Advice from the Masters: James Patterson

Writing Tips No Responses »
Feb 222012

One out of every three US citizens has read at least one of James Patterson’s books. He also holds the record for NY Times bestsellers. Readers love his fast-paced stories in a variety of genres.

He’s also known for his “businesslike” approach to writing. Patterson sees himself as a brand and his books as his products. He was an advertising executive before he wrote novels, so many people think that his success is all about the marketing. Here’s what Patterson said when Writers’ Digest asked him about that.

“I’ve always concentrated on the product. There are very few cases where people or enterprises or franchises have succeeded unless the product is really good for that audience. [Writers] always want to hear it’s the advertising. It isn’t—it’s the product.”

I write this blog for people who aren’t professional writers and who want to write to build their business or enhance their career. If that’s you, take James Patterson’s advice to heart.

Great posts make a great blog. SEO tricks and elegant design will help, but the posts are the product. They represent you, the brand.

It’s the same for that book. You want to write the best book you can because it will represent you to people you may never meet. It represents you, the brand.

Want more? Check out the complete list of Advice from the Masters posts.

Posted by Wally on February 22, 2012 Tagged with: , , ,

Writing Question: When do you stop editing?

Writing Tips 2 Responses »
Feb 212012

Justin McCullough asked me the following question on Twitter.

“I’m wondering how to decide when you’ve edited enough?”

That’s a great question. If you want to create effective blog posts, articles, and books, you need quality editing. But you don’t want to spend time chasing your own tail, making your piece different without making it better. Here are my rules.

Forget perfection

As one of my mentors used to say, “The price of perfection is prohibitive.” If perfection is your goal, you’ll spend hours tweaking your writing to make it just a little better and you’ll never publish anything. Forget perfection. Make your goal a piece of writing that makes sense and reads well.

Read your writing aloud

When you read your writing aloud, you’ll find things that need fixing. You’ll stumble over clumsy phrases, catch situations where you’ve used the same word too many times, and spot places where you’re just not making sense.

If it reads well and makes sense, you’re done

That’s it. If there are problems, fix them. If there aren’t, publish your piece or send it off and move on. You aren’t going for the Nobel Prize here, just helpful prose.

Posted by Wally on February 21, 2012

Clear Writing: The Intelligent 15-Year-Old Test

Writing Tips No Responses »
Feb 202012

“Do people really pay you to write this? It makes NO sense at all.”

With that, my teenage daughter smiled and handed my carefully crafted article back to me. When my kids were teenagers, they were not shy about sharing their opinions.

I’m not sure exactly how I figured out that my kids were absolutely perfect subjects to test whether my writing was clear. But it was a great discovery. My kids were bright and they read well. As teenagers, they knew enough about the world to make sense of anything that I wrote, as long as I did my job and wrote the piece well. If I didn’t, the other benefit of using teenage readers kicked in.

My kids were absolutely fearless about letting me know when I missed the mark. It’s a natural thing. Teenagers are at that stage of life when they’re sure that they’re really smart and that you don’t know much. Not only that, some natural feature of the human growth cycle compels them to tell you when you don’t meet their high standards for clarity.

I learned that if I could explain a business concept to my kids, my other readers would get it, too. And, if it wasn’t clear to my kids, it probably wouldn’t be clear to anybody else, either.

Things went well for a few years, but then, as is nature’s way, my kids grew up. They moved on to their own lives. And they developed manners. I’m proud of that as a parent, but the result was that their criticism wasn’t as candid as before and therefore, not as helpful.

I didn’t want to have more kids, just so I could have fearless readers for a few years in their teens. I decided to find more teenagers. That was easy. I called a local high school and spoke with an English teacher. She knew plenty of intelligent 15-year-olds.

Intelligent 15-year-olds are great for testing your writing. They read as well as your regular readers and they know enough about the world to understand anything you have to say. Most of them won’t care about your subject, which is a good thing. And most of them will be fearless about telling you what they think you said and if you made no sense at all.

The only problem you may have is that some of them will present with “Right Answer Syndrome.” This is the result of a school system that teaches young people there’s a right answer and that the adult seeking their feedback expects them to come up with it.

Bottom Line

Intelligent 15-year-olds are great readers if you want to test your material for clarity. Give them a piece of writing. Ask them to tell you in own words what it says. Then stand back and listen.

Posted by Wally on February 20, 2012 Tagged with: ,

2/18/12: My Writing on Writing this Week

Wally's Writing No Responses »
Feb 182012

Here’s my writing about writing for this week. There were posts on remembering Jeff Zaslow, a book recommendation, writing advice from Jim Collins, why outlines don’t work, and my review of the Blanchard LeaderChat blog.

In Memoriam: Jeff Zaslow
Jeff Zaslow was a great business writer and a good guy. He died Friday and I will miss him.

Book Recommendation: Made to Stick
I could only recommend one book to business book and blog authors, this would be the book. You can even use the chapter headings as a checklist.

