Natural speed please
Thanks a lot!
In this knowledge economy, writing is the chief value-producing
activity. But you may not be writing as well as you could. That
may be because you think writing requires a special talent that
some people have and some people don’t.
In fact, writing is a process that can be managed like any other
business process. If you can manage people, money, or time, then you can
manage your writing. And you can profit from the results.
This book will give you the tools to become—in the next 36 hours—
a more effective, efficient manager of your own writing.
• You’ll become more effective because you’ll learn to produce writing
that gets things done.
• You’ll become more efficient because you’ll learn to produce more
effective writing in less time.
How can this magic happen in just 36 hours? It’ll happen because
you’ll learn to take the management skills you already have and apply
them to the process of writing. Remember, whether or not the word manager
is part of your job title, you clearly are a successful manager. Otherwise,
you wouldn’t have
• the money to buy this book,
• the position to have somebody else buy it for you,
• or the time and initiative to be browsing through it in a bookstore.
Through your experience in business and in life, you’ve learned to
manage: to manage people, to manage money, to manage time. This book
will teach you how to use these same skills when you write.
Let me tell you a story. When I was a kid growing up in rural Iowa,
there was a local fisherman who had more money than common sense. He
always had the newest, most expensive fishing gear, but he didn’t always
know how to use it.
One fall he decided to take up ice fishing. He ordered the very best
cold-weather clothing, the very best portable shelter, the very best ice
saw and tackle. The first winter day our local reservoir had frozen over
enough, he was out on the ice at dawn. He set up his shelter, sawed his
hole in the ice, sat on his new folding stool, and waited.
Three hours passed without even a sign of a fish. The disgusted
fisherman was about to call it quits and head home when he saw a teenage
kid in faded blue jeans and a faded green Army field jacket head out
onto the ice. The kid whacked a hole in the ice with a hammer, baited a
hook, and immediately pulled out a nice fish. Within 10 minutes, the kid
had a bucketful and turned back for the shore.
The older man yelled for him, but the kid was apparently out of voice
range. So the man started walking fast toward him and finally caught up
with him at the shore.
“Son,” the man said, “I’ve been out here three hours without catching
a fish, and you’ve pulled out half a dozen in 10 minutes. What’s your
secret?”
“Hmrm hmrm,” the boy muttered.
“What’s that?” asked the man.
“HMRM HMRM,” answered the boy, louder.
“I’m sorry, son; I can’t understand you. What’s your secret?”
The boy moved his hand to his face, took a handful of something
out of his mouth, and explained.
“WARM WORMS.”
Well, OK, that story didn’t really happen. But I wanted you to
believe, for a while, that it had happened in order to make two points:
1. Writing can change and even create reality. For a while, my words
made that story real for you. And the writing you do on the job
can create a new, better reality for you in your work life. On his
blog, my favorite management guru, Tom Peters, quoted novelist
James Baldwin that “you write in order to change the world.” Tom
continued, “Call me hopelessly naïve, but I believe there is no
excuse for any variety of ‘business writing’ that should be crafted
any less carefully or aim any less high than a great novel or great
inaugural address. After all, we do aim—day in and day out—to
change the world via our human collectivities called enterprises.
Right?”
2. This will be a “warm worms” book. It will give you practical,
down-to-earth tools—the equivalent of a hammer, a bucket, and
a mouthful of night crawlers—to re-create yourself as a more
effective, efficient writer.
Thank you very much ))