Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

6 Thinking Hats for Writing

6 hat thinking for writing

Try on all 6 hats for your next writing project!

Can a business strategy be used for the writing process? I thought I would give it a try with the 6 thinking hats for writing.

In 1999, Edward De Bono introduced the Six Thinking Hats as a way to improve thinking and decision making for individuals and groups in the business arena.  De Bono showed that humans think in six distinct ways and he gave each thinking dynamic a representative color. He believed all six ways of thinking are needed for making the best decisions, but if we let them run amok in our head we tend to get confused.

“We try to do too much at once. Emotions, information, logic, hope, and creativity all crowd in on us. It is like juggling with too many balls.”

De Bono suggested that a breakthrough activity (not a permanent state of being and doing things) for groups and individuals is to compartmentalize our thinking intentionally and purposely. If we tried on each of the six hats when dealing with problems, new ideas, processes or any other task at hand, we would come up with better decisions and solutions. If one of the hats doesn’t quite fit who we are and how we do things, all the better. It’s role play after all. [Read more…]

The Secret to Writing So Others Will Like It

writing what others will like

Write something to suit yourself and many people will like it; write something to suit everybody and scarcely anyone will care for it. 

Jesse Stuart

The fact that I have made a living in the world of publishing for some thirty odd years is proof that I have acquired, written, edited, published, and sold what others wanted and asked for many times. I have helped publish a number of very successful books and series that were not necessarily what I might be looking for as a consumer and reader myself—a new devotional for mothers is a good example—but I knew that the material would meet a real need for many others.

I believe in focusing on others and will continue to do so for my “day job”.  So don’t get me wrong. I believe in the discipline of marketing as applied to writing and publishing and business development, especially the early part of the science when you scan and closely observe the world to see what people are looking for and buying, trying to spot new interests and trends.

But having said that, there came a moment in my publishing career that I decided to ignore everyone else and write something for me—to go with my gut feeling and instinct that if I like it, others will too. No way was I going to revert to form and gather focus groups or put out surveys. I decided to go with a jury of one. Me.  [Read more…]

Do You Have to Be a Reader to Be a Writer?

Do you have to be a reader to be a writer?

Girl Reading a Book by Jean-Honore Fragonard

Digital and print-on-demand publishing has exponentially increased the number of people who can say, “I wrote a book,” and then point you to Amazon and other locations where it is for sale.

The indie publishing explosion of the past five to six years has been fascinating to watch – and shown how many talented writers there are that just needed a chance. The downside is there are a lot of books for sale that should never have been published. Either the idea didn’t rise to the level of being publishable – or the design and editorial development was so bad (or nonexistent) that a concept that could have been good to great has too many problems to be taken seriously.

In some cases, people have wanted to be an author without any real commitment to the craft. One of the jokes in the publishing industry is that more people want to write a book than read a book.

That raises a particular question in my mind: do you have to be a reader to be a writer? Is it possible? Are there those that can pull that off? Can you? In the following SlideShare presentation I raise five questions that question whether it is possible – but let you decide.