The Awareness Paradigm: A How-to Manual Disguised as a Novel
Nancy Hardaway wanted to write a book about the leadership lessons she has learned over the years and now teaches as a consultant, but the traditional format didn’t seem to fit. She decided instead to tell a story and show how good leadership can evolve out of conflict and disagreement. In this engaging tale, the mayor of a small town has to get four opinionated leaders to agree on a redevelopment plan in order to get funding. Each of the characters learns their own lessons along the way. Nancy recently gave an insider’s view to...
read moreDon’t write to me, talk to me
A funny thing happens when we write. We get hung up on saying things in a certain formal way and using words that we wouldn’t normally use in convoluted sentence structures that wind around the point rather than getting straight to it. Perhaps it’s an attempt to display our undeniable intelligence. Perhaps it’s left over determination to adhere to the complex rules of English we learned in middle school. Regardless, the result is fat, boring sentences that fail to bring joy to the reader. To avoid this: read what...
read moreHow to Take a Productive Break from Writing
Have you ever gotten so frustrated with your writing you just want to give up? You feel no spark, no inspiration, no drive? You try to force yourself but the words fall flat on the page. Sometimes the best solution is to just plow through and keep pushing out the copy until it gets better. But sometimes, quite honestly, you just need to give up. Not forever, but for a while at least. This is at the point when you’ve fallen into a dry rut. You need to turn off the computer and go for a walk or a run or a weekend in the woods or a month in...
read moreSeven Steps to Writing a Book When You’re Not Ready to Write
Is there a book in your future? Do you have an idea for a great best seller that you will get to someday? That “someday” maybe a long a long way off, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start now. And in fact, as someone who has helped several authors move their books out of their head and onto paper, I would urge start now, even if you realistically won’t finish it for years. Why? Because in starting now, you are taking an important step in making it happen. And, in starting now, even if you won’t work on it intensively for a while, you are...
read moreInterview with an Author: Ba to Boardroom with No BS
How do you turn a bachelor’s degree into a top executive position? It takes skills. Chris Wilson who has had top jobs at high profile companies including Scudder and Bank of America has written a practical guide to developing those them. In BA to Boardroom with no BS, Chris, who now serves on several boards, gives a rare behind-the-scenes look at how he used those skills to climb the corporate ladder. I had the privilege of working with Chris to develop his ideas and edit the book and recently asked him to share his insights for other...
read moreInterior Design for Writers
I am a big advocate of just starting to write and then writing until you’re done before turning to editing. The challenge then becomes figuring out what should stay and what should go. Sometimes it’s clear, that funny story about burning the pot roast doesn’t mesh with the home improvement tales of woe, or that chapter on the trip to Italy is just a distraction. But how can you be sure something should be cut? What if you are hesitant because you are sentimentally attached to it? Think of your article or the book as a room you need to...
read moreCan you give away too much?
A would-be blogger recently wrote in with a concern about whether in blogging he might give too much away. He wondered whether clients would call him to do the work if he showed them how through great tips and hints on his blog. This is a brilliant question and one that is worth thinking through as you set up a blog. Can you give away too much? Should you protect your secret sauce? The short answers are “no” and “no.” Why? For a few reasons: 1) Even if you tell people exactly what to do, they won’t necessarily...
read morePhotos and posts and oops
Lesson for the day (following random maze photo posted on its lonesome by mistake): Some generous people have made their images available for free use under certain conditions through creative commons. You can find them though flikr. You can search for an image that fits your blog and post it directly from their site. It’s simple, and yet it’s not. You have to type in copy for the post on the site. Otherwise, the photo will go out all alone with no explanation, causing people to wonder what you intended. Although there might be...
read moreIn Memory of an Impressive Blogger
An interesting aspect of blogging is the community that emerges. In some cases, bloggers come to personally know each other as they share posts and comments. In other cases, it’s a looser community without those ties but still an emotional connection from having gotten to see the blogger’s life unfold. So it was with shock and great sadness that I learned of the tragic death of one of my favorite bloggers, Kathreen Ricketson. Kathreen wrote a crafting blog, whipup.net to which I have referred in several of my talks about blogging....
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