You’re stuck at home. You have internet access and, maybe, a little more time to yourself. Should you write a book? This advice is mainly for those who write business books and self-help books to gain influence — my primary audience. But I hope that all authors currently sheltering at home during the coronavirus crisis…
Is business writing just about bloodless logic? Or is there room for some poetry, some inspiration, some passion in it? This week I conducted my clear writing workshop with writers from a large technology-focused company in Silicon Valley. The participants provide their product managers with research-based information to help support smarter decisions. A typical document…
When people find out I work with three monitors, they’re always curious. Here’s how that works for me and why I think it makes me a more productive writer and editor. The three-monitor setup First, the basics. I have a brand new MacBook Pro 16-inch, replacing one that I had used since 2013. (None of…
A lecture is you standing up and droning on about what you think, based on your voluminous experience. It’s boring in person, and it’s a deadly way to write. In today’s short-attention-span world, a lecture is a good way to get people to click away from the post, stop reading the book, and give up…
Nonfiction writing is made of stories. All of it. Advice. Logical reasoning. Analysis. It’s all stories. And if you don’t understand what a narrative is, no one will read what you write, and no one will be able to benefit from it. I’m editing a nonfiction manuscript right now in which the parts aren’t written…
What’s the best process to write something? The answer depends, more than anything else, on how long it is. You need a plan, but that plan depends on the length of what you’re aiming for. (This advice is for nonfiction. If you write fiction, I’m curious how much the process differs for you.) This post…
Unless — and I admit this is possible — you’re trying to annoy the reader, try not to fall in love — or even in like — with the em dash. So many manuscripts I edit suffer from inflammation of the em dash — it’s rampant — as if these little buggers multiply like cockroaches….
A fellow nonfiction author recently shared that he’d written 18 drafts of his book. That’s probably too many. But how many is the right number? I’ll answer that question, but first, let’s talk about what a draft is. You have a chapter written. You go through and make a change. You save it under a…
The wonderful thing about editing is that every day you discover a new pet peeve. My latest are the Latin-derived etc., i.e., and e.g. They annoy readers, they’re lazy, and you don’t need them. What they all have in common is that, since they’re Latin, they’re supposed to make the writer sound more sophisticated, but…