So, you may not be the next Steve Jobs or Markus Persson, J.J Rowling or Rich Riordan, and may never be as good as you think you ought to be ... or maybe you wil! I hope so. But one thing is for sure, if you don't BEGIN to create, to invent, to build - in this case to write - you will never ever be a writer.
The journey from the beginning to any particular end (or to a particular midpoint resting-on-your-laurels moment) can be a long and frustrating one, with many pleasant, and sometimes unpleasant twists and turns along the way.
And there are no guarantees about this, baby. You may be a really bad, writer, a successful billionaire writer or anywhere in between. But if you really, REALLY want to be a writer, I can show you how. And if you want to a a better writer, I can guide you as you learn the craft.
I can hold your hand, I can help you get the ideas down, show you the tips, tricks and time-tested techniques for moving step-by-step from the initial fear of committing, through actually getting something down on paper (or on the computer), and progressing through the editing, proofreading and publishing processes.
After 35 years of technical writing, I have written, edited and published hundreds of millions of words for the likes of the New York State government, the United States Post Office, Bank of America, Northrup-Grumman, IBM, HP, Dell and many Silicon Valley firms and startups. As well as helped several writers in publishing their fiction, poetry and business books.
It has usually begun with an idea and a blank sheet of paper (in the early days), now a blank computer screen page. But you just have to start getting words down. Done it tens of thousands of times. You can do it too!
One exciting technical tool I just started working with in the last few days is an iPhone app call Rev. This is great for those who need to create a b ook, but just don't like writing. Not a problem!
Rev is just a pretty basic decent quality audio recorder, with one important difference. Once you sign up at their website and give them your credit card info, you just record and push a button to upload the file to their site. Forty-eight hours (or less) later you have a human-made transcription of your recording in your email inbox, ready for polishing and editing for a cost of $1/minute.
So, a 15-minute test ramble cost me $15 (actually $5 with the first-time $10 discount). Came out to about 500 words. So a rough calculation -
A minimally impressive standard 'single topic" business trade paperback (9"x6") will consist of about 100 pages minimum, at approx 250 words per page, or 25,000 words. Depending on how well organized your thinking is and how fast you speak, you could record between 50-200 words per minute. Talking at 100 words per minute, that would equate to 250 minutes (a little over 4 hours) or $250 dollars for the initial content need to start putting the book together. What a deal? With a 48-hour turnaround! Some people take years to just get that rough content down.
Of course, if you're not a talker, I have many other approaches to stimulate the writing process, such as outlining, brainstorming, interviewing, Q&A, goals, steps, micromanagement, and more.
Ultimately there is only now ... and a continuing series of now-moments-gone, which we call the past, and now-moments still to come, which we call the future. Still, anything that gets done, must be done now! Or at least started. :) - LEN
The journey from the beginning to any particular end (or to a particular midpoint resting-on-your-laurels moment) can be a long and frustrating one, with many pleasant, and sometimes unpleasant twists and turns along the way.
And there are no guarantees about this, baby. You may be a really bad, writer, a successful billionaire writer or anywhere in between. But if you really, REALLY want to be a writer, I can show you how. And if you want to a a better writer, I can guide you as you learn the craft.
I can hold your hand, I can help you get the ideas down, show you the tips, tricks and time-tested techniques for moving step-by-step from the initial fear of committing, through actually getting something down on paper (or on the computer), and progressing through the editing, proofreading and publishing processes.
After 35 years of technical writing, I have written, edited and published hundreds of millions of words for the likes of the New York State government, the United States Post Office, Bank of America, Northrup-Grumman, IBM, HP, Dell and many Silicon Valley firms and startups. As well as helped several writers in publishing their fiction, poetry and business books.
It has usually begun with an idea and a blank sheet of paper (in the early days), now a blank computer screen page. But you just have to start getting words down. Done it tens of thousands of times. You can do it too!
One exciting technical tool I just started working with in the last few days is an iPhone app call Rev. This is great for those who need to create a b ook, but just don't like writing. Not a problem!
Rev is just a pretty basic decent quality audio recorder, with one important difference. Once you sign up at their website and give them your credit card info, you just record and push a button to upload the file to their site. Forty-eight hours (or less) later you have a human-made transcription of your recording in your email inbox, ready for polishing and editing for a cost of $1/minute.
So, a 15-minute test ramble cost me $15 (actually $5 with the first-time $10 discount). Came out to about 500 words. So a rough calculation -
A minimally impressive standard 'single topic" business trade paperback (9"x6") will consist of about 100 pages minimum, at approx 250 words per page, or 25,000 words. Depending on how well organized your thinking is and how fast you speak, you could record between 50-200 words per minute. Talking at 100 words per minute, that would equate to 250 minutes (a little over 4 hours) or $250 dollars for the initial content need to start putting the book together. What a deal? With a 48-hour turnaround! Some people take years to just get that rough content down.
Of course, if you're not a talker, I have many other approaches to stimulate the writing process, such as outlining, brainstorming, interviewing, Q&A, goals, steps, micromanagement, and more.
Ultimately there is only now ... and a continuing series of now-moments-gone, which we call the past, and now-moments still to come, which we call the future. Still, anything that gets done, must be done now! Or at least started. :) - LEN
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