Ready for a Writing Adventure?
It can be hard to find the time and motivation to write. One way to jump start the process is to find a writers retreat where you can spend a weekend or a week seeing a new location, thinking about your project and maybe doing some writing. Often these events will include time with experts to give you insight and guidance. The easiest way is to find one near you, but they are held all over the world. For instance, there’s a retreat in Iceland coming up in April. I’ve only been briefly to the country , but it impressed me as a...
read moreFormula for Success?
Wouldn’t it be great if someone could tell you exactly how something should be written to be successful? Or does that take all the fun out of trying to figure it out? Regardless, some researchers believe they have a lead on what it takes to write a best seller. They developed an algorithm to analyze and predict with an amazing 84 percent accuracy whether a project will be a commercial success. The key? Avoid cliches, say the computer scientists from Stony Brook University in New York in a study published by the Association of...
read moreWhat Will You Write This Year?
I know that nothing really changed from Tuesday to Wednesday other than the number we write at the end of the date, and yet I can’t help but have a sense that someone flipped a page or wiped the slate clean. Twelve full months, 52 weeks stand before us holding the opportunity to bring to reality what has lurked in the back of our minds as a project for some day. Why not now? Why not this year? The challenge is figuring out how to take advantage of this clean slate and reel in this particular someday project that has been out there...
read moreMerry Christmas and Remember to Write
It seems that people like to write and read about how hard it is at Christmas time. We complain about the crowded malls, we gripe about the money spent and we lament all the food we consume. But I confess that I love this time of year. I love it all. The tree, the shopping, the cookies, the presents, even the commercials (at least some of them). Of course, I don’t really like sitting in traffic, I only wish I liked baking cookies for hours on end, and I’m a stressed out wreck over getting just the right gift for everyone on my...
read moreWhat Will You Write This Week?
This blog nags at the back of my mind urging me to get something up. I want a post that is earth shattering, sensational beyond belief, informative, and engaging. The sort of post that viewers will want to pass along to their friends and family and read over and over again. And yet I sit here with my fingers on the key board not sure where to start and hitting the shift key so many times I get a message about setting up a sticky key. (The magic number is five if you want to try it.) And so I start here, confessing that too often I find it so...
read moreHear it for yourself on the UR Business Network
People spend a lot of time getting their website to look right. And it’s important. Who wants to spend time on an ugly website? But the prettiest pictures in the world aren’t going to drive sales, convince people to give money or compel viewers to return. That takes words. The right words in the right sentences in the right paragraphs with bullets and attention-grabbing headlines. I recently got to talk about this in depth with my colleague Scott Van Voorhis on “The Web Untangled,” an internet radio show hosted...
read moreWhat have you done right lately?
In life, it’s easy to get bogged down with all the things you have to do and all the things you haven’t done. It’s easy to lose site of what all the many things you have done and what is going well. But the chances are that you’ve done a lot right and you deserve to give yourself some credit. So try this – name five things you did right over the last week. Maybe it’s as simple as going for a run even though it was dark or making a phone call that you dreaded. Doing this can put things into perspective and...
read moreWhen is edgy over the cliff?
A new colleague of mine hesitantly sent me a link to a hilarious video from the ellen show. She presented it cautiously, perhaps not wanting to offend me. After all, we are still in those early stages of working together when you feel that you might too easily say or do the wrong thing and damage the relationship. If this had come to me through Facebook, I would have thought nothing of sharing it. Most of my Facebook contacts are friends and family and I know they’d appreciate it. But what about my professional contacts? Is this the...
read moreWhy Should Anyone Read This?
My friend Marvin Kane told someone in the publishing industry recently that he is writing a memoir. Her response was bluntly along the lines of, “You’re not famous. Why would anyone want to read about your life?” That’s cold. But isn’t that a fair question? Why go to all the effort – and it is a lot of effort – of writing a book if no one wants to read it? And that’s why many good stories never get written. People start and stop at “Why would anyone want to read about my boring life?” They think that if they haven’t climbed Mount Everest, won...
read moreBoston Book Festival Saturday
Copley Square is the place to be on Saturday for everyone who reads or writes books or wants to. The Boston Book Festival will be in full force with plenty of activities for young readers and an abundance of meet-the-author and get inspired events for the older ones. I will be there with independent publisher Merrimack Media and an offer for anyone who has been thinking about starting a book. Sign up any time between now and October 31 for the e-course starting November 4th. SHOW SPECIALS FOR WRITERS: Merrimack Media presentstwo workshops to...
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