Anne Janzer

Author

Books for writers

The Story Advantage: A Book Review

As someone who practically ran screaming from fiction writing in college, the idea of telling effective stories always seemed to belong to someone else, not me. For many years, I resisted working on my storytelling skills by clinging solidly to the idea that I was a nonfiction writer.

But I started wearing down several years ago. And after researching the cognitive impact of story for Writing to Be Understood: What Works and Why, I’ve changed my tune altogether. Story plays a critical role in nonfiction writing, content marketing, and even public discourse.

After all of those years of resisting, I need to strengthen my story skills. So I was delighted to encounter L.J. Bloom’s new book The Story Advantage.

It’s written for a business audience, including people who may not feel comfortable spinning stories, yet who really should know how to use them.

Bloom is the real deal—someone who collects and honors and delivers stories. In other words, she’s the type of person who once made me feel intimidated about sharing a tale.

But she’s also a huge advocate for the role of story, and she’ll make you one, too. She writes:

“It is time for a storytelling that serves the greater good. Storytelling that reflects kindness and generosity. Storytelling that represents hope for a better world and a place that can nurture the next generation to higher purpose and consciousness. This is the path forward.”

Writing or Telling Stories

While Bloom tells stories in person, much of the advice applies well to those of us who write.

Specifically, she suggests that you plan your stories first. No matter how you deliver them, you should:

  1. Understand your audience.
  2. Be clear on your intention.
  3. Identify the outcomes you want.
  4. Define your message.
  5. Know the resistance.

That advice will sound familiar to all marketing copywriters. Planning is key to creating content of almost any type. And for a story, when you want to really bring your audience along with you, you must understand the audience well.

Advice Mixed With Inspiration

Each chapter opens with a simple story, illustrating the power of a story told simply and well.

The book also offers a simple, incredibly useful definition of story to encourage you to get started:

“Story is when something happens, and it is described vividly and with emotion.”

That’s all you need to get started.

Bloom blends advice, research and story to inform and inspire you on your path. In addition to constructing the stories, she’ll help you think about how you deliver them when speaking. These are valuable skills to develop.

Reading this book has inspired me to work not only on how I write stories, but also how I tell them.

How will it inspire you?

Books to Give Writers: 2019 Edition

One of the best gifts you can give someone is a book that will change their lives. And do you know who really loves getting books as gifts? People who write.

I carry bits and pieces of the writing advice I’ve heard around in my head. Sometimes, I bring back up an image from Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. At other times advice from Stephen King’s On Writing rattles in my head.

In case you need shopping inspiration for the writers you know, here’s a list of books I’ve read in 2019 that will stay with me, paired with the kinds of writers who might love them.

Note: A few were published early than 2019—they just made it to the top of my reading list this year.

For anyone looking for inspiration to write

Some Day is Not a Day In the Week by Sam Horn

I heard Sam Horn speak at a conference this year, and saw her enthusiasm light up a room full of writers. This book channels all of that inspiration and encouragement. If you’re looking for rocket fuel for doing something important in 2020, read this book.

For anyone struggling to find the time and attention to write
Successful writing is all about managing attention. I have three recommendations for people struggling to find the time and battling distraction.

Indistractible by Nir Eyal

Indistractible isn’t only about managing the distractions of attention-seeking technologies; it’s a guide to living an intentional life in an interrupt-driven world. I loved the underlying psychological studies. Personally, I’ve started timeboxing my days and found a greater sense of peace in doing so. Productivity is fine, but peace is better.

Read my review of Indistractible on Medium.

Deep Work by Cal Newport

Reading this book made me focus on where and how I spend my time. Newport’s general thesis is fascinating: just at the time that we have more things pulling us away from deep work, it’s growing in value as a life skill. I found the theory fascinating and the advice useful. The book has given me the courage to reclaim more deep work time and “budget” my shallow work.

Reader Come Home by MaryAnn Wolf

In Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, Maryanne Wolf argues that the digital world is transforming our reading brains, and not always for the better. Only by understanding these changes can we figure out how to navigate them and form a brighter future for a literate, and digital, society.

Read my review of Reader, Come Home.

For fiction writers

Wired for Story by Lisa Cron


A story proves itself not on the paper but in the reader’s brain. In Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence, Lisa Cron offers valuable insights and practical advice for crafting better stories. ( I hear that her book Story Genius is quite good as well.)

