The Berkun Blog
Management, design, and the making of good things.
Next book is first draft complete!
June 4th, 2009
The first draft of my next book, about an insider’s view of public speaking, is done!
Yay for me.
If you haven’t checked out speakerconfessions.com, you should. There’s some good material there and it gives a flavor for the questions I’m asking and answering in the book. Spread the word if you can.
I’ll be taking a break for a couple of weeks so don’t expect much to happen here until I’m back.
I’m speaking at BusinessToButtons in Malmo, Sweden next week and wrapping some R&R on both ends. And I’ll be posting again come mid June.
Why does cynicism sell? (This site sucks)
April 9th, 2009
I’m self aware enough to know that I’m fond of picking on things. Why X sucks, The myths about Y, etc. Lots of other people do this too and the thing I wonder about is why.
It’s much easier to critique and criticize than it is to make things. There’s no doubt about that.
For example, lets say we have two essays:
A) What makes managers great
B) Why managers make us miserable
Somehow the confession, by writer B, that there is something wrong and they’re going to talk about it strikes me as more honest than writer A. Writer A sounds like an idiot. A Pollyanna. He sounds like someone who thinks everything is great and wonderful and probably has no insight as to why. Whereas Writer B, although he might describe some horror stories, there is a chance she will turn the misery around and explain how you can avoid the misery, and become a good or great manager.
I’m from NYC, and people from NYC are prone to this sort of cynical bias. Simply put, if I don’t see you call bullshit on something, I fear you don’t know how. Or you don’t ever smell it anywhere.
I do realize this is kind of strange and can get in the way, so I do my best to prevent this. But since you folks are here and read the things I write, I wonder what you think. So let me know.
The use and misuse of quoting people
March 30th, 2009
In doing research for writing books you notice funny things.
Sometimes you discover a saying attributed to two different people, and the right attribution is actually less popular than the wrong one (In my case I misattributed a quote to Goethe, as many authors have). Other times people snip a quote in such a way that it is divorced from the context in which the writer intended.
One case in point is this famous saying from Emerson:
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
The quote is from his essay called self-reliance, an essay about learning about yourself. Which is a good thing to do.
The problem is it’s easy to lob off those first two words and have an entirely different quote.
Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
Same sentence, different meaning. A meaning that Emerson never intended and clearly disagreed with. But by using this well worn phrase in a different way, some kind of violation of intention has taken place. It’s not what the author meant. The writer using the quote is co-opting the work of the other guy to suit his own purposes.
This problem can be minimized, but it’s hard to avoid entirely. There are too many misquotings in too many good or popular books, to either verify quotes before using them, or get secondary references for all sources. The web does help catch these things, but preventing them is another matter.
The problems get worse with fiction.
There is a Stephen King quote bouncing around the web that goes like this:
God is cruel, sometimes he makes you live.
As best I can tell, the quote comes from a novel he wrote called Desperation. However another version of the quote is listed this way:
Do you know how cruel your God can be, David. How fantastically cruel? …Sometimes he makes us live.
Which version would you use? Probably the one that’s shorter. This sort of thing happens all the time, such as in the story of the quote known as Murphy’s law. Sometimes the quote gets better over time, even as it distances itself from what the attributed author actually wrote or said.
The surprise is that both versions can be found at the same source, wikiquote. Here’s the first and here’s the second. At least wikiquote attributes quotes to their sources, which many quote books and websites do not.
In any case the quote is from a work of fiction. King, the author, may have written this sentence for purposes that serve the book. He may not actually believe this sentence. Or maybe he does. Only he knows. You can find similar quoting issues where an author gets attributed for something one of his character says, which is really quite a different thing than saying it themselves.
For the writers out there, it’s worth taking a moment to find out where a quote comes before you use it. Even just to know what book it’s from, and if it’s fiction or non-fiction. If you’re using a quote as the main anchor to support your major point, dig up the reference and read the paragraph before and after the quote - it will make a huge difference in respecting what the writer intended. And hopefully writers in the future will do the same with your work.
Sadly few quote compendiums bother to provide any references at all.
Telling stories about telling stories
February 18th, 2009
Krishna makes an interesting point on his thought clusters blog about professions that involve getting paid for talking about the profession itself.
