Fifty Writing Tools: Quick List | Poynter.

Fifty Writing Tools: Quick List | Poynter.

Fifty Writing Tools: Quick List

by Roy Peter ClarkPublished June 30, 2006 2:32 pmUpdated Aug. 2, 2011 2:38 pm

Use this quick list of Writing Tools as a handy reference. Copy it and keep it in your wallet or journal, or near your desk or keyboard. Share it and add to it.

I. Nuts and Bolts

1. Begin sentences with subjects and verbs.
Make meaning early, then let weaker elements branch to the right.

2. Order words for emphasis.
Place strong words at the beginning and at the end.

3. Activate your verbs.

Strong verbs create action, save words, and reveal the players.

4. Be passive-aggressive.
Use passive verbs to showcase the “victim” of action.

5. Watch those adverbs. Use them to change the meaning of the verb.

6. Take it easy on the -ings.
Prefer the simple present or past.

7. Fear not the long sentence.
Take the reader on a journey of language and meaning.

8. Establish a pattern, then give it a twist.
Build parallel constructions, but cut across the grain.

9. Let punctuation control pace and space.
Learn the rules, but realize you have more options than you think.

10. Cut big, then small.
Prune the big limbs, then shake out the dead leaves.

II. Special Effects

11. Prefer the simple over the technical.
Use shorter words, sentences and paragraphs at points of complexity.

12. Give key words their space.
Do not repeat a distinctive word unless you intend a specific effect.

13. Play with words, even in serious stories.
Choose words the average writer avoids but the average reader understands.14. Get the name of the dog.

Dig for the concrete and specific, details that appeal to the senses.

15. Pay attention to names.
Interesting names attract the writer � and the reader.

16. Seek original images.
Reject clich�s and first-level creativity.

17. Riff on the creative language of others.
Make word lists, free-associate, be surprised by language.

18. Set the pace with sentence length.
Vary sentences to influence the reader’s speed.

19. Vary the lengths of paragraphs.
Go short or long — or make a “turn”– to match your intent.

20. Choose the number of elements with a purpose in mind.
One, two, three, or four: Each sends a secret message to the reader.

21. Know when to back off and when to show off.
When the topic is most serious, understate; when least serious, exaggerate.
22. Climb up and down the ladder of abstraction.
Learn when to show, when to tell, and when to do both.

23. Tune your voice.
Read drafts aloud.

III. Blueprints

24. Work from a plan.
Index the big parts of your work.

25. Learn the difference between reports and stories.
Use one to render information, the other to render experience.

26. Use dialogue as a form of action.
Dialogue advances narrative; quotes delay it.
27. Reveal traits of character.
Show characteristics through scenes, details, and dialogue.

28. Put odd and interesting things next to each other.
Help the reader learn from contrast.
29. Foreshadow dramatic events or powerful conclusions.
Plant important clues early.

30. To generate suspense, use internal cliffhangers.
To propel readers, make them wait.
31. Build your work around a key question.
Good stories need an engine, a question the action answers for the reader.
32. Place gold coins along the path.
Reward the reader with high points, especially in the middle.

33. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Purposeful repetition links the parts.

34. Write from different cinematic angles.
Turn your notebook into a “camera.”

35. Report and write for scenes.
Then align them in a meaningful sequence.

36. Mix narrative modes.
Combine story forms using the “broken line.”

37. In short pieces of writing, don’t waste a syllable.
Shape shorter works with wit and polish.

38. Prefer archetypes to stereotypes.
Use subtle symbols, not crashing cymbals.

39. Write toward an ending.
Help readers close the circle of meaning.

IV. Useful Habits

40. Draft a mission statement for your work.
To sharpen your learning, write about your writing.

41. Turn procrastination into rehearsal.
Plan and write it first in your head.

42. Do your homework well in advance.
Prepare for the expected — and unexpected.

43. Read for both form and content.
Examine the machinery beneath the text.

44. Save string.
For big projects, save scraps others would toss.

45. Break long projects into parts.
Then assemble the pieces into something whole.

46. Take interest in all crafts that support your work.
To do your best, help others do their best.

47. Recruit your own support group.
Create a corps of helpers for feedback.

48. Limit self-criticism in early drafts.
Turn it loose during revision.

49. Learn from your critics.
Tolerate even unreasonable criticism.

50. Own the tools of your craft.
Build a writing workbench to store your tools.

All of these tips are available via podcast through iTunes.

To purchase a copy of “Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer,” visit your local or online bookstore or click here (as an Amazon affiliate, Poynter will receive a small cut of the profit). You can contact the author at: rclark@poynter.org.

The Inevitable path

The current situation: (from Time)

"In other words, by focusing primarily on fiscal austerity and liquidity support, Europe has entered a race to the bottom. The more budgets get cut and taxes go up, the weaker economies become. That makes it harder to meet fiscal targets or stabilize debt, leading to more cutting and tax hikes and even slower growth, and so on and so on. Economies enter recessions (which is already happening across Europe), making reform more difficult and spooking investors, causing borrowing rates to rise and putting more pressure on national finances. It’s a deadly spiral. By simply imposing more rules on fiscal policy – the basis of a German-inspired vision for a more integrated euro zone – Europe’s leaders are setting targets many members can only meet through extensive suffering, and thus, the new drive for reform of the euro zone can make the debt crisis worse, not better. What’s missing in the reform equation is the other side of integration – not just more dictates and rules, but deeper policy coordination to spur growth and help weaker economies. Instead of an “austerity union” now being pursued, the euro zone needs a true fiscal union, one that doesn’t just penalize rule-breakers, but also uses tax and budgetary coordination to assist debt-ridden economies return to health. That could include a “eurobond” or other methods towards at least partial debt consolidation. Along with a beefier bailout fund, the euro zone must engage in policy changes across its members to reduce imbalances and aid less competitive economies find growth."

