how to write computer books

What public speaking taught me about writing

All public speakers start badly – but they improve fast because the feedback is so rich. You see the smiles or hear the snores. Writers are presenters – but you present your ideas on a page instead of using sound and pictures. Here’s what you can learn from public speakers.

1. You’re always selling something. Even if you’re not looking for payment, any presentation exists to change the listener – to sell them a particular idea or course of action, or to empower them to do something. What actions do you want the reader to take? Why tell them anything that doesn’t increase the chances of taking those actions?
2. Talk to the listener. When you’re presenting, they’re right there in front of you – so you look them in the eye at talk TO THEM. Writing just means that you and the listener don’t need to be in the same room at the same time. That’s magic. Look them in the eye and talk to them anyway.
3. Hold attention. When you’re giving a presentation, you can tell if what you’re saying is boring the listener – so you hurry through it or skip it completely. Are there sections in your chapter that will bore the reader? Why are they there? Drop them. If they’re not paying attention then they’re not taking it in anyway.
4. Structure is sequence. If you have a chapter outline that has lots of nested headings of varying hierarchy then you’re kidding yourself. Books work from start to finish, and in most cases people expect a logical sequence not a deep structure. Presentations work from beginning to end – and each idea needs to logically follow the previous one. You group related ideas together – but hierarchy goes out of the window.
5. Be visual. Good Powerpoints use vivid images to convey ideas. If you’re talking about traffic to a blog, you might post a picture of busy traffic in New York. You can use images in writing – you paint the picture with words. What image do you want people to have in their heads when they read this? You can use real pictures too, of course.
6. Keep the words simple. Long words and sentences are hard to say out loud. The sort of words we use when we talk are simple and straightforward. Writing is better with those words too. When you write, think about how it would sound out loud? Snoozeworthy? Rewrite.
7. All that matters is between the listener’s ears. A presentation is just noises and perhaps light projected on the screen. As soon as you sit down, the presentation ceases to exist. The noise and light don’t matter – what matters is what’s going on between the reader’s ears as they listen, and how they’ve changed by the end. Same with books – what’s on the page doesn’t matter, it’s what’s in the reader’s head that counts.
8. Examples illustrate complex ideas. When you are trying to explain complex ideas out loud, you keep providing examples and comparisons until it “clicks” with the reader. “Look at it like this…”, “Imagine that…”, “Let’s say that…”. In writing, we try to define complex ideas, and the definition ends up complex. Find simple examples and comparisons that illustrate complex ideas and concepts.

Next time you’re planning a chapter, imagine how you’d handle it if you were giving a presentation with the same goals.