I attend a book club periodically. For a recent meeting, I’d heard of the assigned book, I knew people who liked the concepts in it, and the topic was relevant to my field of work, so I was looking forward to reading it. A fellow reader emailed me a week before the meeting: “The author […]
Craft
Tips for Creating Effective Headings
In my last post, I discussed emphasis—the use of bold, italic, underline, ALL CAPS, and so on—primarily looking at the main text of a book or article. I mentioned headings briefly, and in this post I want to expand on the effective formatting of headings. When I say “headings,” I’m referring to the types of […]
Tips for Using Emphasis Effectively
I recently read a blog post and found myself getting annoyed. And it wasn’t even a post about politics! Frankly I can’t tell you what the article was about because I was too annoyed with the article’s formatting. The author used every conceivable form of emphasis—bold, italic, underline, ALL CAPS, and COMBINATIONS THEREOF—with reckless abandon. […]
Writing Advice from Horror Novels to Business Books
I’ve never read Stephen King’s novels. I don’t like scary stories—books, movies, campfire tales. But his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is a classic if you’re looking for writing advice. What can a business person trying to write a nonfiction book learn from the king of horror? A lot, it turns out. […]
Contrast: Harry Potter and the Light in the Dark
Harry Potter has returned to Hogwarts in search of what he thinks is Voldemort’s final horcrux; meanwhile, Voldemort’s forces prepare to attack the school. Professor McGonagall assures Harry that she and the others will do everything possible to give him time to search. On the steps of the school, she intones “Piertotum Locomotor!” thus calling […]