Read my review of Wired for Story.

For nonfiction writers trying to convince others

The Misinformation Age by Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall

The Misinformation Age by Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall offers important insight for scientists, journalists, nonfiction writers, and anyone who wants to combat the spread of false beliefs.

Read my review of The Misinformation Age.

Writing to Persuade by Trish Hall

If you want to change people’s opinions with your words, and particularly if you want to write an opinion piece that makes an impact, read this new book by the former editor of the New York Times Op-Ed page. Writing to Persuade by Trish Hall interweaves fun, behind-the-scenes stories about the workings of the Times opinions page with solid advice grounded in both research and experience. It’s both informative and entertaining. Read my review here.

The Influential Mind by  Tali Sharot

I have pages of notes from this book; it’s filled with incredible research and valuable advice on how to persuade people from a cognitive science perspective. It covers topics like why evidence doesn’t change beliefs, how emotions work in persuasion, and how leading with fear tends to inspire inaction rather than action. It’s a terrific book.

Of course, my own Writing to Be Understood is a strong addition to this list. It came out last year, but the audiobook was released in 2019.

For women who want to publish a book

Write On, Sisters by Brooke Warner

If you’re a woman who wants to write a book, or if you want to support a woman on this path, pick up a copy of Write On, Sisters! Voice, Courage, and Claiming Your Place at the Table by Brooke Warner. Read my review of Write On, Sisters here.

For Entrepreneurial Authors

The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur by John Jantsch

If you’re an indie author, then you’re truly a solopreneur. You’ll find strength and wisdom in this lovely book by John Jantsch. Read my review of The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur here.

BookBub Ads Expert by David Gaughran

The community of authors owes a huge debt to David Gaughran for so generously sharing his wisdom and insight into BookBub advertising. BookBub ads are a valuable tool for authors, if you do them right. This book will show you how to do them right.

For authors who are getting discouraged and need a boost

Dear Writer, You Need to Quit by Becca Syme

Becca Syme must be one heck of a writing coach, because she’s written a wise and wonderful book for writers. It’s not long, but if you put its practices in place, this book may have a lasting impact. If you’re flailing around on your writing career or feeling that you’re not “enough” yet, read this book.

For writers in the workplace

Better Allies by Karen Catlin

This book is the antidote to toxic corporate culture in any industry. Catlin’s practical, empathetic suggestions address systemic problems, unconscious bias, and the general obliviousness that make people feel unwelcome in the workplace. Whether you want to better understand, support, or advocate for underrepresented groups, this book will help. Read it and share it.

Read my interview with Karen about inclusive language.

Talking from 9 to 5 by Deborah Tannen

In this fascinating book, Deborah Tannen explores how mismatched conversational styles affect women and men in the workplace. I highly recommend it for writers, as well as anyone who works with other people. (That’s pretty much most of us.)  Read more in my review here.

Lost in Startuplandia by E. Keller Fitzsimmons

Lost in Startuplandia is a wise, honest look at navigating the harsh realities of entrepreneurship.

Read my review on Medium.

And of course, I’d always recommend The Workplace Writer’s Process for those workplace writers on your list.

I hope you find inspired gifts ideas on this list!

If you want more, check out these ‘gift posts’ from previous years:

Books to Give the Writers in Your Life (2018)

Books for the Writers in Your Life (2017)

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Any money earned in affiliate sales helps support me buying and reviewing books.

The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur: A Review

John Jantsch is well known in the marketing community as the author of the small-business-marketing classic, Duct Tape Marketing.

His latest book, the Self-Reliant Entrepreneur, is something entirely new. It’s philosophical and thought-provoking, yet still highly relevant to the audience of entrepreneurs that he reached with Duct Tape Marketing.

Most of the book is a daily journal of reading and contemplation, with one page for each day of the year, featured passages from authors in the American Transcendentalist movement. The days of the year are organized into “seasons” of entrepreneurship: planning, discovering, evolving, and growing.

Each day’s excerpted passage is followed by Jantsch’s personal commentary, applying the reading to the challenges and dilemmas that we face today. Each entry concludes with a question that you can complete on your own, applying the theme of the day to your daily work.

The resulting combination is both straightforward and profound.