Read more: http://business.time.com/2012/01/16/what-sps-downgrades-mean-for-the-euros-future/#ixzz1k0G2QHDA

Your Three Investing Opponents - Thoughts from the Frontline Investment Newsletter - John Mauldin

Your Three Investing Opponents - Thoughts from the Frontline Investment Newsletter - John Mauldin:

The worse we are at any specific skill set, the harder it is for us to evaluate our own competency at it. This is called the Dunning–Kruger effect. This precise sort of cognitive deficit means that areas we are least skilled at – let’s use investing decisions as an example – also means we lack the ability to identify any investing shortcomings. As it turns out, the same skill set needed to be an outstanding investor is also necessary to have “metacognition” – the ability to objectively evaluate one’s own abilities. (This is also true in all other professions.)

Unlike Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon, where all of the children are above average, the bell curve in investing is quite damning. By definition, all investors cannot be above average. Indeed, the odds are high that, like most investors, you will underperform the broad market this year. But it is more than just this year – “underperformance” is not merely a 2011 phenomenon. The statistics suggest that 4 out of 5 of you underperformed last year, and the same number will underperform next year, too.

Underperformance is not a disease suffered only by retail investors – the pros succumb as well. In fact, about 4 out of 5 mutual fund managers underperform their benchmarks every year. These managers engage in many of the same errors that Main Street investors make. They overtrade, they engage in “groupthink,” they freeze up, some have been even known to sell in a panic. (Do any of these sound familiar to you?)

'via Blog this'

How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method

From ehow.

The snowflake method of writing a novel is a scientific approach to writing a book and was invented by Randy Ingermanson, an award-winning author of fiction. This method shows how to write a novel that resembles how a mathematical snowflake is created by repeatedly adding more steps in a structured manner. By starting with small ideas, writing them down and then adding to previous steps, you can soon have a novel ready to send to a publisher.

1. • 1Write a summary of your novel in one sentence. Take an hour and write out your one sentence summary. This sentence will be how you hook an editor into buying your novel. Therefore, it should be the best you can think up.
   • 2
     Turn your sentence into a 5 sentence paragraph that outlines the beginning, conflicts and the end of your novel. Next, give each of the major characters a one page biography. Put down what motivates each of them and the conflicts they will endure.
   • 3
     Go back to the paragraph in step 2. Turn each of the 5 sentences into individual paragraphs. All of the paragraphs should have some excitement and conflict with four of them ending with a disaster and the last paragraph telling how the novel ends. Then, take a day or two and write a page long character synopses for all the main characters. Write a half page synopses for any supporting characters.
   • 4
     Take your one page synopsis from step 4. Turn it into a 4 page synopsis. You'll do this by expanding each of the paragraphs into 4 individual pages over a period of one week. Next, take another week and expand the biography you created in step 4 for all of your characters. Now is the time to sort through the story lines to see which are workable and revise anything that needs it.
   • 5
     Use a spreadsheet to make a list detailing all of the scenes you'll need from the 4-page synopsis. Create a line for each scene. List the point of view character in one column and a description of the scene in another column. You can also add a chapter number for each scene and list them in a column.
   • 6
     Expand each of the lines on the spreadsheet into a multi-paragraph description of the scene. If you find no conflict by the end of a scene, either rewrite it so there is conflict or cut out that scene. After you finish the steps above, take a break and catch your breath. Next, gather the pages you worked out with the snowflake method. Type them into a novel.

The Truth about Marketing

From Here.

1. Do all the thinking for them

The worst mistake you can make when asking anyone for anything is telling them to “Think it over.”
Here’s why: people already have too much to think about.

And so the best strategy is to not ask them to think.

Be specific. Explain your reasoning. Offer proof. Tell them what to do next and why.
If you do it right, it won’t feel like asking at all. It’ll be more like advising.
And they’ll say yes. Not because of magical powers of persuasion, but because you’ve thought through everything, and it’s a no-brainer.

2. Start an avalanche

Pushing over a small rock is easier than pushing over a boulder, but the boulder is a lot more likely to cause an avalanche. So while it’s more work in the beginning to get top people to help you, it’s actually less work in the long run, and the results are far, far greater.

3. Ask for an inch, take a mile

Whenever you’re asking for anything, never start by asking for everything upfront. Instead, start small. Make it easy to get started. Reduce the risk if it flops. Let them see the results for themselves. And when it goes well, ask for more. And more. And more.
You might think that’s unethical, but if everything is going well, why not push for more? It’s not manipulation. It’s common sense.
For instance:

If you want to write a guest post for a popular blog, start by pitching the idea in one or two paragraphs, and then send them an outline, and then write the full draft of the post

If you want do a JV promotion with a leader in your field, start by asking them to email your launch content to only 10% of their list, and than 50% of their list, and then 100%, and then a direct mail campaign

If you want your customers to give you case studies, start by asking for a 1-3 sentence blurb, and then ask for a half-page testimonial, and then talk about doing a two-hour webinar going in depth about their success

No one likes to risk everything upfront, and by offering progressive levels of commitment, your chances of getting them to say yes go through the roof.

