David Allen’s Getting Things Done approach to time and task management is simply unequaled. It is simple, understandable, and do-able. If you are trying to fit your book-writing into your schedule, you owe it to yourself to check him out. Lots of free resources, too. Here’s a piece from his latest email: Image via Wikipedia [...]
August 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Useful interviewing tools
Non-fiction authors often need to interview people. Of course you should record the interview, and electronic recorders are so inexpensive that they are commodities. Besides, most smart phones will record full interviews and let them be downloaded to your computer, where you can play them back. Image via Wikipedia What used to frustrate me was [...]
August 17, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Turn card over
My father was born in Ostrolenko, Poland. That fact authorizes me to tell Polish jokes. How do you keep a Polack busy? (“Polack” means simply “Polish man.” There is nothing derogatory about the word.) Give him a card that has printed, on both sides, “Turn card over.” I am that Polack. My geekishness is often [...]
August 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Big
This is not my message, although I found a lot to love about Ayn Rand. It’s the message of Nick Newcomen, who believes we’d all be better off if we adopted Rand’s philosophy. (Read about how he did this here.) I was trying out Google Reader’s new “Play” facility, which seems to pick a bunch [...]
August 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Randy Ingermanson on the future of publishing
I love Randy’s writing. He is my favorite writing teacher for fiction. He invented something he called, “The Snowflake Method,” and even has software to back it up. It matches my structured approach to non-fiction. I found his recent thoughts on the future of publishing on his blog. I agree with all of them, and [...]
August 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Take a break
Some things to get your mind out of focus: Image via Wikipedia 1. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: ‘You stay here; I’ll go on a head.’ 2. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me. 3. A sign on [...]