Birchard Books
Bill Birchard—Writing and Book Consultant
BILL'S BLOG ON WRITING
“I’m in the Mood for Writing”
How do you know when you’re ready to write? Ready to translate your thoughts into words? What mood should you be...
Finding your muse
One of the great mysteries of writing is how to access your “muse”—your writing inspiration. How do you get it to...
Rewarding tactics for writers
I felt committed to the eight Ss when I developed them as principal strategies for great writing. They reflected...
Reward Your Reader
Smells, textures, images, sounds, emotions—if you’re a writer, you can use each one to activate a theatre of neurons...
The Kiss of Writing Success
What is the essence of great writing? Here are some answers:
Keeping it simple
Keeping it specific
Keeping...
Pencil power
There has been a miniboom of articles on the benefits of doodling. The trigger appears to have been an Applied Cognitive...
Titling your bestseller
What’s the secret for titling a serious nonfiction book? There is no secret. A host of writers—in books, blogs,...
Writing to think
I regularly urge authors to work separately on two forms of composition: “writing to think” and “writing to deliver.”...
The unconscious elephant
“When the thinking isn’t done, the writing can’t begin.” That, in effect, is my motto when I get stuck writing....
Making readers better
Why do people enjoy a book and recommend it to friends? One motivation is that they find it makes them better. It...
Metaphor for life
In his essay, “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell had some famous words of advice: “A scrupulous...
The box as the mother of invention
A lot of people emphasize out-of-the-box thinking as a means to creating a great book (or a great anything). In...
Distinctions are the essence
I learned something simple yet profound from two authors I worked with on Ethics for the Real World (Harvard Business...
Connecting in your lead
When you write a lead paragraph, one question faces you above all: How do you connect with the reader? And right...
Three's the charm
The world’s best authors often suggest that rewriting is more important than writing. Hemingway’s classic line:...
Why take notes
If you said memoir is a form of fiction, you would be half right. It is “based on a true story,” as Hollywood says....
In praise of copyfit
One of the most practical tips I can give authors toiling with a manuscript is to watch their copyfit. “Copyfit”...
Your crappy best
A computer designer in Tracy Kidder’s Pulitzer-Prize winning book, The Soul of a New Machine, was fond of saying,...
The main thing
The legendary management-consulting guru Stephen Covey was fond of saying, “The main thing is keeping the main thing...
Red River Valley test
In an interview on the radio program Art of the Song, singer and songwriter Jude Johnstone gave a helpful tip that...
Ready to write a book?
Most professionals dream of writing a book. If you’re one of them, it’s a good idea to ask yourself some probing...
Remedies for productive procrastination
Friends of mine introduced me to the concept of “productive procrastination”— doing work but not doing work you...
Luck counts
This is a story that has no moral, other than “bad luck happens.” It took place in the mid 2000s. It’s about the...
Fictional time bombs
There’s an old saying in journalism: “If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out.” In other words, don’t...
Take it up a level
Authors often come to me for help in developing a book about a topic they know from years of experience. They’ve...
Beware permissions
If you’re thinking about quoting copyrighted material in your book, think again. Although “fair use” provisions...
Write for the future
Most books, from idea to print, take two years to finish. How do you know what the market will be like when your...
Research tools to live by
In my book-writing workshops, I offer many book-writing tips. But the questions people most want answered at the...
How many words in a book?
How long should your book be? I write a lot of management and business books, so I recently posed that question...
To self-publish...or not
Self-publishing gets a lot of good press these days. It’s faster, easier, cheaper, more profitable, a better deal—choose...
Quadrupling your time budget?
Authors can learn a lot from Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow. A psychologist and Nobel-prize winner,...
Find your fascinations
If you’ve started a book manuscript and gotten to the point of feeling “lost in the forest,” you should try an exercise...
Speaking for the reader
What so often makes a book resonate with readers is the expression of a universal thought. Maybe a book is ostensibly...
Sample chapter? Yes, no, maybe
When you talk to people in the book business, you hear all kinds of answers to the question: When you submit a nonfiction...