4. Always have a real deadline

The keyword is “real.”
 

Real urgency is easy to create. With a little thought, you can build it into your marketing. For example:

• Instead of leaving a free report on your blog forever, tell everyone it will only be available for seven days, and then you’re going to start charging $7 for it. Not only will you get a lot more downloads, but other bloggers will be a lot more likely to promote it during the window
• Instead of letting JV partners dictate when they will promote your product, schedule a launch, announce it to your list, and then forward partners the announcement, inviting them to participate
• Instead of asking customers for testimonials whenever they get around to it, show them the timeline for an upcoming launch, including a specific date to send out testimonials. You need it by then, or you won’t be able to include it

Will some of them bow out, saying they are too busy right now, and they’ll catch you next time?
Sure, but it’s better than never getting started it all. And if you let other people dictate timelines, that’s exactly what will happen.

5. Give ten times more than you take

It’s about generosity so overwhelming they can’t say no.

6. Stand for something greater than yourself

That’s the power of standing for something bigger than yourself. It makes people care.
And it applies to everything:

• Instead of writing yet another how-to post, take a stand on an important issue, arguing with both passion and unassailable logic
• Instead of starting yet another me-too consulting business, create a movement, working tirelessly to change the lives of your customers
• Instead of selling yet another step-by-step manual, sell a philosophy, filled with heroic examples to inspire your customers

Those are the types of things people want to talk about. They feel grateful just for having the chance to help you spread the word.

7. Be completely and utterly shameless

You want to know what separates a great marketer from a mediocre one?
Shamelessness.

By shamelessness, I mean this:An unshakable belief that what you are doing is good for the world and the willingness to do anything to bring it into being.
When you believe in your content, you don’t publish it and forget it. You promote it day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, working tirelessly to spread the message to everyone who needs to hear it, and refusing to rest until they do.
When you believe in your product, you don’t balk at sales. You revel in it. Not because you’re greedy or desperate or egotistical, but because you know your product will help them, and so it’s your duty to get them to buy. Whatever it takes.
When you believe in your charity, you don’t beg for donations. You demand them. You grab people by the shoulders and look them in the eyes and tell them what you’re doing is changing the world, and it’s time for them to step up and do their part.
It’s not about money. It’s not about glory. It’s not even about legacy.
It’s about falling in love. It’s about being enchanted. It’s about seeing a vision so beautiful you can’t help but fight to make it real.
Do you have a vision like that? Something worth getting up every day and fighting for?
If you do, you can accomplish damn near anything.

Elmore Leonard's Rules of Writing

From: http://www.kabedford.com/archives/000013.html

In keeping with recent posts featuring prominent authors' tips for writers, here's Elmore Leonard's famous Ten Rules of Writing. Leonard is a crime writer, and quite possibly among my top three favourite writers ever. Looking over these rules, I can see I've got a lot of trimming to do in my own work. Too much "hooptedoodle", it would appear. Link.

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing
Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle

from the New York Times, Writers on Writing Series.

By ELMORE LEONARD

These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.

1. Never open a book with weather. If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

2. Avoid prologues.

They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.

There is a prologue in John Steinbeck’s “Sweet Thursday,” but it’s O.K. because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: “I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me what the guy that’s talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks. . . . figure out what the guy’s thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that. . . . Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle. . . . Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That’s nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don’t have to read it. I don’t want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.”

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.

The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with “she asseverated,” and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said” . . .

. . . he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances “full of rape and adverbs.”

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.

You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”

This rule doesn’t require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use “suddenly” tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.

Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won’t be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories “Close Range.”

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.

Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” what do the “American and the girl with him” look like? “She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.

Unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you’re good at it, you don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

And finally:

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he’s writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character’s head, and the reader either knows what the guy’s thinking or doesn’t care. I’ll bet you don’t skip dialogue.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It’s my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)

If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character—the one whose view best brings the scene to life—I’m able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what’s going on, and I’m nowhere in sight.

What Steinbeck did in “Sweet Thursday” was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. “Whom the Gods Love They Drive Nuts” is one, “Lousy Wednesday” another. The third chapter is titled “Hooptedoodle 1” and the 38th chapter “Hooptedoodle 2” as warnings to the reader, as if Steinbeck is saying: “Here’s where you’ll see me taking flights of fancy with my writing, and it won’t get in the way of the story. Skip them if you want.”

“Sweet Thursday” came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published, and I’ve never forgotten that prologue.

Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Every word.

How to Draw Caricatures: The 5 Shapes | Tom's MAD Blog!

How to Draw Caricatures: The 5 Shapes | Tom's MAD Blog!

16 things to check when you edit

From www.thinkingandmaking.com

Be vicious when you edit. Vicious. Follow these recommendations with zealous fervor. They help your writing say what it should in a way we’ll understand.

1. I think, I’d say, im my opinion, what I’ve found, in my experience… Yeah. We know. You wrote this. These are your thoughts. If they’re not, provide a reference. If they’re yours, the byline is enough to remind us.

2. Delete all adverbs and adjectives unless they’re absolutely, totally, inherently necessary. Each unnecessary word weakens your impact and clarity.

3. Remove prepositional phrases. Prepositional phrases are less important than your main point. If it’s not important enough to deserve its own sentence, it’s not important enough to read.

