The job of an author is inescapably lumpy. There are intensely challenging times and other moments — gaps — in which everything on the to-do list is lower priority. If you find yourself with an hour block or more that’s free, don’t waste it. Invest that time in efforts that will pay off in the…
You’ll change your mind about the content of your book as you’re writing it. But writing is an inefficient way to learn. You should start by meticulously planning, not writing, and you should reserve time for rewriting, too. There’s an efficient process that smart writers use and it looks like this: plan/write/revise/polish. I’ll explain. Writing…
The only purpose of business writing is to create a change in the reader. Create the change and you succeed; fail to make the change and you’ve wasted your time. Before you spend hours on a piece of writing, spend 15 minutes on the one tool that will make it most likely to be effective. Learn…
Crappy writing springs from crappy planning. Like an architect, plan before you build. On a project that takes weeks or months to write, spend at least one day on planning. Follow these planning tips to maximize your chance to create something great. In this post, I show you how to lay the groundwork for a writing project like…