Writing a book is a solitary pursuit. You must sit down at your keyboard and write all by yourself. That can be satisfying, but it can also be dangerous. Every author runs the risk of creating their own little echo chamber where all their ideas seem wonderful, and all their prose is lucid and insightful. That’s » Read More
Tag: Writing A Book
Rules to Write By
Most of my clients have never written a book when they come to me for the first time Part of my job as a coach is to help them master the basics of the book-writing process. Over the years I developed the following rules as easy ways to remember and talk about good book-writing practice. The Dabo Swinney Rule When » Read More
The March of Technology for Writers
We live in an age of technology. It’s easy to forget that a lot of the technology we take for granted is relatively recent. For most of history, if you wanted to write a book, you did it by hand. Charles Dickens wrote 15 novels, five novellas, and hundreds of short stories. He did it all by hand. When I got out of » Read More
Should I write every day?
Should you write every day? Many experts suggest that you should. Many great writers have written every day. But many have not. There is no “one size fits all” answer to the question. Whether you write every day or not is determined by several things. And the situation is different if you’re writing short » Read More
Expanding Your Book
“I have a great idea for a business book, but when I wrote it, I had only 17,000 words. How do I expand to a full-length book?” Jay was frustrated when he asked me that question. We talked about his idea. It was solid, helpful, and grew out of his experience with clients. Jay thought he’d expressed the idea » Read More