As an example, the entry for October 21 (the day of this post) is titled “Expert on You.” The passage begins with a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Self-Reliance:

Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it.

Jantsch’s commentary spins this theme to the entrepreneur. My favorite part is this:

Don’t let anyone tell you that your purpose or idea or dream is the wrong one. You may need to develop a thick skin, but you don’t have to listen. You’re the only expert on you.

Reading this book is like having a thoughtful conversation with a wise friend.

Having read the electronic version, I’ve ordered the physical book, so I can have the tactile satisfaction of revisiting it—opening it to the day, reading the passage, and contemplating my business.

I look forward to spending a year in quiet, thoughtful (albeit virtual) conversations with Jantsch through this book.

3 reasons authors should read this book

I’ve included this in my “books for writers” category for three good reasons:

Reason #1: Authors are de facto entrepreneurs.

Even if you’re traditionally published, you’re at the helm of your author business. If you’re self-published, you are also a indie publisher. The advice here is applicable to authorpreneurs of all kinds.

As Jantsch writes in the introduction,

Being an entrepreneur is as much about who you choose to be as what you choose to do for a living.

Reason #2: The curated quotes are wonderful

Authors love books. Jantsch pulls gems books you may not have visited since college, if at all. I realize now that I didn’t appreciate Thoreau when I read him in college. (What 18-year-old has time for self-reflection?)

Jantsch also introduced me to a few women authors of the period that I did not yet know, for which I am grateful. (I’ve got to read up on Margaret Fuller now.)

Reason #3: Self-reflection is golden

Jantsch’s wisdom and thoughtfulness will encourage you to step back and think about what you’re doing with your books, your writing, and more.

We all need more self-reflection in our lives.

Related Reading

Two Books to Build Your Writing Resilience

Ego is the Enemy: A Book Review

 

 

Talking from 9 to 5: A Book Review

Short Version:

In this fascinating book, Deborah Tannen explores how mismatched conversational styles affect women and men in the workplace. I highly recommend it for writers, as well as anyone who works with other people.

Long Version:

We each develop certain conversational habits and styles during our lives. The words we use when speaking reflect our patterns of thought and speech habits, but also learned social interactions. (We are social animals, after all.)

In Talking from 9 to 5: Women and Men at Work,  linguistics professor Deborah Tannen illustrates with striking clarity how our ingrained conversational patterns affect us at work.

Tannen has spent a career studying and writing about how everyday language and conversation affects our relationships. In Talking from 9 to 5, she turns her focus to the conversations we have in the workplace—private conversations that may have lasting, public consequences. Tannen and her researchers have compiled countless hours of transcriptions of conversations in the workplace. She’s followed people around their offices and sat in on meetings, recording their words. Volunteers have recorded their days and given the data to Tannen’s team to transcribe.

When you read the transcripts, you may recognize the workplaces you’ve been part of. You may even hear your own voice and rethink the way you speak or interact with others.

What’s happening behind the words

Conversations are more than words—they are communication rituals. Different individuals use these rituals in different ways. And when people don’t follow the same rules, problems arise.

Step back and you’ll find these rituals everywhere. When a new acquaintance asks How are you?, you recognize it as a polite ritual rather than a genuine inquiry. You’ll probably answer briefly and return inquire after them. When your physician asks you in the examination room, you may respond with a list of physical complaints. You interpret the question literally.

If you answer the physician with Fine, and you? and give the gory medical details to the new acquaintance, you’ll damage both of those relationships.

That example is obvious. The subtler conversational mismatches in the workplace may be harder to detect, but just as damaging.

People may use apologies, disclaimers, or indirectness to “level the playing field” or make the other person feel welcome and comfortable contributing. For example, a manager might make an indirect request of a direct report, which gives that person a chance to volunteer rather than being told what to do. The listener who understands this ritual may consider this style as a polite collaborative exercise of power. But if the listener expects explicit instructions, they may ignore the hint and neglect the requested task.

Another conversational style revolves around establishing dominance, determining who is in a “one-down” or “one-up” position in a hierarchical order. This pattern shows up in friendly banter or trash-talk. Again, if both participants recognize the rules, it’s effective. If not, someone may feel trampled on.

Women are more likely to adopt the collaborative, level-setting rituals. This style can backfire in workplace environments based on the one-up styles. If a woman expresses uncertainty in a meeting to solicit contributions, others not familiar with that ritual might assume that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about—they’ll take it literally.