Writing Advice from the Masters: Jim Collins
Jim Collins is one of the most successful business book authors ever. Here’s his advice on the process of writing.

3 Ways Outlines don’t Work
Outlines are the default tool for planning books. But outlines are a special purpose tool. Here are three ways that outlines don’t work, especially in the early stages of planning your book.

Blogs I Like: Blanchard LeaderChat
Every week I highlight one business blog that I think sets a good example. This week, we’ll look at Blanchard LeaderChat.

You’ll find my writing about leadership and talent development on my Three Star Leadership Blog.

Current Client Projects

I’m writing blog posts for one client. I’m helping a strategy consultant write his book and coaching two other authors through the process of writing and publishing their first book.

If you’re interested in writing a book, hiring someone to write for you, or just improving your own writing, you should read my Zero Draft blog about the writing that makes a business or career grow.

If you want to get a book done or improve your writing, let’s talk about options. My coaching calendar currently has space open.

Information Products

If you’re a boss, you should check out my Working Supervisor’s Support Kit.

Posted by Wally on February 18, 2012 Tagged with:

Blogs I Like: Blanchard LeaderChat

Writing a Business Blog No Responses »
Feb 172012

You can learn a lot from a good example. That’s why every week I highlight one great business blog. This week, it’s Blanchard LeaderChat. That’s “Blanchard” as in “The Blanchard Companies” which is “Blanchard” as in “Ken Blanchard.” He’s the co-author of The One Minute Manager and a host of other books and articles that present the lessons learned from behavioral science in ways that everyday people can use them.

Ken is one of the people who have defined the conversation about leadership and management over the last three decades. But Blanchard is different from most business gurus and the difference shows in this blog.

Most other gurus have “king and his court” organizations, designed to promote and support them. Blanchard and his wife Marjorie founded The Blanchard Companies in 1979 and it’s a real company that will outlive the couple. Blanchard Companies consultants are the people who contribute to the LeaderChat blog.

David Witt is the Program Director for the company. He moderates the blog which is described as being “about managing in today’s work environment and what leaders can do to create an engaged, motivated, and productive workforce that gets results.” Because different people write the posts, you get different perspectives, but they all offer something a reader can to improve performance.

Here are some recent representative posts. Read them with an eye toward what you can learn from Blanchard LeaderChat’s example. Watch for the way different individuals contribute to a blog that maintains a consistent theme and approach.

How would employees answer these five questions about YOUR corporate culture?

Is a stupid policy at work holding you back?

Want to Build Trust? Speak Less and Listen More

Customer Service, Moments of Truth, and Social Media

Are you growing—or dying—as a leader? 8 questions to ask yourself

Read, enjoy, and learn.

Was that helpful? If it was you may want to check the complete list of blogs I’ve reviewed.

Posted by Wally on February 17, 2012 Tagged with: ,

3 Ways Outlines don’t Work

Writing Skills and Tools 2 Responses »
Feb 162012

Outlines are the default tool for book planning. After all we all learned to outline in elementary school. High school and college teachers had us submit outlines for review before we wrote papers for them. Besides all that tradition, outlining is the only tool most of us have for planning writing of any kind.

Don’t get me wrong. Outlines are a useful tool, they’re just not the most effective tool for many tasks, such as when you’re just beginning to plan your book. Here are three reasons why.

Outlines Limit Creativity

When you start planning your book it’s a time for creative thinking. You want to generate lots of ideas so you can pick the best later in the process. An outline doesn’t do that. Outlines show a limited number of choices in a linear format.

You’ll do better with tools like Mind Mapping and Snowflake Writing that open up your thinking instead of narrowing it down. Save the outline for later stages in the book planning process.

Outlines List the Wrong Things

Outlines are designed to list your points. Points are great. Teachers love points. But they’re not where natural human thinking and learning start. We love stories and concrete examples.

Whatever you do in the early stages of your book planning, you want to collect as many stories and examples as you can. Some writers even start with stories and develop points later.

Outlines Show an Order of Presentation

That’s what outlines are for, which makes them bad for early stage planning. It’s just too early in the process to start making decisions about what will come first and what will come next in your book.

Bottom Line

Outlines shut down the creative process and force the ideas you have into line. That’s exactly what you don’t want when you’re just setting out to plan your book.

Posted by Wally on February 16, 2012 Tagged with: ,

Writing Advice from the Masters: Jim Collins

Writing Tips No Responses »
Feb 152012

Jim Collins has authored or co-authored several business best sellers. While there are observers who have criticized his research and claims, everyone agrees that most business readers love his books and get value from them.

Collins’ most recent book, co-authored with Morten Hansen, is Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck–Why Some Thrive Despite Them All. If you click over to the Amazon page for that book and scroll down, you’ll find “Jim Collins on the Writing Process.” Here’s an excerpt.

