The world is changing rapidly before our eyes. If you advise decision-makers, they crave your leadership right now. But it’s a terrifying moment — you can’t just charge blithely ahead, fast forwarding past a crisis that has affected all of us. Whether you call yourself an analyst, a thought leader, a public speaker, or an…
Workshops are a great way to train people. They can continue even when people are unable to gather in the same room, or leaders are unable to fly to present them. You just have to work a little harder to engage the participants. I’ve delivered 27 clear writing workshops so far. Three of those were…
Your job is to write. The publisher’s job is to turn what you write into a book. So why should you worry about printing? Those ink-stained wretches can handle it, right? Not quite. Musicians need to know about microphones. Architects need to know about plumbing. If they don’t, what they conceive doesn’t come out quite…
If you want to write a book, ask these two questions before you start — and every day as you work on it. How will my reader see the world differently? What are they going to do about it? If your book is not going to help your reader to see the world differently, why…
I have a network that I didn’t set out to create. Curiosity and a specific type of work environment created it. I just needed to do my job and not be too much of an asshole. I’m terrible at networking. At events, I struggle to introduce myself to people. I don’t drink. I like to…
I help authors. They’re all over the map. Some are experiencing the earliest glimmerings of author ambitions, while others have written hundreds of pages (possibly in a productive way, possibly not). By the time they get to me, I become their therapist. It’s my job to figure out their problems and recommend the best course…
Here’s a query from a new-minted editor that gets right to the heart of what an editor must do: Dear Dr. Wobs: I want to be an editor when I get out of school, and right now I’m doing beta projects for free to get some practice. I was looking for advice on my first…
I asked an artificial intelligence to write an article. It wasn’t very good, but it wasn’t completely awful, either. If you’re a writer, machines are nipping at your heels; it’s time to work on your creativity. Machines have been writing articles for years — but only in formulaic settings. For example, you won’t be shocked…
“I’m stuck,” I hear you say. “How am I supposed to write a book? It’s such a big project.” Baloney. Every big project is just a series of smaller tasks. And no matter what’s going on with your book, there are tasks to do. You can make time for these. And they will move your…