This is a very interesting piece on Richard Russo and one of his booksignings. Also great in terms of the Brewster Bookstore and what community really means.
Read it and learn.
Bill Scheft - novelist and writer for Late Night With David Letterman Show
Alex Skolnick - guitarist, writer, blogger, Testament co-founder
Joe Camp, “Soul of A Horse”, author, producer, blogger
Jesse Sublett, Austin-based writer, musician
Mitch Ditkoff, Author, “Awake at the Wheel”, Idea-champion extraordinaire
Steve Kayser, Writing Riffs, writer
BenBella Books Blog, wonderful insight in publishing
Spike Gillespie, - spikey brilliance
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This is a wonderful interview with Gay Talese on how he writes. Brilliant! Read it.
If you’re new to blogging and you want to come up with posts to inspire viewers to “read and click-forward” to friends, then one way to determine what you want to write for your readership is to look at characters in movies.
One of the tricks that screenplay writers often employ to avoid writer’s block is to write their screenplays with movie stars already in mind. Not only does it help them flesh out their character in livable form, but it also helps them create the minutiae for the character.
You can use this same tool for your blog in determining who you want to read your blog and creating content that movie character might enjoy reading!
If you’re writing a blog around being a mom, then think of the strong mom characters you’ve loved in movies and imagine them reading your blog. I always loved Sally Field’s character in “Steel Magnolias” or “Forest Gump,” strong mom, smart mom and dedicated mom. Here’s a good example of the blog those characters might read.
If you’re writing a blog on auto racing then you might build your content around the Tom Cruise character in “Days of Thunder.” What content would drive that character to read your blog on a daily basis? See this racing blog for example – http://fullthrottle.cranialcavity.net/ or this one – http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/ .
This works with real people too – what kind of food blog would Julia Child have enjoyed? Maybe this one – http://chocolateandzucchini.com/ .
With blogs if you can identify a real person or even a movie character who you’re writing your blogs posts to – it will contribute to a more engaging and community focused blog long-term.
Also, speaking of characters, I’m going to upload all my interviews from 1995 to 1998 with the folks who were the movers and shakers on the Internet. Many of them are still around today and I’m looking forward to sharing the early Cluetrain interview, the usability interview with Jakob Nielsen and others who are still on the Web (just like me).
Look for a new regular feature on this blog called, “Archived Web Genius.”
Wonderful show tonight on Dr. Blogstein’s Blog Talk Radio show with Dennis Palumbo. Brilliant insight and I hunted up his web site and found this interview he has online in regard to his work as a therapist to writers and actors.
In particular I have to say in the interview online I liked his note about having his “Razor’s Edge” moment since that is one of my favorite books. It is a wonderful read and Somerset Maugham is fantastic writer. And Dennis is also a mystery novelist. His book, “From Crime to Crime: Mindboggling Tales of Mystery and Murder” is out now!
There are some very interesting questions posed on this blog about depression and writing.
James Hollis said, “Fear of our own depths is the enemy.” And William Styron (one of my favorite authors) said, “ 
“The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone’s neurosis.”
Superb article by John Maxwell on leadership for the new year. Very insightful. Also a great example of feeding your brand and maintaining its relevance. A good Maxwell article goes a long way across the Web. Keep that example in mind as you generate your own articles and elevate your thought leadership platform.
I love writing speeches for folks and one of the musts in speeches for business audiences is the ability to both engage and inspire during the speech.
One of the best speeches I’ve seen in the past couple of years was the one that Al Gore delivered at Disney during a business conference I was covering. His opening line was, “Hello, I’m Al Gore and I’m a recovering politician.” With that singular line he held the audience’s rapt attention.
Self-deprecation is a surprisingly good tool in the current economic stratus because we all need a bit of a lift when it comes to surviving these challenging times.
Gore’s past speechwriter and best-selling author, Daniel Pink, noted three important elements in speeches, during an interview with Tim Ferriss who asked, “What are the necessary ingredients of a good speech?”
Pink said, “I’ve said many times that the three essential ingredients in any good speech are brevity, levity, and repetition.”
(To see the full Ferris interview.)
Effective speech giving is being able to naturally and authentically incorporate the real you into the speech. We all long for true connection especially in these days of Web 2.0, 3.0, 80.0 and beyond, we still want to be inspired and genuinely touched.
When I interviewed Doris Kearns Goodwin, I asked, “What is the most rewarding thing about being a historian?” and her response was, “It is a great gift to really get to know people through their letters and speeches because that is often where you will find the real person behind the historical persona.”
One of the best things you can do when you prepare a speech is to be a real person.
A stunning and still inspiring speech was Pierre Omidyar’s keynote speech, in that speech Omidyar says,
There Are No Rules:
Jane Friedman is looking for your help to pick the April cover and name the upcoming WD writing event:
Go and send your vote/comment in to the latest post by Jane Friedman which does a great job of asking folks to chime in and help Writer’s Digest out. I love their blogs!
I’m a giant fan of all of Francine Prose’s work and I really recommend you listen to this fantastic interview Terri Gross, of Fresh Air did with her yesterday in regard to her latest novel, “Goldengrove”. Brilliant stuff!
One of my favorite writers is Rilke and I’ve been re-reading his “Letters to a Young Poet” and thought I would share a bit of each letter with you here for inspiration.
If you’ve not ever read the book, you should!
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