Historically most professions made this impossible. You can’t make a building about making a building, or prepare a meal that’s about preparing a meal. It’d be a real stretch if you tried (”The mashed potatoes represent the mashing of my mind in trying to decide what to make…”). Most kinds of work don’t create a narrative that’s easy for people to follow. But speaking and writing are based on narrative, this happens and then that happens, and on it goes. And you can tell a story about anything, including telling stories. Or telling stories about telling stories. Or blogging about speaking about telling stories about blogging.
The problem of course is that this gets annoying fast. People who hate Wallace’s Infinite Jest or Dave Egger’s A heartbreaking work of staggering genius, hate it because these works are self aware and self involved in a way narratives traditionally are not. But other people love these works for exactly the same reasons. Any kind of story can be made interesting if told well. Master storytellers can get away with a lot of things the rest of us can’t.
Personally I’m interested in writing and speaking for the same singular reason. It’s about making connections between people and ideas. That’s really all I care about. If I thought I could do that better with oil paints or interpretive dance I would. But since I’m pretty sure I can’t, so I’ll stick with things involving words.
My next book… details inside
February 16th, 2009
For the last few months I’ve been working on the next book. In fact, since the last book, I started working on at least two different books, each of which fell over, exploded into flames, and disappeared from the universe from their sheer badness, before I worked my way into this one, which I’m happy to report is going well.
What’s it about? The life and times of a public speaker.
For years I’ve been making a living from writing and speaking, and its been quite a life. I’ve taught through lectures, keynotes, university courses, workshops, seminars, architecture tours, campfires, and street corners. I’ve traveled around the world to do these things, and to get heckled in foreign languages, to watch helplessly as laptops crash, microphones die and the front row falls asleep. There are tons of great stories to tell, and those stories make for an excellent and funny way to share what I know about public speaking and teaching people.
Stay tuned for more. I do plan to blog about the book as it comes together. And if all goes well it should be in stores before the year is out.
Sound good? let me know. And if you have a good public speaking story to share, drop me a line.
New essay: How to be a free thinker
January 26th, 2009
Are you free? I know I’m not. That’s why I write essays about being free, to freely show how un-free I am. Does this not make any sense? That’s ok. All is explained in the essay.
The real work of writing
January 18th, 2009
I’ve had a lousy January. I hope yours has been better than mine.
Recently I’ve rediscovered, during a week of deathmatch cage battles with the next book, that working through this feeling is where the real work is. When a week of writing sessions have gone poorly and faith is low, that’s when my spine, if I still have one, is revealed. To choose to keep working anyway even when it’s not going well. If I pick projects that are always easy, I’m not learning anything. If I don’t hit some walls on a project, I’m not sure I want to be doing them at all. This is a platitude at the beginning, easy to say and believe that you believe. But then you hit a rough patch, and life is all question marks.
For years I’ve collected pithy quotes about how to handle moments like this. They take up half a whiteboard in my office. Little sayings, some mine, some borrowed, for how to get over the various bumps that come with a writing life. But those quotes just sit on their ass. There is always still a choice: do I sit down again and try one more time, believing I’ll get further than the day before, or go watch TV? Play with the dogs? A thousand things seem suddenly seem all so inviting.
When things are going well the choice is easier. Writing wins cause it’s fun, personal, often therapeutic and rewarding. There’s no magic in that choice on the easy days. But on bad days like this one, when you can hear the blank page laughing from the other room, when the memories of writing a chapter, much less a book, feel like they must belong to someone else, what will I choose?
For big goals the bad days matter more than the good. Anyone can work on the good, easy, fun days, but the bad? Well, that’s the question. To believe I’m committed to the work, I have to show up on all days. Every day. And feel my feelings but not let them stop me from showing up at the desk and taking my swings. I’d rather strike out than not show up at the plate. If I’m not willing to strike out, then it’s time to find something else to do.
Using one of my old tricks, this missive has let me cheat my demons by writing about them, and perhaps now I can get back to work. Wish me luck.
Have a novel in you? Prove it (National novel writing month)
October 26th, 2008
In about a week, hundreds of folks will start working on a new novel, writing about 1500 words a day as part of National Novel Writing Month (aka NanoWriMo). It’s a great way to kick yourself into gear, and use the collective morale energy of other amateur and pro writers to psych yourself into overcoming writers block, get in there and just write.