Writes Tannen: “Problems arise when peoples’ styles differ. And styles characteristic of many women put the speaker in a one-down position in conversations with those who have styles characteristic of men.”

The book includes chapters on topics including:

  • Apologies
  • Indirectness
  • Women and authority
  • Status and connection
  • Speaking in meetings

Here’s why it matters: conversational mismatches can harm women’s opportunities in male-dominated workplaces. Writes Tannen:

In practice, conversational-style differences result in unequal opportunity.

Key take-aways

What can you do if you’re in a workplace with people who don’t share your conversational style? Trying to adopt the style of others can backfire.

The first step is having insight into of your own communication style and those of your colleagues. Tannen writes, “My hope is that an understanding of conversational style will make the world safe for individuals with a vase range of styles, including styles that mix elements commonly associated with one gender or the other.”

Amen.

I’d recommend the book to anyone who wants to collaborate with diverse colleagues. An understanding of conversational styles will help you sort out or deflect damaging miscommunications.

This book is included in my “books for writers” category for several reasons:

  • For business writers: If you write with a conversational tone, take care that your conversational rituals don’t work their way into the prose. Remember, many readers will miss the “ritual” part of the conversational tone and interpret your words literally.
  • For women authors/speakers: The book offers important lessons about speaking with authority, without trying to emulate male speakers.
  • For fiction writers: Mismatched communication styles are a ripe source for conflict and character building. You might check out Tannen’s best-selling You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation.

Related Content

Writing to Persuade: A Book Review

Writing with Authority

The Misinformation Age: A Book Review

Short Version

The Misinformation Age by Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall offers important insight for scientists, journalists, nonfiction writers, and anyone who wants to combat the spread of false beliefs.

Long Version: How Misinformation Spreads and What We Can Do About It

“Individually rational agents can form groups that are not rational at all.”

If you have had this feeling lately when reading the news, then I suggest you read The Misinformation Age by Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall.

The authors are both professors of logic and philosophy of science at the University of California Irvine. In this book, they examine how we learn from those we trust and how beliefs spread through communities. The very fact that we count on the knowledge of others means that we are susceptible to misinformation.

As they write, “Most of us get our false beliefs from the same places we get our true ones, and if we want the good stuff, we risk getting the bad as well.”

A focus on science

The book focuses on those beliefs that can be verified, or at least demonstrated with enough statistical credibility to inform a general consensus. The best place to study their spread is in the realm of science: a community that is, on the whole, in pursuit of demonstrable truths.

Like you and I, scientists arrive at their beliefs from their own experience (experiments that they conduct) combined with findings of trusted sources in their network.

The authors use a mathematical model of social learning to demonstrate how this works in a perfect world. The model serves as a starting point for examining the effect of various real-world factors that disrupt or impede the arrival at a truthful consensus. These include:

Small sample studies: Smaller studies are more likely to deliver anomalous results. (For example, if you flipped a coin ten times you cannot expect it to come up heads exactly five times. The larger the sample size, the more the results converge on the true probabilities.)

Selective sharing: Imagine that nine studies report that a drug is harmful, and one reports no harm. To reach a consensus, the scientific community (and public at large) need to be exposed to all of the results. Propagandists can skew the perception of truth by sharing and promoting only those results that support their position. The press does something similar when they only publicized the surprising, unexpected results of research.

Biased production: When industry sponsors research, it can delay or derail the formation of a truthful consensus by funding those methodologies most likely to deliver the desired results.

Beyond the world of science

By flooding us with false perceptions through trusted networks, purveyors of fake news can skew the social learning networks.

Propagandists can take advantage of the “social” part of our learning networks by building trust with people, and then spreading false beliefs. Apparently, these tactics were deployed in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election.

Simply reporting on the fake news can contribute to the problem. According to the authors, “we generally expect evidence favoring true belief to appear more often. Sharing equal proportions of results going in both directions puts a strong finger on the scale in the wrong direction.”

The book offers suggestions for both science and journalism to counteract the effects of unintentional and active misinformation. Between inadvertent skewing of results and active manipulation, we’ve entered an age of escalating misinformation tactics. We all need to raise our games to combat the bad actors.