Picasso's rule
Pablo Picasso, around 1900, drew numerous pictures of a favorite topic in his native Spain: bullfighters. In many...
Writing as a contest
Why is writing so tough? Because....“All good writing is a contest with the inexpressible.”
The quote comes from...
Speed writing
If you surf for advice on book writing, you’ll find consultants who promise to teach you how to write a nonfiction...
The quotable Jefferson
Have you ever enjoyed a good, trenchant quote by a famous statesman—only to find the quote was made up? The wisdom...
Write for communities
Steven Piersanti, president of Berret-Koehler Publishers (John Wiley & Sons), last updated his missive, “The 10...
Ethos, pathos, logos
Aristotle argued there were three ways to persuade: ethos, pathos, and logos. The threesome makes a handy package...
The 100% solution
Writing some time ago in a Harvard Business Review blog, Robyn Bolton asked a good question about selling a product...
How to choose a ghostwriter
If you troll the web, you will find that lots of people offer ghostwriting services—help for authors in structuring,...
Yes....and!
Writers can learn a lot from improvisational actors. If you feel you lack for creativity, for example, try an exercise...
Ideals for success
I ran across Jim Stengel’s book, Grow, and it struck me how much his management ideas apply to the early phases...
Calculating your ROI
Every book requires an investment, a large one. So a good exercise before starting on a book project is to calculate...
Desktop signage for authors
What reminder do you post over your desk for writing? Most of us probably post things that we often forget and wish...
The art of deferral
When you start a chapter, especially early chapters in your book, you’ll often face a very specific writing challenge:...
Delivering the goods
Back in 2009, as I was interviewing people for my book, Merchants of Virtue, I discovered that designing and developing...
Journaling to clarity
In Stairway to Earth, I recommend that authors create a positioning journal. The journal is a free-form piece of...
Red flag of boredom
I periodically get bored while writing—bored, that is, while I’m actually composing. I can be disciplined when I...
Remember a pitch
In Stairway to Earth, I urge authors to write not only a proposal for publishers. I also urge them to write a pitch....
Fresh self-editing
I’ve spent many years on both sides of the editorial fence, as writer and editor. And the editor, whatever else...
Ready for a proposal counteroffer?
One of the first big surprises on the road to publication may come after you submit your proposal. Here you are,...
Mind the contract nits
In a once-in-a-decade event, the Authors Guild released its new “Model Trade Book Contract” in 2014. Though Guild...
Dateline self-publishing
You may have heard that, if you self-publish a book, you can upload a manuscript to a printer and have books in...
The nine-month publication turnaround
So you’ve heard that it takes nine months for a publisher to release a book. Yes, it’s true. Although technology...
Word counting is your friend
I often hear from writer friends: “I’m a really slow writer.”
Really slow? I’m never sure what that means. Do...
Book proposals that sing
How good does your book proposal have to be to win a book contract? “It has to sing.” That’s what veterans of the...
Which chapter do you write first?
When you write a nonfiction book, which chapter should you start with? The first? The last? The introduction? What’s...
Back again and again
Once you submit your book manuscript to a publisher, you get a great feeling: You’re all done!
But not quite....
Fonts for editing
The hardest challenge in editing is re-reading your draft with “fresh eyes.” When you edit, you bring back to your...
Kicking off with passion
If you’re thinking about writing a new book, have you asked: “Am I passionate about my book’s message?”
Passion...
What's your block?
Have you ever noticed how, when people talk about “writer’s block,” they seem to be referring to a single thing....
Smart interviews
When you need a few good anecdotes or stories to convey a point, how do you get them? The normal source is interviews....
Fact check to be safe
A few notorious books published as nonfiction have brought to light a little-known fact: Publishers don’t fact-check...
Sample chapter?
Most books on writing advise authors to submit a sample chapter as part of their book proposal. But do you really...
Research by the numbers
How much research does it take to complete a book? If you’re thinking about a narrative book – a story of a person...
To record or not
I once wrote an article for CFO magazine about Herman Miller, Inc., which required interviews with CFO Brian Walker...