by Rob Worth | 20 Apr 2022 | Writing tips
Why does addressing counterarguments make a nonfiction book more compelling? The reader of your book thinks you are wrong and you should agree with them … … for a while. It is tempting to set out your argument and leave it at that. You’ve spent a lot of...
by Rob Worth | 1 Apr 2022 | Complexity
A startup based in a garret in Rotherham, England, has announced that they have solved complexity. Using a laptop running Ubuntu Linux, a small team of researchers, well actually a guy with a beard called Aubrey, has coded an artificial intelligence (AI) that can...
by Rob Worth | 17 Dec 2021 | Structure
What does the author get after it? What am I thinking about and watching for? What do I NOT do? What are the steps? 1. I read the book like a reader. First, I just read the book from start to finish. No notes, no stopping, no analysis. I want to take in the book...
by Rob Worth | 23 Jul 2021 | Writing tips
If you keep the jargon, fine. But ensure you utilise more diminutive vocabulary elsewhere. If you are going to keep the specialist words for your subject then it is all the more important to use small simple words when you can. “Never use a long word when a short one...
by Rob Worth | 22 Jul 2021 | Writing tips
Is my baby ugly? How to get the best from a developmental editor. A developmental edit is not about spelling and commas but big questions about structure, flow, completeness and the reader. To get the best out of your developmental editor, remember three things: 1....
by Rob Worth | 21 Jul 2021 | Writing tips
I can’t write simply about complexity and systems. It will lose its meaning. Writing about complexity and systems thinking can be hard to understand. When writing about complexity or systems thinking, there is a lot of nuance. There are fine distinctions to draw and...
by Rob Worth | 20 Jul 2021 | Purpose
Have you found the “One Thing”? I have. Lots of them. I’d found it. The One Thing. It was Microsoft Access. Yes! No laughing at the back. Microsoft Access. In 1997, I’d been working as a financial analyst at Chase Manhattan for three months. Every day I had to grapple...
by Rob Worth | 19 Jul 2021 | Marketing
Are people already systems thinkers without knowing it? People already have an intuition about complexity and systems thinking. Systems thinkers often bemoan the lack of applied systems thinking. Yet, people have a natural tendency to understand these things, even if...
by Rob Worth | 18 Jul 2021 | Writing tips
Worried the 1st draft of your book is bad? Worry no more. You can stop fretting because your book is bad. “The first draft of anything is shit.” — Ernest Hemingway The first draft is something to be incredibly proud of. Most people never get there. You’ve scaled the...
by Rob Worth | 18 Jul 2021 | Marketing
3 questions your book blurb must answer for a reader to buy Your blurb is another stage in selling the book. No more, no less. The back cover or book description copy, called a blurb, is sales copy. It comes after your title, after your cover, and is the next step to...