4. Active not passive. Kill “to be” verbs. All of them. Always.

5. Kill -ing words. Restructure your sentence so the -ing is an active verb.

6. Lead with the bottom line up front: BLUF. Then include an example, re-state the bottom line, include an illustration, and when you end restate the bottom line. For every point you make, follow this pattern. That’s bottom line, example, bottom line, another example, and then the bottom line (again).

7. Telegraph and signpost what you will say and why we care. We’re not reading mystery novels. We want to know who died, how, who killed them, and why we care up front. That way, we know why we want to read before we begin.

8. Use clear, informative headers. Cute or artsy might be pleasant on the first read, but when we reference it later, the cute header makes it a pain to find things. What you’re writing is worth going back to, right?

9. Introduce new terminology in the intro. If you’ve created a new term or applied a new phrase to describe something, define it at the beginning, and use the new terminology throughout your writing. Readers need the entirety of your piece to learn and assimilate the new phrasing.

10. Typically, sometimes, often times, usually… Yeah. We know. You don’t have to tell us.

11. Say “you” and “your”. Don’t use nouns when talking about your audience (like “User Experience Practitioners”). And don’t use “one”. Speak to us.

12. Ditch clunky words. Instead of “via”, write “using”. Instead of “upon”, say “on”.

13. Remove cliches and common phrases. Every time you take a common phrase shortcut, you’re telling us it’s not worth our time.

14. Use contractions. Write with proper grammar, and people will read. Write like you talk, and people will listen.

15. No pronouns. Repeat the noun over and over again. If you get tired of that, use synonyms.

16. Delete your best lines. We don’t care about poetry, wit, or slyness. We care about what you want to say.

After you edit…

The finished piece should be so tight, terse, concise, and clear that it’s boring.

Boring.

Then sand off the rough edges.

Write like you talk. Where the concise feels awkward, add conversational. Where tight lacks nuance, tease details. Where terse is cold, be warm.

The first 16 recommendations remove fluff and force you to think and communicate. Once you’ve finished editing’s intellectual work, go back and make sure you write like you talk. Writing begins a conversation. If we feel like you’re talking to us, we’ll listen.

Knock It Out of the Park Speech Preparation

Here's a great article for speakers in the HBR Blog by Dan Pallotta

Checklist: (read the article for details)

1. Know your goal.
   
   
2. Memorize your speech.
   
   
3. If you don't want to knock it out of the park, don't follow rule 2.
   
   
4. Practice the transitions.
   
   
5. Don't fear silence.
   
   
6. Never, ever, ever use PowerPoint as your speech notes.
   
   
7. Give something of yourself.
   
   
8. Be yourself.
   
   
9. Don't speak in abstractions.
   
   
10. Feel what's happening in the room
    
    
11. Make eye contact until it scares you.
    
    
12. Don't miss your own talk.
    
    
13. Come from a place of love for your audience.

The Secret to Ensuring Follow-Through: Handoff Checklist

From a Harvard Business Review blog article by Peter Bregman.
He got it from a HBR IdeaCast podcast by Dr. Atul Gawande, surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital and author of The Checklist Manifesto.

When the ball gets dropped, it's usually because of handoff failures. Here is a simple checklist to prevent those failures.

Handoff Checklist

* What do you understand the priorities to be?
* What concerns or ideas do you have that have not already been mentioned?
* What are your key next steps, and by when do you plan to accomplish them?
* What do you need from me in order to be successful?
* Are there any key contingencies we should plan for now?
* When will we next check-in on progress/issues?
* Who else needs to know our plans, and how will we communicate them?

A Different Breed of Cat

Reader's Digest November 1964; Vol 85, No 511
"We Are a Different Breed of Cat.
Sir" about the United States Air Force Academy by John G. Hubbell.

My Favorite Quotations

“Begin at the beginning, and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” — Lewis Carroll

"Championships are won in the off-season." - Charles Daugherty quoting a t-shirt

"The [obvious] issue is never the [real] issue. - Kim Pagel
...
"Be slow to attribute to malice or guile, that which can be explained by ignorance, incompetence, or muddling through." - My modification of Hanlon's Razor, stolen from Heinlein's Razor, stolen from Napoleon.

"If you are going to shoot, shoot. Don't talk" -Tuco in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

Anything by Lazarus Long. e.g "Never try to teach a pig to sing- it wastes your time and annoys the pig." and "A motion to adjourn is always in order."

"The product is Service. You only sell hardware to provide installed base." - Probably from Barb Gatti

"My ancestors did not fight and claw their way to the top of the food chain so I could eat tofu and bean sprouts." - motto of PETA [People Eating Tasty Animals]

"Eighty percent of success is showing up" - Woody Allen

"If you can't fix it, then feature it!" - Gnarly old Collins Program Manager [probably Jim Lockwood]

"It's not really flying unless you are upside-down at least once." - Me

"The worst case is [simultaneously] being out of altitude, airspeed, and ideas...unless you add inverted." - Old pilot's aphorism

"The last red pen always wins." - Me

"In the long run, we are all dead." - JM Keynes

"The markets can be irrational longer than you can be solvent." - JM Keynes

"Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
--Dilbert

"Don't ask the question if you cannot stand the answer." -unknown

"I never saw an emergency that was improved by screaming" - an ER doctor

"Maintain control, analyze the situation, take the proper action" - Air Force basic flight manual

"When playing poker, if you cannot tell who the mark is...it's you." - Bob Sevier

"You will enter the continent of Europe and, in conjunction with the other Allied Nations, undertake operations aimed at the heart of Germany and the destruction of her Armed Forces." - Roosevelt to Eisenhower. An example of a proper command from political authority to the military. Then get out of the way.

Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, the experience usually comes from bad judgment. - Will Rogers

Government spending does not have a multiplier effect on the economy. It is at best neutral. What creates growth is private investment, increases in productivity, and increases in population. That's it. Tax increases have a negative multiplier.
- John Mauldin

Government Imapct

By John Mauldin
Government spending does not have a multiplier effect on the economy. It is at best neutral. What creates growth is private investment, increases in productivity, and increases in population. That's it. Tax increases have a negative multiplier.

My Favorite Books

The Bible (NIV or NASB),
Getting to Yes, Getting Past No,
Winning Teams, Managing Transitions,
Atlas Shrugged, any Heinlein except Job,
My Utmost for His Highest, Herding Cats,
Don't Sing Songs to a Heavy Heart,
Shogun, Whirlwind, Noble House,
Dune, The Foundation Trilogy,
The Five Points of Calvinism,
Practicing the Presence of God,
The Mote in the God's Eye, Godel Escher Bach,
The theory of Games and Economic Behavior,
The Light and the Glory, From Sea to Shining Sea, The Civil War:A Narrative (triology),
Real World Intelligence
The Pyramid Principle
E.M. Bounds on Prayer

My Favorite Movies

Casablanca, Gandhi,
Animal House, Patton,
Honeysuckle Rose, Star Wars I-III,
Apocalypse Now, Sin City,
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,
The Searchers, African Queen,
In Harm's Way, Streets of Fire,
Gladiator,
Hero (AKA Ying Xiong 2002 in Chinese with English subtitles),
Curse of the Golden Flower
Godfather I+II+III, Lord of the Rings,
Lawrence of Arabia,
All Monty Python, both Blues Brothers,
Casino Royale, Saving Private Ryan,
Big Trouble in Little China,
anything with Diane Lane,
anything with Kathleen Turner,
Once Upon a Time in America,
Mash, Blazing Saddles,
Flashdance, Death Hunt,
Swimming to Cambodia,
Real Genius, Top Gun,
The Man Who Would Be King,
Driving School, Urban Cowboy,
The Name of the Rose, Young Frankenstein,
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)

My Favorite Music

Reveille, First Call, Charge
In My Quiet Room (Harry Belefonte Album )
Beauty and the Beast (Ann Margret / Al Hirt Album)
Teach Me Tiger (April Stevens)
One Trick Pony (Paul Simon)
Rhapsody In Blue
Scheherazade
Gus: The Theatre Cat (Cats!)
Memories (Cats!)
I Don't Know How to Love Him (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Everythings Alright (Jesus Christ Superstar)
Man of La Manca (Linda Eder)
Another Suitcase in Another Hall (Evita; Madonna)
I'd Be Surprisingly Good for You (Evita; Madonna)

One of the root problems

from an opinion article by Phil Kerpen

Published October 22, 2010 in FoxNews.com

Prosperity depends on economic freedom. An abundance of historical and international evidence shows that countries that embrace economic freedom—including labor mobility, free trade, low tax rates, low government spending, and strong property rights—have significantly higher living standards than less free countries.

For the past ten years, the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal have measured economic freedom and charted the connection between economic freedom and prosperity. In the 2010 edition of their report, they noted: “The positive relationship holds true at all levels of economic freedom but becomes even more dramatic as economic freedom increases.”

10 Tips for Giving an Important Speech

Get ready to fearlessly step onstage in front of a large audience.

By Alyssa Danigelis | Oct 19, 2010

The better part of a million dollars was on the line. Every year the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge in Amsterdam gives away 500,000 Euros for the best idea for a green product or service. In 2008, Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre presented their alternative to synthetic building materials.

"In terms of a high pressure talk, that was probably the hardest in my memory," Bayer says. He practiced the talk out loud in front of his computer, making changes to his slides as he went. In the end the talk was a success. Bayer's team won the coveted check.

Since then, Bayer has became CEO of Ecovative Design, a company he co-founded that makes green packaging materials derived from fungi near Troy, New York. He's been invited to give many more speeches, including at the annual Pop!Tech conference in Camden, Maine, and the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference in Oxford, England.

With self-directed, local "TEDx" talks taking off, more communities will be inviting local innovators to speak. Presenting at this kind of event is an opportunity to capture the energy of a packed auditorium and translate it into a boon for business.

Those preparing for this kind of talk have heard "practice, practice, practice" and "less is more," but there are still speakers who make audience members fight to stay awake. With that in mind, experienced presenters offer these key steps for rallying a large, influential audience of peers around a central idea.

1. Be Your Passionate Self

Audiences are perceptive. They can even sense enthusiasm from back in the nosebleed seats. "Even if you're reading off the slide but you're really excited about it, the audience will give it to you," Bayer says.

Nan Crawford is an executive coach based in the San Francisco Bay Area who primarily works with female leaders on their presentation skills. Crawford coached Elayne Doughty, a psychotherapist who was raising money to go to the Congo and participate in the international V-Day movement to end violence against women and girls. Doughty expected she would need to do several events to raise enough money for the trip, according to Crawford.

"I coached Elayne on her stories," she says. Crawford drew out what had grabbed Doughty about the cause, asking her when and how it had captured her attention. She also framed fundraising as an opportunity to shift away from fear and invite others to invest in a solution.

"She gave an impassioned presentation," Crawford says. At the end of the first event, Doughty surpassed her fundraising goal by 25 percent.

