Effective-Blog-Writing Archives - Page 2 of 3

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.
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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.

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.

Bookcraft 2.0: Find a Book in Your Archives the Way a Publisher Would

September 23, 2006 by Liz

Bookcraft 2.0

When his talk was over, the questions were answered, and so many copies of 10 Ways to Make It Great!were sold and signed, Phil Gerbyshak and I left the elegant Chase Tower, Chicago, for a restaurant. Through the course of the afternoon we dreamed up a service for bloggers and speakers, who wanted to put their hard-written content to work. It was a cool idea that fit my skill set. It got named Bookcraft 2.0 — a way to repurpose existing content into a book the way a publisher would.

Here is what you should know about this series/case study, Bookcraft 2.0, going in:

1. This series is crafted so that you can look over my shoulder as we repurpose content into a printed book.

2. Phil’s Archives will be the content.

3. I’ll identify approrpiate content that Phil approves, and we’ll make a book.

4. I’ll write a series about each step so that everyone can watch what we do. This, of course, is the first entry in the series.

5. The series centers on making a print book from existing content. A print version easily can be offered as an ebook. The reverse can be significantly harder.

6. I might forget to name or detail some decisions. If you have questions, please ask. I’m happy to explain what I do or how I do something.

Now let’s check Phil’s archives for book ideas. Think we can find one? two? three?

Checking Phil’s Archives

Bookcraft 2.0 began this week, and I’m delighted to report it’s progressing as expected. Here’s what has happened so far.
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Bookcraft 2.0: How to Make Sure Real People Will Want to Read Your Book

September 21, 2006 by Liz

Bad Books Are Everywhere

When he was in 6th grade, my son interviewed me for his school newspaper. He wanted to know what I liked about being publisher more than being a teacher. I said

I can make sure kids never have to read a boring book again.

I meant that.

The world has too many dead books already. We really don’t need to make more.

If you’re building a book, you’re investing real energy. Don’t you want to be sure folks will read it when you’re through?

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Write a Book? Assemble the One in Your Archives!

September 20, 2006 by Liz

Turning One Kind of Content into Another

In July of 1995, I met with president and the major partner/owner of a company in trouble. The company had one product earning and was losing 10% a year. They laid out the problem and asked my solution. Thinking I had nothing to lose, I told them.

I’d get on a plane to the UK next week; find the best product they had to offer; repurpose it to perfectly meet this market; and get it out there earning as fast as I could.

My blood sugar dropped when the partner replied, “You’re going to London.”

We made new products by turning one kind of content into another.

Want to write a book? You probably have one almost done in your archives.
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