone. So use passion, but be civil. You can do it.

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April 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Some of you may take exception to this post

I have to confess to what may be unusual, perhaps even aberrant, behavior. I am convinced it must be strange, because clearly so many writers of blogs, sales letters, and even books, point it out.

Yet I feel there may be something to learn from it, and so I am willing to expose myself to the public eye, in the hope that someone may somehow benefit.

Here it is: When I read a blog, a sales letter, or a book–I read alone. Nobody is seated next to me, peering over my shoulder. It’s just me and the reading material.

I know it’s weird. I know it, because almost universally, writers keep addressing me as part of a crowd: “Some of you may think….” or “Most of you have probably…” It’s hard for me to keep from looking over my shoulder to see who else is with me.

So I have a few suggestions for anyone who might care to address that anomalous personage, the lone reader:

  • In place of “some of you,” try “some people”
  • Instead of “most of you,” consider “most readers”
  • Rather than “all of you,” perhaps “all readers” or even “all my readers” might work

Yes, we must be a minority. But I feel strongly that we, too, deserve to be directly addressed by writers.

What do you think? Comment below.

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April 16, 2010 By 2 Comments

A great free tool for information gathering and tracking

Evernote is a note-taking program that can run on your PC, your Mac, the Web, and your iPhone/iPad. You can create notes in various ways:

  • Click on “new note”; type into the note
  • Go to a Web page in your browser; click on the Evernote elephant icon, and the url and/or the page are stored in an Evernote note
  • Select something on your screen, and click on the elephant in your menu bar or system tray
  • other ways, depending on platform

What’s the big deal about Evernote? What makes it so useful to a book-writer?

  • You can create or access your notes on any of the supported platforms. Capture a note on your PC, and moments later it’s available on your smart phone. Or on a public-access computer.
  • You can capture Web pages with their urls, or just their urls.
  • You can tag your notes and group them in different notebooks.
  • You can email a note as a pdf or export it as an html page.
  • Evernote will look for text within any pictures you save as notes, and let you search the text.
  • You can capture a picture from your smart phone’s camera directly into Evernote.
  • You can capture an audio note on your smart phone by speaking into your smart phone.
  • You can scan text and images directly into Evernote.
  • You can send material to on-line scanning services and have the scans delivered directly to your Evernote account.

And did I mention that it is free? Check it out.

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April 9, 2010 By 2 Comments

Start with a cluster

the writing is on the wall
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Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spent the rest of the day putting the pieces together.

–Ray Bradbury

I wrote yesterday (see entry directly below) about the need for a book writer (any writer, really) to work their “writing muscles” by writing daily. Now I want to add a bit of advice: Begin with a cluster.

I’ve discussed clustering (here and here), so I won’t repeat the instructions. I just want to remind you what clustering does for you:

  • The stuff you know, think, and feel seems to be floating at different levels in a viscous fluid. The closer to the surface something is, the more accessible it is. When you cluster, all that you know about the topic at the center of your cluster comes to the top, where you can find it easily.
  • Clusters sometimes grow like fractal flowers, branching off in unexpected ways, surprising you.
  • If you write first thing in the morning, you have easier access to all the great stuff your subconscious worked on all night. Sometimes dream sequences are recalled; often forgotten or unnoticed associations are brought forth.

Warning: I’m not saying to write your book this way. That’s all in the process described in detail in the free book you can get here. This clustering-and-writing is about a daily workout to make you a better writer. The process of writing a good book is simple and structured. But the stronger your “writing muscles,” the better your good book will be. You can make it great.

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April 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Write daily to improve your writing

If you want to eventually run a marathon, you must run daily. If you want to be ready for any kind of activity, you have to train your body and mind to it by frequent practice.

Marathon de New-York : {{w|Verrazano-Narrows B...
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In Outliers, a wonderful book about what it means to excel, with speculations on what it takes, author Malcolm Gladwell points out that real mastery–whether of swimming, hockey, the violin, or rock music–takes about 10,000 hours of practice.

Now, you may not have that level of mastery in mind for your writing. And you really don’t have to have it, to write a good book. But the more you write, the easier it gets.

If you’re worried about your grammar or sentence structure–don’t. Today’s email- and SMS-trained readers are looking for content, not perfectly constructed sentences. They want authenticity; they want to hear the real you, “speaking” in your true voice. (If your spelling and grammar are truly atrocious, get help. Take a course or find a virtual assistant who can write for you.)