Dig Deeper: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Presenters

2. Tell a Helpful Story

Speakers are usually advised to try to know their audiences. Taken a step further, Crawford suggests that speakers make sure they understand not only who is in the audience, but also the challenges the audience faces. Then, the talk should address those challenges with a personal and powerful story that resonates.

Daniel Pink, author of the books A Whole New Mind and Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, is a former speechwriter for Al Gore. He says he's seen the opposite happen too many times. "The biggest mistake is people think it's about them rather than about the audience," he says. "They spend too much time talking about themselves."

Instead, an effective presenter will focus on the challenges without giving a laundry list of accomplishments. Anthropologist, filmmaker, and National Geographic explorer Elizabeth Lindsey is frequently invited to speak about leadership through an anthropological lens. "The more we talk about the things that matter to us, and less about our achievements, people breathe a collective sigh of relief," she says. "All of us want to be better. Human nature is always seeking advancement."

Dig Deeper: Get Publicity and Bolster Profits Through Public Speaking

3. Use Fewer Words Than Usual

Less really is more when it comes to big talks. But putting that into practice is far easier said than done. Giving a talk is an opportunity to amplify your message in a way that books and articles can't. Being a different outlet, it has different requirements.

"If all you have for me is information, invite me to buy your book," Crawford says. "But when we stand in front of an audience we have an opportunity to share not just our information but our energy."

For Bayer, seeing how slowly he can give his talk helps him communicate better. "Typically what feels best to the communicator is to give as much information as possible," he says. "But what you really want to do is tell them the idea in a simple way three times or more. If you blast them with detail they get this mushy feeling in their heads."

Pink emphasizes that speaking is a relatively small window, and the audience has a limited attention span. "It's far easier to make seven small points than one big point," he says. "You have to think to yourself, what do you want to leave people with, what do you want them thinking, and what do you want them doing?"

Dig Deeper: Writing and Organizing a Winning Speech

4. Engage the Audience Early

Don't wait for a Q&A at the end to go for audience participation. Start right away, Crawford says. Ask questions so that audience members can stand up instead of raising their hands. Invite them to take a minute, turn to a neighbor, and share a thought. Ask one person to describe theirs.

"Great, how many people share that same concern?" Crawford suggests asking. "Sometimes when you ask that question everyone will stand." Getting responses can help focus a talk, even for an extremely large audience.

Pink describes watching symphony conductor Benjamin Zander give a presentation years ago. "He actually used his piano and brought the audience into the talk, had the audience do things, and made a lot of brilliant points about leadership and humanity," he says. "It wouldn't have been the same if you had read a transcript of it."

5. Make the Stage Home

Get on the stage where the talk is scheduled and practice there as soon as possible, Crawford says. Move around on the stage and go sit in the back row so that the setting becomes familiar.

The organizers will probably want to do a sound check, but see if they will allow it earlier than just a few minutes before the talk. "Even if you can sweet-talk the hotel staff to let you in the night before, that experience of being in the physical space is really important," Crawford says. Walk in as if you're walking into your living room and sitting down on the sofa. Gaining that level of comfort will help calm nerves.

6. Go Beyond Memorization

"A lot of times people look at this and think it's some exalted task with some magic to it," Pink says. "But it's like playing the piano, or laying bricks, or hitting a good tennis serve. It's about knowing what you're doing, doing it for the right reason, and practice, practice, practice."

Bayer practiced what he was going to say in Amsterdam until he could time it down to a second, although he cautions that knowing every line by heart is less important than making sure the message is clear and focused.

"Start developing early," he says. "You don't even have to put slides into PowerPoint, but think early about what it is you want to communicate. You should be able to summarize it in a few words."

Dig Deeper: How to Improve Your Presentation Skills

7. Turn Nervousness Into a Boost

When Crawford coaches speakers who get fluttering stomachs, she asks them to think about their fear in a different way. "There's a physical sensation in our body that's associated with nervousness. The danger is when we think, 'Oh my god, I'm nervous,'" she says.

Call that fluttering something else, she says. Crawford advises her clients to think, "That's the fire in my belly. When I'm done presenting, everyone in this audience is going to have a fire in their belly to make a difference."

Elizabeth Lindsey knows that nervous feeling well. "When we name it, and we speak our truth, we rally," she says. Whenever her heart is pounding through her chest, Lindsey thinks about the elders in her native Hawaii who raised her and didn't have the platform she's been given, she says.

"Even though I'm afraid and even though I feel at times that it would be easier to be in the audience rather than on stage, I know the work that I'm doing is not mine. It's the work that has been given to me," she says.

8. Look With Purpose

Crawford uses her theater background to help clients work on stage presence. In addition to moving around the space and using the whole body to convey the message, she suggests that presenters pay particular attention to their eyes. Instead of "scattering seeds" by scanning one part of the audience and then another, she recommends "planting bulbs."

"I want this idea to bloom in this one person's mind," she says. "Maintain eye contact for one full thought — it might be a phrase within a sentence or two sentences." That eye contact also looks great on camera if the talk is being recorded.

During eye contact with specific audience members, Crawford asks her clients to pay attention to what that person looks like, what they're wearing. A moment ago they were nervous, but as soon as they start describing hair or the color of a shirt, that anxiety level drops, she says.

Dig Deeper: Polishing and Rehearsing for a Perfect Presentation

9. Leverage Fellow Speakers

Look at the roster and reach out to the speakers you're excited about, Crawford says. "You have an opportunity to build that relationship far earlier than people imagine."