The FAQ will answer all your questions. Sign up is free - there are forums for support, you can track your friends daily writing progress and more.
I’ve met Chris Baty, the founder of NanoWriMo, and the whole thing they’re doing here is fantastic.
If you truly want to stop talking about writing and do it, here’s the best chance you’ll have this year.
How to start writing a book (mailbag)
September 29th, 2008
I get tons of comments/email in response to this post on how to write a book. Here’s another interesting, and life-grounding, question from the mailbag:
I found your website hand thought it was awesome. I watched your videos and decided I could use some advice from you.
My house burnt down 3 weeks ago in Burnsville, Minnesota. I lost a 38 foot RV, a 69 Plymouth Fury Convertible, and monster truck and trailer in the driveway and my 16 years old sons car he worked on so hard and never got to drive. I also lost 5 animals in the fire and that really hurts. I still have my 3 children ages 23, 16 and a 10 year old daughter who is having night mares with all this life changing overnight experience. Guess what? I want to write a book about my life and how it changed so quickly. I am very grateful we are all alive and ok. Like everyone else I dont know where to start. I am living my worst night mare in a hotel gong on a month. We have nothing but the cloths we were wearing that day. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please contact me.
Very sorry to hear about your loss. I do hope there are local government agencies or non-profits that can offer you some assistance. Books aside, I do wish you and your family a better October.
On starting: there is no single easy way to start writing. There are some tricks to try, and I list my take on them in this essay on writing hacks. But everyone is different. How you start doesn’t matter, but if you wait for a perfect easy way to do it, you’ll likely never get started. If that essay doesn’t help, here are some additional tricks:
- Plan to come back. One trick that helps is to remember that the real work in writing is editing. I plan to come back later and revise, cut, rewrite and do all kinds of work later on. The “writing” part is just the beginning and believing this has a freeing effect. When I sit down with a blank page I have no preconceptions. I just start writing and plan to figure it all out later once there are a few pages of rambles and rants to work from.
- Go chronological. In your case you’re writing about things that have happened, or are happening to you. Great. Pick a date, say a week before the fire, and write about what happened every day from them to now. It could be as simple as two or three facts per day, or memories per day, or your recollection of your thoughts on those days, whatever you like. But anchor on time as the spine of your writing. It creates an easy way to divide up your memories, and to trigger thoughts or recollections. You then might choose to go to your family and friends and get their stories and recollections on every day, giving you even more material to work from.
- Keep a notebook with you. Have a place to write down ideas and thoughts about your experience and keep it with you all the time. Your rule should be whenever a thought crosses your mind, no matter how strange or personal, you write it down. Worry later if its good or interesting, but in the moment, commit yourself to writing something down. I have piles of old notebooks, and go through one every few weeks.
- Read other memoirs of experience. Many great writers have written books about their personal experience with tough times. Check out Joan Didion’s The year of magical thinking, about her experience with having two loved ones become seriously ill at the same time. It can help to see how other writers have tackled the same type of writing you’re going through. Worst case, you can critique their handling of personal crisis and write about that :)
- Write every day. Even if it’s just for 5 minutes, even if it’s just a sentence or a few words, sit down and write every single day. You have to get used to how it feels to sit there and that only happens if you put your ass in the chair every single day. Find a slot in your schedule that you can protect (early mornings or late nights often work) and ask family to respect that time.
I hope that helps get you started. Best wishes.
Have a question for the mailbag? Leave a comment or contact me here.
More on learning from mistakes
August 25th, 2008
Some recent e-mail about my essay on how to learn from mistakes. Brian wrote:
I enjoyed reading your article “#44 - How to learn from your mistakes”. One other category of mistake I would add to your list, really a continuation of the “Stupid” mistake, would be “Habitual”, or “Automatic”, whichever phrasing you like better. This is the case where you repeatedly make the same mistake(s) out of habit, it’s automatic. Take the person who wakes up every Saturday around 2pm and says “Gee, I wish I didn’t drink so much, why do I always do that?!”.
These are mistakes that we regret and always ask “Why do I keep on making the same mistake over and over again?”. From my personal study, I feel at the moment that the answer lies in making a new habit of pausing before we make a decision, and imagining the possible outcomes of the action and making a CONSCIOUS (rather than automatic) decision this time.