“I quickly learned that I had to discover my own methods. Most useful, I realized that I have different brains at different times of day. In the morning, I have a creative brain; in the evening, I have a critical brain. If I try to edit in the morning, I’m too creative, and if I try to create in the evening, I’m too critical. So, I go at writing like a two piston machine: create in the morning, edit in the evening, create in the morning, edit in the evening …”

You have to find the time and the rhythm that work best for you. For me, the morning is “Sacred Writing Time.” In the afternoons I need to do tasks that require physical activity or human contact. Evenings are good for preparation. What works best for you?

Want more? Check out the complete list of Advice from the Masters posts.

Posted by Wally on February 15, 2012 Tagged with:

Book Recommendation: Made to Stick

Writing Tips No Responses »
Feb 142012

“If you could recommend just one book to someone who wants to write a book, what book would it be?”

That question came in an email. Here’s the answer I gave the sender.

There are lots of good books on writing, but most of them are written by a writer for other writers. I write for business people who want to write books and blog posts. So the book I recommend should be written for people who aren’t professional writers.

That makes the decision fairly easy. If you want one book that can help you improve your writing for books and blog posts, and also for proposals and reports, grab a copy of Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

You’ll learn about “The Curse of Knowledge,” and why so much business writing seems impenetrable. That’s in the Introduction. After that, chapter after chapter after chapter will describe techniques you can use to make your writing better and more memorable.

Here’s the list of chapters, which you can also use as a checklist for clear and memorable writing.

  • Simple
  • Unexpected
  • Concrete
  • Credible
  • Emotional
  • Stories

There you have it, a book recommendation and a checklist for good writing, all in one.

Posted by Wally on February 14, 2012 Tagged with: , ,

In Memoriam: Jeff Zaslow

Uncategorized 1 Response »
Feb 132012

On Saturday morning, I was checking the New York Times business section, as usual, when one headline leaped off the screen at me. “Jeffrey Zaslow, Author and Journalistic Role Model, Dies at 53” it read.

I encountered Jeff for the first time when he interviewed me for a story he was writing for the Wall Street Journal. That was several years ago. Those years were busy ones for him.

He wrote a front page Journal story about Randy Pausch and “The Last Lecture,” then he and Randy wrote a book with the same title. It’s a great book.

Jeff wrote some other books you may recognize. There was Highest Duty with Chesley Sullenberger and Gabby, with and about Gabby Giffords.  There were also two other books with special meaning for me.

The Girls from Ames is about the lifetime friendships of several women from Ames, Iowa. I told Jeff how exactly it captured the spirit of the friendships among my wife’s starting-in-childhood friends. And there’s The Magic Room. The story is about a bridal shop in Fowler, Michigan, but the book is about what we want for our daughters.

Frankly, I wouldn’t be writing this post if Jeff Zaslow was just another reporter. With most reporters you exchange information and then you move on. And there are lots of authors I won’t miss after they’re gone. I may miss their work, but they’re not people to me. With Jeff, it was different. I’ll miss his work, but I’ll also miss Jeff.

In every conversation or email exchange you got a little bit of Jeff. And in every conversation or email exchange you knew you were dealing with a person who cared about you and not just about the information you were exchanging. That’s why I’ll miss Jeff Zaslow and I bet a lot of other people will, too.

- o0o-

One other person who remembered Jeff Zaslow is my friend Jennifer Kahnweiler in her post, “Remembering Jeffrey Zaslow, Author and Father”.

 

Posted by Wally on February 13, 2012

2/11/12: My Writing on Writing this Week

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Feb 112012

Here’s my writing about writing for this week. There were posts on two questions I ask every client who wants to write a book, writing advice from Jeffrey Deaver, why you should write a great book, and a review of Ed Batista’s blog.

Give your book project the PEN test
Before you put in the time, effort, and money to write a book, give your project the PEN test.

Writing Your Book: The Ten Year Test
Here’s another question I ask my coaching and ghostwriting clients. Do you love your subject so much that you’re ready to live with it for ten years or more?

Advice from the Masters: Jeffrey Deaver
Jeffery Deaver is my favorite thriller writer because of his marvelous plot twists. Here’s some good advice from Deaver for writers of all kinds about learning to write and about the quality of your work.

Why not write a great book?
You can write a great book or you can write a book that’s just OK. Either way, you’ll spend a lot of time and money. Either way you’ll work hard.

Blogs I Like: Ed Batista
Every week I highlight one business blog that I think sets a good example. This week, we’ll look at Ed Batista’s blog.

You’ll find my writing about leadership and talent development on my Three Star Leadership Blog.

Current Client Projects

I’m writing blog posts for one client. I’m helping a strategy consultant write his book and coaching two other authors through the process of writing and publishing their first book.

If you’re interested in writing a book, hiring someone to write for you, or just improving your own writing, you should read my Zero Draft blog about the writing that makes a business or career grow.

If you want to get a book done or improve your writing, let’s talk about options. My coaching calendar currently has space open.

Information Products

If you’re a boss, you should check out my Working Supervisor’s Support Kit.

Posted by Wally on February 11, 2012 Tagged with: , , ,
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