Print/Download Page PDF When my friend Rick asked me if I ever had writer’s block, I gave him my standard response: “No, not really.” Then I thought about it for a bit. Some knowledgeable people don’t believe there’s such a thing as writer’s block. Dr. Robert Boice spent a career studying writers and how they work. He said writer’s block was a form of procrastination. Many other famous writers and writing experts don’t think there’s such a thing as writer’s block. Toni Morrison said, “I disavow the term.” Judy Blume doesn’t believe in writer’s block. Some writers have alternative definitions ..read more

Print/Download Page PDF We all want to write better. We strive to produce more great content more easily. That’s more likely to happen if you have a reliable writing process, and that writing process is more likely to be effective if it’s based on tested methods and scientific validation. Almost a century ago, Graham Wallas published The Art of Thought. In that landmark book, he laid out a four-step process for getting good ideas. I wrote about the Wallas cycle in 2018 in a post titled “A Research-Based Process to Improve Your Writing.” The four steps in Wallas’ cycle were preparation, incub ..read more

Print/Download Page PDF Joe, Judy, and Mike were all working steadily on their books. Then life intervened. A crisis in Joe’s business claimed his time and attention. He won’t be able to continue writing every morning at the same time and in the same place for an hour or two. Judy has a health issue and doesn’t have the time or energy to work the way she has. Mike wants to step back from intense writing for the summer to spend time with his son, who’ll start high school in the fall. I think of the saying, “We plan, God laughs,” whenever I lay out a project plan that looks oh-so-nice and neat ..read more

Print/Download Page PDF “You can see by our outfits that we are both cowboys. If you get an outfit, you can be a cowboy, too.” Nope. You don’t become a cowboy just by getting an outfit. And you don’t become a thought leader just by saying you are one. Declaring yourself a thought leader doesn’t make you one any more than wearing a Lakers jersey with “James” on the back makes you an All-Star. Joel Kurtzman coined the term “thought leadership” in 1994. He defined thought leaders as people “who possess a distinctively original idea, a unique point of view, or an unprecedented insight into their ..read more

Print/Download Page PDF Students have used flashcards for years to learn all kinds of things, from multiplication tables and Hebrew vocabulary to matching names with faces. But there’s a slightly different reason you should use them to get value from your business books and research. People who get the most from reading business books highlight as they go, as do people who read books as part of their research. The Flashcard feature lets you turn your highlights into flashcards that you can use to review. Here are three ways. Review All Your Highlights You can turn all your highlights into a ..read more

Print/Download Page PDF We’ve seen the Flower Moon, the last full moon of Spring. Summer officially starts on June 20 this year. Maybe you think it “really” starts earlier, on Memorial Day. That’s the start of “psychological summer” for me. It’s time to make up your summer reading list. Here’s how I do it and the story behind the method. My father was a Lutheran pastor, and a pastor’s life is busy. It’s filled with sermon preparations, visits to church members at home and at work, and meetings of all kinds. My father was a voracious reader. He usually read two or three books a week despite h ..read more

Print/Download Page PDF I’ve been a ghostwriter and book writing coach for over twenty years. During that time, I talked to dozens of people about the book they wanted to write and noticed a common pattern. They seem to take similar roads to writing their books. If you think you might want to write a book someday, maybe the following will help you understand where you are and what’s ahead. In the Beginning There is a saying that everyone has a book in them. That may or may not be true, but what’s undoubtedly true is that some people think about it. They may think, “I’d like to write a book s ..read more

Print/Download Page PDF “The process of writing is not the process of typing on the keyboard; it’s the process of crawling around on my carpet, organizing my piles [of paper].” David Brooks’ quote sounds weird. We’re used to imagining the work of writing as some form of sitting or standing and using a pencil, pen, typewriter, or computer to string words together in meaningful ways. That’s part of writing, to be sure. But it’s not the whole story or even most of it. Here are four parts of writing that don’t involve actual writing but are critical if you intend to produce a great book. Ideati ..read more

Print/Download Page PDF Walking is one of the best things you can do to improve your writing. Walking helps you keep fit. It keeps the blood flowing, and it helps you get good ideas. So just go out and take a walk, right? Well, no, because not all walking is going to be helpful in terms of writing. Here’s how to get the most writing bang for your walking buck. Why Walking Helps You Get Insights We know several ways to get insights when you need them, and they have a few things in common. They put your body on autopilot. With the body on autopilot, your mind loses one thing to focus on. So, yo ..read more

Print/Download Page PDF It’s a funny thing about creativity. The very things that make you successful in other areas can be the things that stifle the spirit of discovery. So much of our work is about busyiness, about doing things whether they make sense or not, just to feel like you’re doing something productive. Answering emails, checking blog posts, and diving down research rabbit holes may seem to move you forward, but often they don’t. Creativity needs open space to emerge. It needs to bubble up from the subconscious, and it can’t do that if you fill your time with email, social media, a ..read more