Entries Tagged 'General' ↓

Still not too late to attend this Wednesday’s meeting.  There are workshops including one from my colleague Kirsty from the Open Book Agency about using your website to increase sales.

Also they have Christmas gift ideas up there at the moment.  My niece bought some original bookmarks from there on Saturday.

For more details go to www.viewfromthetop.co.uk

I was chatting yesterday to a couple of other writers like us.  It’s good to exchange ideas and

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Interesting article from Malcom Gladwell in Saturday’s Guardian weekend magazine.

All about what makes a genius.  He talks about the Beatles, Bill Gates and Bill Joy and discusses what went into their creating something completely different from what had been before.

One of his conclusion echoes something that one of my writing mentors talked about.  That it takes approx 10,000 hours to become first class at something.

Gladwell talks about the combination of circumstances and hard work that goes into excellence.  Such as the Beatles having to perform for hours in Hamburg strip clubs.  And certainly it’s something that I’ve found for myself with writing.

The more you write, the better you get and the faster you can write.

Gladwell has a new book out called, Outliers, the story of success.Published on 27 November by Allen Lane.

I have an audio programme that I’ve used over several years, called the Einstein Factor by Dr Win Wenger.  Very interesting on visualisation, how to improve performance and all sorts of things.  I’ve found it very useful.  It was a Nightingale Conant programme, but I’m not sure if it’s still available.

What’s the most important part of writing?

I had three fantastic groups at the recent workshops. Some of them came from a technical background, some from sales and some from customer services.

It might seem that there wasn’t too much of a theme between the different backgrounds especially as some of the delegates’ only writing contribution is about noting things down in a CRM system.

However the approach that I use for all my work is the one is based on a core belief that whatever you need writing for, it has to be carried out with one person in mind.

And that’s not you the writer. It’s your reader.

I’ve had discussions with many clients about this since their logic is that they have to talk about what they can do or the reader won’t understand.

To me that’s the wrong way round.

Let’s take the simple example of taking notes. What’s the purpose of notes?

If you’re taking notes of a conversation with a customer, then you need them to be:
1. A true record of your conversation.
2. Full enough to understand what took place if you don’t look at the note for six months.
3. Clear enough for someone else to read and understand if they have to take over your work for any reason.

In each of those cases, you the writer need to consider you or someone else as the reader and what their needs are.

The same information can be phrased in different ways that would totally confuse someone else, or even yourself if not clear. That’s why no matter what you’re writing, you need to start in the same place.

What does the reader need to understand from the notes, or the report or the ad, of whatever the piece is?

And in case you’re misreading the question, it isn’t what do I want them to understand, but what they need to understand.

Part of the group discussion in the workshops was about training manuals. I’m happy to admit that I’m not technical. Which means that if I buy some software, or a piece of equipment I want to be able to use it without any pain. Or at least as little pain as possible.
As I explained in the workshop, manuals are often written in what for me appears to be double dutch or another incomprehensible language. When you examine why that happens, it’s usually because, regardless of the language, the manuals are written by people who understand the product or system.

One way a company can avoid purchasers throwing the manual out of the window is to supply a short – very short introduction.

A “this is where you start”. And you divide it up into this is where you start if you know absolutely nothing, then this is where you start if you can do this, and this is where you start if this is a new version of what you already have.

That approach at least gives the customer the feeling you care about their problems and they’re likely to give you more time before they throw the manual out the window.

Well it works for me – how about you?

Seems like no time at all since i wrote last week’s update.

The only real thing that’s bugged me this week with cats is nothing to do with their behaviour but that of us humans.

Bonfire night. Now I’m not one to stop people enjoying themselves but where fireworks are concerned, I am concerned. Because if it was limited to one evening in the year when everyone went out and enjoyed fireworks either at home or at organised events, I’d be happy for them.

However depending where the 5th falls in the week, in our area that can mean five or six nights of continual firework use. Plus we have a firework shop only two streets away from where we live which means easy access for people.