Absolutely - In fact Leo Buscaglia, in one of his books (I think it’s Living, Loving and Learning) talked about how being healthy depends on making more of our behavior choices. To grow as a person, in his estimation, hinges on seeing more and more of our own behavior, and even emotions, as choices and taking responsibility for them, instead of blaming others, or perhaps, the entire universe.
I’m at least at the point that when I wake up at 2pm on Saturday, I know full well why I made the choice :)
Quote of the month: Tim O’Reilly on journalism
August 18th, 2008
What journalists do, which many bloggers have yet to learn, is to consult multiple sources and do fact checking before blurting out a story. But what bloggers do, which journalists have yet to learn, is to wear their biases on their sleeve, rather than pretending they don’t exist.
- Tim O’Reilly, (From Lessons on blogging from John Stewart)
From the mailbag: Best request ever for writing advice
August 15th, 2008
I get a lot of email, and sometimes lots of blog comments. Some of it is very nice, has feedback and useful criticism, or suggestions for things to write about, and I’m grateful for it. Some are requests for speaking engagements which I make a living on, also awesome. A good chunk are requests to read, review, or watch things other people have done, which is fine if it’s not a generic piece of PR spam. And then there’s a pile that’s is harder to classify: I’m being asked for something, but it’s not entirely clear what it is.
Here’s a recent favorite that appeared in the comments of my post on how to write a book:
I PUT MY ENTIRE COMMENT IN CAPS LOCK SO IT WILL GET YOUR ATTENTION. (please read this!!! and help!!!) OK. I’M A MINOR (14) AND I WROTE A BOOK. I STARTED WITH JUST A PEN AND PAPER AND I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN WITH A PUBLISHER. CAN PUBLISHERS STEAL IDEAS OF BOOKS? DO I NEED MY BOOK COPYRIGHTED? (please don’t think I’m stupid!) WHILE I WAS DOING RESEARCH, I READ THAT MINORS CAN’T GET BOOKS PUBLISHED AND I WANT A KNOWN PUBLISHER TO READ MY BOOK. MY BROTHER, WHO IS ALSO A MINOR, IS WRITING THE SEQUEL TO MY STORY. HOW DO I GET A PUBLISHER TO NOTICE ME? YOUR ARTICLE WAS DISCOURAGING, BUT IT WAS AN EGO DEFLATION THAT I REALLY NEEDED. PUBLISHING MY BOOK IS GOING TO BE HARD, AND I NEED ADVICE FROM SOMEONE LIKE YOU, SOMEONE WHO’S BEEN THERE, DONE THAT IN THE WRITING BUSINESS. (Sam)
Dear Sam:
First off, Caps lock BAD. Very BAD. Don’t do it. Yes, you want attention, but there is good attention and bad attention. Good attention, in this case, is to seem smart and like you’ve done your homework so I’ll want to give you advice. Bad attention is to seem crazy, annoying, helpless, confused and random (which writing in ALL CAPS make you seem). Luckily your comment was so funny and genuine, it outweighed the bad stuff.
And on to your questions:
You mentioned “I WROTE A BOOK”: Really? How long is it exactly? Most books are 50,000 words or more (roughly 200 pages). Of course there are many published books that are shorter, but if all you have are a few pages, as far as a publisher is concerned, you have a short story on your hands, not a novel or a book. But then again, if you can find your local kinkos, you can make a book of any size you’d like. If I were 14 I’d be my own publisher - it’s faster, easier, and probably more fun.
Can publishers steal ideas? This is so unlikely it’s not worth worrying about. Can’t think of a single instance of this actually happening. It’s more likely another writer will “steal” ideas, but that’s unlikely too. Provided you can prove when you wrote what you wrote, it’d be pretty hard for a publisher to get away with it anyway. I bet you a zillion dollars you should be worrying more about finishing your book, and writing well, than about your ideas being taken from you.
Minors and books: There is no law that says a minor can’t write or publish books. There have been plenty of young writers who have had books published (Paolini was a teenager when his first novel was published).
Sequels: I was quite impressed you’ve got your brother working on the sequel before the original is finished. Perhaps you can get your sister or cousin to work on the prequel?
How to get a publisher to notice you: Start by rereading my post. They don’t find you, you have to go and find them. Find publishers that makes the kinds of books you want to write, go to their website, and find their information on submissions. But dont worry about publishers until your book is almost done.
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