Everyone has been invited to talk for a reason, and that can open new doors. Ask the organizers for contact information if you don't have it, Crawford says. Plan to meet interesting speakers for one-on-one time during the conference, whether it's at a dinner or just for a quick conversation.

"If you're sharing the stage you at least have that in common, if nothing else," Crawford says.

And, who knows, maybe knowing your company will only make you feel more comfortable and able.

10. Choose Your Moment to Inspire

Sometimes one has to say no. The idea of presenting should be energizing and enlivening, not draining. Presenters who say yes when they should have declined can cause unnecessary stress for themselves, and for the event organizers.

When the reason is bad timing, offer to present at the next talk well in advance. Sometimes the audience isn't what you're looking for. If you say no, do so candidly, Crawford advises.

"We have this opportunity to spark an idea," she says. "We're lighting fires in the minds of others."

The rewards for a successful talk can be enormous, and not just financial. After giving a presentation once, Lindsey says a woman from the audience approached her. "She said, 'I'm a grandmother and I will never have the opportunity to travel to the parts of the world that you will see, but I want you to know that I go with you wherever you are.'"

Copyright © 2010 Mansueto Ventures LLC. All rights reserved.
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The Five W's of Marketing

When developing a marketing program, it's not enough to know who, what, when, where, and why. You need to keep them in order, says Steve McKee

By Steve McKee

You've heard of the Five W's: who, what, when, where, and why. They're the elements of information needed to get the full story, whether it's a journalist uncovering a scandal, a detective investigating a crime, or a customer service representative trying to resolve a complaint. There's even an old PR formula that uses the Five W's as a template for how to write a news release.

Most of the time it doesn't matter in what order the information is gathered, as long as all five W's are ultimately addressed. The customer service rep's story may begin with who was offended, while the journalist may follow a lead based on what happened. The detective may start with where a crime was committed while details of who and what (not to mention when and why) are still sketchy.

The Five W's are helpful in marketing planning as well. But unlike in other professions, the development of an effective marketing program requires that they be answered in a specific order: why, who, what, where, and when. The reasons may not be obvious, but by following this pathway you can avoid a great deal of confusion, trial and error, and blind alleys, preserving your company's precious time and resources.

Many marketers instinctively begin with questions about what and where, as in "what" their advertising should say or "where" it should appear. That's what gets them into trouble. They may have some success putting their plans together by relying on intuition and experience, but both can be misleading in a rapidly changing marketing world. These days it's easy for anyone to become confused by (or fall prey to) the latest and greatest trends and tactics.

First, Why Marketing?

Smart companies begin by asking "why"—why are we expending our limited resources in marketing? Why do we believe they're better invested here than in other aspects of our business? These questions, properly considered, force company leaders to clearly define their business and marketing objectives and confront their (often unrealized) assumptions before they get too far down the road.

In some cases they may have unrealistic expectations of their marketing efforts. In others, they may be looking to advertising to solve a non-advertising problem. In still others they may be reflexively reacting to a competitor's moves, or to any one of a number of other marketplace or internal dynamics (see "Who's to Blame When Growth Stalls?"). Beginning with the "why" can be challenging, but starting here is critical to ensuring that your subsequent efforts are on target.

The second question is "who"—who is essential to our achieving our goals? To whom should we be directing our message? Whose hearts and minds must we win in order to succeed? The answers to these questions should be derived from the business objectives identified above so that the target audience(s) for your effort are clearly related to them.

For example, a marketing plan meant to generate significant new top-line revenue would likely focus on new customer attraction. An effort that's meant to enhance margins may concentrate on improving your brand's value equation among existing customers. And a plan to enhance your company's price/earnings ratio would focus on prospective investors and industry analysts as its primary target. The better any company defines its "who"—and the more it can know about their lifestyles, behaviors, attitudes, opinions, wants, and needs—the more effectively it can address the remaining three W's.

Branding Issues

Next comes "what," as in what it is you need to offer your target audiences in order to accomplish your objectives. This, of course, encompasses a host of business decisions, from product to pricing, policy to packaging, and everything in between. But it is also where key branding issues are addressed, including positioning, differentiation, and a determination of the personality dimensions that are appropriate for both the brand and the task (see "Building a Better Brand").

To be sure, as market conditions and customer needs change, the "what" of your offering will be a continually evolving proposition. But by having a solid understanding of the "who" and "why" of your efforts, you'll be more likely to get, and keep, the "what" right.

Finally, the last two W's can be addressed as you dive into the specifics of campaign planning. The questions now revolve around where and when the best places and times are to communicate your "what" to your "who" in service of your "why." At this stage you'll be required to make many tactical decisions, but if you've effectively addressed the first three W's you'll have the context and perspective you need to make the final two work as hard as possible on your behalf.

In some ways the principles of marketing are simple, but their simplicity can be deceptive. Beneath them often lie hidden complexities that you ignore at your peril. The common way of citing the Five W's—who, what, when, where, and why—rolls off the tongue and is a great mnemonic device. But if you want to optimize your marketing efforts, think why, who, what, where, and when. The order makes all the difference.

Steve McKee is president of McKee Wallwork Cleveland and author of When Growth Stalls: How It Happens, Why You're Stuck, and What to Do About It. Find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Sad, But True

Guy goes into a bar, there's a robot bartender.

The robot says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Martini."
The robot brings back the best martini ever and says to the man, What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "168."
The robot then proceeds to talk about physics,
space exploration and medical technology.