Having to keep in one unhelpful cat who doesn’t understand why we won’t let him out and doesn’t connect it with the fact that he shoots back in the house if he hears any loud noise like the rubbish lorry, leads to a fun week.

So I pray for wet weather. Not so much to stop the firework displays, but more that I know Humphrey will come in when it’s wet without too much coaxing.

And don’t get me started on intermittent firework use for other celebrations.

Better sign myself off this week as grumpy cat owner I think.

…reader of books. But particularly self help books. I guess over the years I’ve spent thousands of pounds on books, tapes and programmes of one sort or another.

And even when I’ve hit difficult times
I’ve tried to maintain a positive attitude.

Sometimes especially with American programmes it seems like they’re all Pollyannas in the face of terrible things happening. But I firmly believe that we can affect what happens to us far more than we realise.

So this month instead of my opinions I’d like to tell you about some authors who’ve helped me.

M Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled:

I found this book at a very stressful time of my life, started to read bits of it in the bookshop at the corner of the street where I worked and eventually had to buy it. The quote I loved from the book was at the beginning.

“Life is difficult. But when you accept that life is difficult it becomes easy.”

This idea that we should all have an easy life is an illusion. We will always face challenges. Having as much money as we want, living in the house of our dreams with the love of our life doesn’t exclude us from facing challenges. It may alter the type of challenges we face but they will still exist.

Even if the challenge is which Ferrari shall I use today!

Maxwell Maltz Psychocybernetics:

Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon who worked with many cases of facial disfigurement. He found that merely making people look better from the outside didn’t help with their internal self image. His researches into this led him to create PsychoCybernetics at the age of 61. His wife Anne and business partner Dan Kennedy have worked in recent years to keep his ideas flowing. www.psychocybernetics.com

Michael Masterson:

Micahel Masterson is not your typical self help guru. He doesn’t believe too much in abundance theories, but he’s proved over and over that his practical wealth creation ideas work. He was the founder of the American Writers and Artists Institute which was set up specifically to train direct response writers for the American market.

You may not like his style which can be abrasive but his ideas are grounded in reality. I’ve heard him speak a couple of times and he takes no prisoners. He’s obsessive and determined and you can bet that anything he takes on he’ll make a success of.

And if you want tips on how to structure a book note carefully how he does it with any of his. (Automatic Wealth and Ready Fire Aim).

Came across some fun videos last week.

Creating your perfect life

Mind Videos.com obviously have a product to sell but as usual with everything I tell you about there’s some free stuff as well.

There are some inspirational videos you can download which can help you focus your mind on what you want in your life.

www.mindmovies.com

On Course Innovation Leadership Programme

On Thursday last week I attended a presentation at Ruddington Grange about serial entrepreneurs.  The speakers were Derek Mapp founder of Tom Cobleigh inns group and Bob Pynegar, both entrepreneurs who have over years dipped in and out of forming companies, steering them to success and selling them.

They were interviewed by Rob Pittam whose easy style and in depth questions opened up interesting lines of dicussion about the qualities needed for entrepreneurs.

Given that we’re in challenging economic times at present, it’s very reassuring to know it’s mindset to look for the opportunities rather than the necessity of having millions behind you that counts.

It was a new group to me and it was good to meet some different people.

Their next meeting is on 13th November at Nottingham Playhouse.  For more information about it visit

www.oncourse-innovation.com

Went to a book launch for New Writers UK group recently. They looked like a very supportive group who’ve been established for a couple of years. They started with only 3 people and now have membershop in the fifties.

On 27th September at Nottinghamshire County Hall in West Bridgford they’re hold a writers event, with speakers, writers selling books and help on hand for budding authors.

I’d love to go but I’ll be away at the Scarborough Jazz Festival. For more details see their website.

www.newwritersuk.co.uk

I’d like to introduce you to a new client of mine. Kate Smith Designs.

Kate is an illustrator and designer who worked for years for Orchard Designs a leading UK toy and games manufacturer. When they relocated she decided to set up for herself and is already thriving with a busy client list.

Her website has gone live today so take a look. I love her odd bods. Her designs are such fun.

www.katesmithdesigns.com