Writing Archives - Page 43 of 64

Bookcraft 2.0 Why Read the Date Archives Not the Categories?

September 28, 2006 by Liz

What’s Established vs. A Fresh Look

I’m still sorting the pages I printed out when I read through Phil’s monthly archives. As I was sorting, I thought someone must have this question.

Why not just use the categories Phil already has?

It’s a great question and it’s an idea with value. Staying with the categories that are already established offers these benefits.

There are compelling reasons to ignore the categories and take a fresh look. [Read more…]

How to Make Your Writing Unforgettable — Using the Music of the Gettysburg Address

September 27, 2006 by Liz

What Makes Writing Unforgettable?

When people tell me I write well, it’s because I do something extra. After I finish writing and revising a piece, I go back again to listen. I listen to the rhythm and sounds of the words. I listen and make small tweaks. It’s like being a technician at a sound board. I’m mixing the music of the language. I say that seriously.

One guy who understood what I mean, who really had it down, was Abe Lincoln, the 16th U.S. President. He understood that fewer words and more music would deliver more meaning. To me, that’s the reason his Gettysburg Address — less than 300 words — is considered the most remembered American speech in our history.

Listen to the Music of the Language

Read the first paragraph of The Gettysburg Address below. Read to see what the words say.

Now read to hear the music, don’t think about what the words mean. Read them aloud slowly, evenly. Listen to how they sound. Read the paragraph aloud two or three times this way.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. — Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

Do you hear the rhythm, the rat-tat-tat of the syllables? It’s kind of fun to say the words, especially liberty,. dedicated, and proposition. Those words seem to stand out at the right spots.

Can you hear the difference that occurs when you change that last word equal to the term the same. The sounds change too. The two syllables of equal have more stress on the first syllable — E-qual. That difference in stress doesn’t happen with the two words — the same. It doesn’t sound like an ending.

Without that ending, without the feeling of closure, the impact of the whole sentence is lost. The final word doesn’t ring and stay in our ears — or our minds if we’re reading silently. Unconsciously we’re waiting for the next word, the way we wait for the next shoe to drop. The sentence feels incomplete rhythmically.

Abe Lincoln understood how words make meaning and how they make music.You could almost sing the Gettysburg Address. It wouldn’t surprise me if folks already have.

It’s not hard to do what Abe did.
[Read more…]

Help! I Need an Editor — Too Many Choices and Only One Manuscript

September 26, 2006 by Liz

What Do Editors Do Anyway?

When I got my first job as an editor, I had no idea the kinds of things I would be doing. Nor did I have a clue how hard it would be to answer this question.

What is it that editors do? And what’s a proofreader?
When I’m asked in passing, my answer is usually not too helpful.

I tell my mother-in-law I write mystery novels and that the proofreader checks that the solution really works.

Then I quickly change the subject. Explaining what editors do is like trying to tell a nonblogger about blogging.

The secret is that editors edit about 35% of the time. They also write, rewrite, check changes, go to meetings, discuss with authors, writers, and other editors, problem solve, and work with illustrators, photographers, and designers, among a variety of other things, such as keeping track of the incredible paper trail a single volume can create.

On top of that not every editor does the same kind of editing. Quite frankly it’s a bit of a wonder that other editors can explain exactly what it is we all do.

Still, if you’re looking to publish a work with your name on it, you’ll want a professional editor to look the piece over for you. It’s a matter of credibility — for you and your brand.

So maybe knowing a little more about editors —

More than just the fact that editors were good at term papers in high school.

— isn’t such a bad idea.

[Read more…]

Bookcraft 2.0: Let the Sorting Begin

September 26, 2006 by Liz

Pay No Attention to the Publisher at the Sidebar

I’ve completed the content rough cut by printing pages from Phil’s Archives. The next step is to sort those pages into meaningful chunks of related content. I’m doing that now. The process involves a couple of days to let things form and shake out properly.