What writers need to know

It’s important for writers to understand where and how misinformation may spread about your topic, so that you may combat it. As writers, we also must take care not to unintentionally spread false beliefs.

These are my take-aways for writers of nonfiction topics:

  1. Select your sources with care, especially when citing surprising results.
  2. Support and share consensus opinions or rigorously tested results wherever possible; remember that people expect to see the truthful results more often than the false ones. Use your creativity to make the truth less boring than the falsehoods.
  3. Understand the role of trust. Earn your readers’ trust, and share and amplify the message of other trusted individuals who similarly share a commitment to the search for objective, demonstrable truth.

If you contend with misinformation in your writing, I suggest you read this book.

Find the book on Amazon or at Bookshop.

Read reviews of similar books:

Writing to Persuade by Trish Hall

The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

Writing to Persuade: A Book Review

Short Version

If you want to change people’s opinions with your words, and particularly if you want to write an opinion piece that makes an impact, read this new book by the former editor of the New York Times Op-Ed page. Writing to Persuade by Trish Hall interweaves fun, behind-the-scenes stories about the workings of the Times opinions page with solid advice grounded in both research and experience. It’s both informative and entertaining.

 

Long Version

In Writing to Persuade, Trish Hall shares her hard-won lessons as editor of the New York Times op-ed page, handling everything from celebrity opinion pieces to personal discussions of sensitive topics. If you’ve ever wondered exactly how those pieces land on the website or in the paper, or what makes one of these things effective, this is the book for you. More importantly, if you hope to change other people’s minds through writing, whether op-ed pieces, books, or blog posts, this book has valuable advice.

The Memoir

Part One of the book, “Lessons from My Story,” shares Hall’s personal journal from writer to editor to the op-ed editor at the New York Times.

Regular readers of the New York Times will enjoy the “behind the scenes” stories of the pieces that make it to the op-ed page sprinkled throughout the book. There’s a particularly entertaining chapter on “Dealing with Celebrities” that will make you pause the next time you read an opinion piece from a well-known name.

While the book then quickly moves into general writing advice, Hall has years’ worth of stories to use to illustrate her points. The memoir nature of the book underpins the advice that follows, making the whole thing an entertaining read.

Solid Writing Advice

The meat of the book is practical advice on exactly how you, as a reader, can learn to write persuasively.

In the preface, she presents her 15 principles of persuasive writing, concisely laying out the essential advice that she extrapolates on in the remainder of the book. It would make a great poster for nonfiction writers – and if you got no further than following the advice in the preface, you’d be in good shape.

Parts Two through Five cover finding your own voice and story, winning people over, and general writing tips.

Hall shares personal advice and tactics as well as general strategies.

On finding her own voice, she suggests that “Sometimes, when I can’t get started, I write with my eyes closed, to block out reality.” Fascinating tip.

But her unique angle is her inside view into effective opinion pieces.

If you hope to publish an opinion piece in a major publication, pay attention to her advice on how to please editors: surprise them, offer a fresh perspective on an old issue, or delight them with the quality of your writing. (Easy enough, right?)

And there are other gems we should all remember. For example, she suggests that persuasive writers make more positive statements than negative ones. “Remember that scaring people and being negative does not generally agree with our fundamental natures.”

Always cede the good points that the other side makes. If you want to rebut something, repeating it with a negative like not only reinforces the point. (See how the “I am not a crook” rebuttal worked for Nixon.)

My Favorite Parts

My favorite section may be the last one, entitled “The Psychology of Persuasion.” It’s right up my alley, exploring the psychological underpinnings of effective persuasive writing. If you want to change minds with your words, you need some insight into how those minds work.

The chapters here include guidance on the power of moral values, what really changes people’s minds, and the difficulty of changing beliefs. These are all topics I tackled in Writing to Be Understood; Hall treats them brilliantly from her perspective, and shares fascinating research that applies to writing.

One of the tactics she suggests here is that when writing, you inform people of the “socially accepted consensus” if you want people to open their thoughts. And she also impresses on writers the importance of not judging those who don’t agree with them.

If you want to change the world through writing, pick up this book and internalize its lessons. You’ll never read the opinion sections of the paper in quite the same way again.

More Books for Writers:

Reader Come Home [Review]

What Alan Alda Understands about Science Writing

The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker [Review]