The guy leaves, but he is curious...
So he goes back into the bar.
The robot bartender says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Martini."
Again, the robot makes a great martini gives it to the man and says, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "100."
The robot then starts to talk about Nascar, Budweiser and John Deere tractors.

The guy leaves, but finds it very interesting,
so he thinks he will try it one more time.
He goes back into the bar.
The robot says, "What will you have?"
The guy says, "Martini," and the robot brings him another great martini.
The robot then says, "What's your IQ?"
The guy says, "Uh, about 60."
The robot leans in real close and says,
"So, you people still happy you voted for Obama?"

Public Speaking Tips

Even if you don’t speak professionally, you will find Scott Berkun’s Confessions of a Public Speaker, helpful in navigating any speaking situation.

Most people listening to presentations around the world right now are hoping their speakers will end soon. That’s all they want. They’re not judging as much as you think, because they don’t care as much as you think. Knowing this helps enormously. …The things speakers obsess about are the opposite of what the audience cares about. They want to be entertained. They want to learn. And most of all, they want you to do well. Many mistakes you can make while performing do not prevent those things from happening. It’s the mistakes you make before you even say a word that matters more. These include the mistakes of not having an interesting opinion, of not thinking clearly about your point, and of not planning ways to make those points relevant to your audience. Those are the ones that make the difference.

No matter how much you hate or love this book, you’re unlikely to be a good public speaker. The marketing for this book likely promised you’d be a better speaker for reading it. I think that’s true on one condition: you practice (which I know most of you won’t do). Most people are lazy. I’m lazy. I expect you’re lazy, too. There will always be a shortage of good public speakers in the world, no matter how many great books there are on the subject. It’s a performance skill, and performance means practice.

The easiest way to be interesting is to be honest. People rarely say what they truly feel, yet this is what audiences admire most. If you can speak a truth most people are afraid to say, you’re a hero.

All good public speaking is based on good private thinking. …This means the difference between you and JFK and Martin Luther King has less to do with your ability to speak—a skill all of us use hundreds of times every day—than it does the ability to think and refine rough ideas into clear ones.

Avoiding Boredom. A speaker must set the pace for the audience if he wants to keep their attention. … Think of your opening minute as a movie preview: fill it with drama, excitement, and highlights for why people should keep listening. Be confident in what you say and do. If your talk consists of several problems important to the audience, and you promise to release the tension created by those problems by solving each one, you’ll score big.

Types of interview questions with examples

(from Steinar Kvale, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks California, 1996, p. 133-135)
a. Introducing questions: “Can you tell me about....?”, “Do you remember an occasion when...?” “What happened in the episode mentioned?”,...

b. Follow-up questions: Direct questioning of what has just been said, nodding, “mm”, repeating significant words, ....

c. Probing questions: “Could you say something more about that?”, “Can you give a more detailed description of what happened?”, “Do you have further examples of this?”,...

d. Specifying questions: “What did you think then?” What did you actually do when you felt
a mounting anxiety?”, “How did your body react?”,...

e. Direct questions: “Have you ever received money for good grades? When you mention
comptetion, do you then think of a sportsmanlike or a destructive competition?”

f. Indirect questions: Projectove questions such as ‘How do you believe other pupils regard
the competition of grades?”

g. Structuring questions: indicating when a theme is exhausted by breaking off long
irrelevant answers: “I would now like to introduce another topic:...”

h. Silence: By allowing pauses the interviewees have ample time to associate and reflect
and break the silence themselves. With significant information.

i. Interpreting questions: “You then mean that....?” “Is it correct that you feel that...?”Does
the expression.... Cover what you have just expressed?”

Nine Stages of Giving

From Brad Leeper

Clipped from: http://www.xpastor.org/articles/leeper_generosity_new_normal.html

• A consumer – a person that utilizes the church resources, but does not have the spiritual maturity to give. We want as many people as possible to enter the journey here, as this entry point often is their first step into engagement with God. We do not want them to stay here, but to grow in their understanding of God. Based on my frequent analysis of church-giving data, about one half of your people are here. Many never get past this stage.
• Minimal giving – people give because there is some level of emotional attachment, because they are growing spiritually, and because they are asked to give. Consistently reviewing church-giving data finds about 25% of your people park here.
• Involved giving – a person gives consistently because he or she is involved and has a strong emotional and spiritual motivation to give. Most churches have the standard 25% of people engaged at this level.
• Giving as much as possible – rare, but you will find that person or couple that choose to live purposefully to fund Kingdom work. All income levels can embrace this value.
• Giving to maximize tax advantages – giving as much as possible to legally take advantage of charitable tax laws.
• Giving beyond regard to tax advantages – these people give because they want to give and sometimes in places that do not always provide a giving statement for tax purposes. For example, a family chooses to consistently give to the single parent family that is financially strapped.
• Giving a percent of wealth – a person realizes how much he or she can give away and still live contentedly in our culture. A person does not have to be wealthy to give a percentage of their wealth. Some prefer different terminology, such as “becoming a percentage giver.” Every season, the family or person chooses to give an increased percentage to the church.
• Capping wealth – I still remember the first successful businessperson who explained to me how he lived on a budget and capped his personal income well below what he could have received. He gave away the balance. I was stunned that someone could even think this way, countering the American dream.
• Estate giving – while still leaving an appropriate amount to heirs, a person determines to give the bulk of the estate to the church and Kingdom purposes.