In the meantime, we’ll speak of other things. I’ll be back to tell you exactly how this part of the process worked.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Hold the Sky, Feet on the Floor . . .

September 25, 2006 by Liz

Often before I write I need time to reflect, to find the words. I put on my headphones and let music to get me there. Music takes me from the worries on my desk and lets me access my center.

Today, I wanted to hold onto a beautiful day in Chicago.

I let Howard Jones help me.

Ordinary things in life are where
this heaven likes to be

Hold the sky, feet on the floor
Hold the sky, feet on the floor

We make our sun to shine
We make our space and time
We make the weather
We make it change

Howard Jones, We Make the Weather, People

I’ve listened to this song for years. Yet, every time I hear it, I learn a little more about what it could mean to me.

What a great way to approach to business, life, relationships. Hold the sky, feet on the floor. That client who didn’t show for a meeting last week, he can’t stop my sun from shining, neither can the numbers in my blog stats or the phone that won’t stop ringing.

Everyday is a new day and we get to decide what the weather will be. It’s not such a hard concept, if I take time to breathe.

Isn’t that part of our branding? We problem solve to change bad weather? Don’t we innovate by changing time and space? Aren’t the best big dreams well-grounded in what we can actually do?

And the people . . . the relationships that add the greatest value to my life are the ones that just by being change the weather. They are the friends and colleagues who teach me to dream BIGGER and still keep myself standing in reality.

Relationships like that have changed my life. They have the power to change the world.

Today is the only today I have. You can bet I’m going to hold that sky with both arms standing right here in my living room.

We make the weather. We make it change.

Liz's Signature

Archive Mining: How to Get From Working Book Title to Rough Cut Content

September 25, 2006 by Liz

Bookcraft 2.0

When I left you in Find a Book in Your Archives the Way a Publisher Would, Phil Gerbyshak and I had agreed on two “working” book titles that can be built from posts in his archives and one “working” title that we’re going to write from scratch.

Phil and I chose one of the two “working” titles that drew from his archives. We made our choice based on these criteria.

the amount of content he felt sure was there
the success of his current book
what his readers would feel was a natural next step

With the working title in my head, I wrote a subtitle — the 25 words or less definition/premise of what the book would be about. That definition would be my tool for deciding what content to keep. Some folks call that statement the “elevator pitch.”

Armed with the premise as my tool, I could effectively mine Phil’s archives for relevant content.

Rough Cut Content Strategy

Rough cut mining for relevant content is what it sounds like, a systematic process of gathering the content that might be useful. Rough cut is the key term. I went to the archives to make a yes/no choice and move on. I used this criteria to gather the content to form the rough cut of the book-to-be.

1. The content is original.

2. The content ties to the premise of the book.

3. The content is of a size worth picking up.

4. The links are few and superficial (not integral to the point of the text.)

5. Quoted text is secondary to original content.

6. Link lists belong in an appendix, if anywhere. They are probably best left behind at this juncture.

The value of each point above changes depending on the type of book being built. The size of content chunk needed in Point 3 is larger, if the book will be running text and smaller, if the book will be a write-in work text. Point 4 changes completely, when my only goal is an ebook. Point 5 takes on new meaning, if the plan is to start each page with a meaningful quotation.

Rough Cut Content Tactics

I went right for the date archives and read them in order. I read to see whether each post meets the premise and the criteria set. Standard operating procedure for dealing with raw content is to get all content in pages of similar size and moveable form. So I also followed these procedures.

Print each post separately.

Make sure every print out carries the reference from where it came — in this case, the post date. If necessary, write it by hand. Captured keystrokes are valuable when the time comes to assemble the book.

The pile of pages on my desk is 140-150 pages deep. I’ll guess high and say that 30% won’t work. That would leave me with about 100 pages to play with. I can do plenty with that.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

If you’d like Liz to help you find or make a book from your archives, click on the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.