Kazuo Ishiguro

I met up with a business colleague yesterday and one of the things we talked about was our reactions to reading the short stories by Ishiguro collected under the title of Nocturnes.

Since I'd only met her once previously I didn't know her tastes in reading but she'd posted on LinkedIn that she was reading Nocturnes.  I'd only just finished the book so it gave us a point of connection. 

What drew me to the book, apart from liking short stories, was that Ishiguro had written the lyrics for one of my favourite singers Stacey Kent., recorded on Breakfast on the Morning Tram, issued by Blue Note in 2007.

The stories in Nocturne explore themes of life, love and music.  Both my colleague and I were left wanting to more about the characters in the stories, some of whom appear more than once.

Writing a business book: 10 essential rules

1. Start your book:. I have no official statistics but my informal research tells me that the ratio of would be writers to actual starters is 10:1. 
2. Write something every day.  Even if you only manage half a page in Word, that's better than going a week then exhausting yourself by writing 50 pages.  Writing is like other activites, the more often you do it the easier it gets.  Try for 15 minutes every day.
3. Be disciplined. When you write make sure that's your time.  Ignore the phone, the email and everything else.  Even if you only allocate that 15 minutes, ring fence it.  Get up early.  Stay up late.  Do whatever it takes to create that space.
4. Send your internal critic on holiday. One of the commonest problems for new writers is to review their work as they go along.  That's the worst thing to do because writing is a seaparate activity from editing.  Confusing the two will stop you putting anything down on paper.  When you write, only write.
5. Find your best time to write. Morning or evening?   Short bursts or lengthy sessions?  When and how are you most efficient at anything?  Writing is no different in requiring your concentration and focus. 
6. Do your research - before you write.  You may need to do a substantial amount of research for your writing.  If so then do it before you begin to write; give everything itime to settle in your brain beofre you start writing..  Like editing, research takes a different mindset and stopping in the middle of writing to check a fact will slow you down and break your train of thought.  If you need to check something then write that into the text in capitals soyou'll pick it up easily when you edit.
7. Be approachable.  The whole point of writing is to communicate something to your reader and make a connection.  Remove as many obstacles as possible.
8. Be flexible.  Changing the structure of what you write can help you communicate better.  Keeping to a rigid structure is wrong if it makes you less effective.  Your priority is not to produce the perfect structure but one that works for your reader.
9. Be passionate.  Enjoy what you want to communicate.  Passion sells.
10. Finish your book.  There are thousands of unfinished manuscripts hidden in desk drawers and computer discs.  Make sure yours sees the light of day.

Inspirational quotes for writers

‘Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him to the public.'  Winston Churchill

Writing Bullets: how to do it for maximum effect

Bullets are a major weapon in your writing armoury.

Want to whiz your reader through your text?
Want to make your points fast?
Want to catch those scanners and skimmers on your website?

Bullets are what you need.

Writing them for effect is vital.  Here's how:

• cover only one point at a time
• pull out the juiciest information to highlight
• add the page number for a book where they can find more of the information
• answer questions they might want to ask
• slip in teasers for in-depth information
• make them active and positive

How do you set about constructing bullets?

1. Take the piece of tex you're writing and on index cards, write down the  most important facts, featrues of the product or service you're promoting.
2. For each fact and feature, create a benefit for the user.
3. Look at each benefit in turn and write it in not more than 10 words.  you can use longer bullets but limiting yourself to 10 words makes you focus on the essentials.

It takes practice at dashing off bullets but once you've acquired the skill you'll be amazed how many ways you can use that skill.

1. Create bullets for anything you write - a great way to give you the skeleton of a piece.
2. Write a 60 second introduction to your business using connected bullets.
3. Talk or write about the essential benefits of your business - fast.

Bullets are the essential bones of your business writing.  If you can't make lively bullets from what you're writing, you sneed to change it.

Quotes for writers

'A human being is a part of a whole called by us the universe.'  Albert Einstein

Writing science fiction?

The fourth Alt.Fiction is programmed to take place on 12th June 2010 in QUAD; Derby’s brand new state-of-the-art multi-media venue.


Alt.Fiction is made up of a number of different types of sessions, such as readings, workshops, discussion panels and Q&A sessions.This year BBC books – publishers of tie-in-novels from the ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Torchwood’ and ‘Being Human’ series – have confirmed their attendance
http://www.altfiction.co.uk/

Business Writing essential: sub-headings

Sub-headings need to be seen as key parts of your text.

Sub-headings create focus

Sub-headings act as the landing lights for your reader coming in.  Without them, all the reader and the search engines might see is a mass of dark text with no guide as to what are the most important parts for them to read.

Sub-headings make it easy for your reader

What we have to do is ease our reader through the text in the way we want them to go.  Make them work hard and they're likely to bail out.

How do you produce effective sub-headings?

Sub-headings provide exactly the same service as do headlines.  They are simply further down the page.  Headlines are there to coax you to read the first line of the text.  Sub-headings are there to coax you to read the next section.

Think of the story you want them to read

Guiding them through the story via the sub-headings means that if they dip in half way down the piece, the sub-heading where they dip in should be as compelling a part of the story as is the headline.

Pull them into the conversation via the sub-headings

Using open questions in the sub-headings starts them thinking about the conversation that's happening in your piece.  Teasing them and intriguing them with interesting facts is another way of doing it.

You only have one chance to attract their interest.  Hiding the most important or fascinating facts deep in your text won't help you gain their interest.

Be bold, be up-front and be genuine with your sub-headings.  Construct them properly and they'll work hard for you.