Of course, “true voice” is something to which serious writers aspire, and it can be elusive. Don’t obsess over that either. Just write. Daily.

My cousin is a runner. She’s 58, and feels incomplete if she doesn’t run daily. Running is not only easy for her; it scratches deep itches.

I feel that way about writing. When I don’t write, I feel as if something is wrong, as if I am not fully expressed. Not everything I write is wonderful, but I can do enough of it, easily, so that I can find good stuff in it.

That’s the facility I want you to have with writing. When the prospect of writing a blog post, a book subchapter, or a sales letter does not fill you with dread, but rather gives you anticipatory tingles.

Part of my method for writing books is ZipWriting; reading about how to do it may help you. It’s in the free book you can get here.

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April 5, 2010 By Leave a Comment

What do you think about a template-based book kit?

I have a question for you. But first, I need to describe one of my products to you. Please read the description, especially if you are NOT a coach.

If you look at the tabs above the header of this site, you’ll see one that says Coach Book Kit! If you click on it, you’ll be taken to a long sales letter that leads up to a free 26-minute video, explaining why every coach should write a book–and how my template-based coach book kit is a powerful shortcut.

My kit works like this: Based on the principles I write about in my book, The Simple Secret To Writing A Non-Fiction Book In 30 Days, At 1 Hour A Day!, I teach coaches how to write a book that will explain their “special sauce.” Then I give them all the words that need to be in every coaching book–sections defining coaching; distinguishing it from therapy and consulting; relating how the coaching relationship works; offering examples; and more.

All of this is delivered in a Microsoft Word document, with blank pages that include my instructions for what THEY need to fill in.

Now, a coach could take my free book, and write a book fairly quickly. But the template-based kit greatly accelerates the process. One coach, Bud Bilanich, used the kit to write a book in 5 hours.

Here’s my question: Do you think a GENERIC book-writing template, with step-by-step instructions, would help you write your book? If using it would give you some assurance of completing your book in less than 30 days, at no more than an hour a day, would you want it?

How much would it be worth to you?

I’ve been brainstorming the content of such a kit, and I’m starting to get excited about it. I think it could be a breakthrough for many would-be authors.

But then, I love writing books.

What are your thoughts? Would you want to hear more about such a product? Please comment below.

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March 17, 2010 By 1 Comment

Have an avatar when writing your book (not necessarily a blue one)

embodiment: a new personification of a familiar idea; “the embodiment of hope”; “the incarnation of evil”; “the very avatar of cunning” – definition from wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn.

In copywriting circles, “avatar” is used to add significance to clear definition of your ideal reader.

But whatever you call it, you must know who you are writing for. And generic definitions, like “middle-aged women,” are not really sufficient. You must have a very clear picture in your mind: For example, Helen Brown; 47; divorced, two grown daughters, one married; works as PR director for a Silicon Valley startup; annual income $93,000; no mortgage, as a result of the divorce; drives a 4-year-old Prius. Concerns: Finding a companion; being overweight; an upcoming mammogram; her unemployed unmarried daughter; and so on.

You get the idea: A very detailed picture of who you are writing for will make it easier to write. Because if you know Helen, you are writing to her, not just for her.

What is Helen’s greatest need? Her greatest pain? Greatest fear? Find a magazine picture of “Helen” and hang it up where you can see it.

Having a detailed “avatar”–or ideal reader–will greatly focus your writing. Your compassion and love will come out. You won’t wonder what to write; it will come out of you automatically.

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March 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Conflict: Good for your book

Something in the reader is engaged by conflict, if they can identify with it. If you lay out a story of someone faced with the kind of problem that you typically solve for your clients, describe just how bad things were, then how they got worse (but only if they really did, of course :-) ), and then how the problem was solved with your help, you will have a narrative that is engaging, or even gripping. And if you can describe three such situations, you should have no difficulty using your book to attract clients.

Think about it: What grips your attention? Isn’t the pattern of conflict and resolution in all your favorite stories? There’s no reason it can’t be in your non-fiction writing, too.

And this is just the sort of thing that will carry over nicely into other products–podcasts; recordings; ebooks; and more.

Filed Under: book writing, marketing, steps to write a book
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