How to write a book, part 2
A popular posts on this blog is how to write a book: the short honest truth with over 900 comments. It’s the…
Category: Writing Well
What copyeditors do
Few people understand the process of completing a book. Everyone understands the ideas of drafts, but the process of…
The new book: confessions of a public speaker
I’ve got two new posts up about the new book: Lessons from 50+ books on public speaking – some…
Next book is first draft complete!
The first draft of my next book, about an insider’s view of public speaking, is done! Yay for me.…
Why does cynicism sell? (This site sucks)
I know I’m fond of criticizing the world. I have many posts with titles like Why X sucks and…
The use and misuse of quoting people
In doing research for writing books you notice disturbing things. Sometimes you discover a saying attributed to two different…
Telling stories about telling stories
Krishna makes an interesting point on his thought clusters blog about professions that involve getting paid for talking about…
My next book… details inside
For the last few months I’ve been working on the next book. In fact, since the last book, I…
The real work of writing
I’ve had a lousy January. I hope yours has been better than mine. Recently I’ve rediscovered, during a week…
Have a novel in you? Prove it (National novel writing month)
In about a week, hundreds of folks will start working on a new novel, writing about 1500 words a…
How to start writing a book
Every artist was first an amateur. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson I get hundreds of comments and emails in response…
Quote of the month: Tim O’Reilly on journalism
What journalists do, which many bloggers have yet to learn, is to consult multiple sources and do fact checking…
From the mailbag: Best request ever for writing advice
I get a lot of email, and sometimes lots of blog comments. Some of it is very nice, has…
George Orwell & the future of blogs
I still have trouble with the use of the word blogging – Why can’t we just say writing? Sure,…
Are we reading less or more? (WSJ)
Here’s a good Wall Street Journal article that examines the recent claims of declining reading rates in the US…
The mystery of writing bestsellers
Stumbled upon this excellent NYTimes article about major book publishers and their poor abilities to predict bestsellers. It’s refreshing…
What to do if the world hates your idea
One of my most popular blog posts ever, how to write a book, generates tons of comments and e-mail…
Who I write for
The ever creative ze-frank is currently asking a great question about creative process. From his current post: When you…
Why revision should feel like torture
Reading my first book is infuriating at times, yet I’m happy about it. How can this be? Given the…
The new name for the artofpm book is…
Three months ago, I asked all of you to help me decide the name of the revised edition of…