Two Powerful Writing Insights From a Stimulating Writing Bush Camp That You Can Use

So there I was at the writing boot camp on the grassy calm and tranquil foothills of the majestic Mount Kenya - the second highest mountain in Africa. This is the country of Kenya! And I was invited to have a "conversational workshop with the young East African writers".

Though I am a South African by birth but I have spent considerable times in East Africa, in particular the countries of Tanzania and Kenya. In one of those times in 2006, August to be precise, I met and personally conversed with President Barack Obama. He was in Kenya to deliver a lecture on Effective Global Leadership - Moving the World Forward. That was one of those visits President Barack Obama made to Kenya. The first of these visits was back in 1986 while he was a young innovative community organizer in the South Side of Chicago.

At the boot camp my purpose was to centrally focus my "conversational workshop" on biography and memoir writing. After all I was invited to the boot camp because I recently wrote a book on the story of President Barack Obama. So I thought it will be worthwhile and beneficial to the delegates to pitch the workshop at the practical level giving practical insights and personal perspectives of the process I followed myself when writing the book for the whole period of 4 years.

I discussed and engaged the boot camp participants about a lot of things covering a wider field. But there were two key central practical lessons that I made sure that the participants take from the boot camp into their consciousness.

The first key practical lesson was to expound on the difference between a biography and a memoir. The two are related but distinct. To be sure and to use my own common sense and discrimination I expounded that a biography is the essentials about a person - the distilled virtues of a person and how can others learn from it. Like the book I recently wrote about President Barack Obama Moving Forward: The President Making a Better America and the World the main purpose of the book is to provide a concise comprehensive constructive account of President Barack Obama's diverse and wide ranging life story that effectively condenses into his Moving Forward Vision for America and the World. In the book many things have been omitted, compressed and telescoped. No book can be all-inclusive. This was a particular special story on President Barack Obama that I chose to tell. My presuppositions and my sympathies colored my choice and text.

Generally speaking, reading a biography the reader should aim off for the breeze: take what he or she wants, leave or adjust the rest. The reader must not accept, but must be critical and question. The biography writer is not the person who knows but a professional who conduct research, focus and interpret the facts. And all interpretations are a matter of discrimination and prejudice colored by the biographer's outlook.

A biography differs from a memoir because a memoir is the most intimate and private of the two. It is a mere presentation. It is full of innermost personal thoughts and feelings, raw as they are - without going into labor for perspectives and context as the biographer might seek to do.

The second key practical lesson I wanted the boot camp participants to get was that people - or readers, their senses are naturally wired to the present times. People's feelings are attuned on present time, not the past or the future. During the writing process even though the writing might be historical or futuristic it must also be contextualized into the present times.

The present times must find itself in the history or the future the author is writing about. Writing history or biography or writing about the future is not a sum but a synthesis, one that goes on changing and accruing even while observed. The past, writes the French historian Marc Léopold Benjamin Bloch, is by definition a fact that nothing can modify, but the knowledge of the past is a thing in process which changes and progresses as people progresses.

Chris Kanyane is the author of Moving Forward!

My personality and perspectives is inspired by the 18th century French Philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau. It was Rousseau who provided Europe with slogans for return to nature during the times of the industrial revolution when everybody was excited about machines and the power of them.

Rousseau argued for a shift from reliance on the head, (that is reason) to a shift to the heart and pure nature and the simple life.

Rousseau called for the human beings that are genuine in a genuine world. He advocated and kindled a novel appreciation of natural beauty, wild life, forests, landscapes, mountains and valleys. Natural life, argued Rousseau, is spiritually fulfilling, enchanting and cultivating people.

Public Speaking - Author Biographies to Get Speaking Engagements

First, write the book. Second, sell the book. In most cases, however, before you can sell your book, you must sell yourself.

Speaking engagements on your book in the forms of book signings, seminars or events are important components to help you sell yourself and your book. However, before you can get those speaking engagements to sell your book, you must provide potential audiences with your author biography, a one-page summary of your writing career or the part of your writing career that relates to your book.

Limit your author biography to one page. People do not have the time or energy to review lengthy profiles with details that are not pertinent to your book. Moreover, long author biographies tend to list every tiny accomplishment and have been known to include made up or exaggerated credentials. Tell the truth and keep the truth short. Stick to the facts about your writing and speaking career. Although some authorities say it is all right to include a personal note to show readers that you are a real person, I suggest an economy of words and an omission of emotions. Do not bog down in your dreams. No one really cares about your dreams but you and your family and friends.

Approach your author biography as if you are writing about someone else, meaning, write in the third person. It is easier to brag in the third person. First person author biographies and resume formats are not considered professional and mark you as an amateur in the business.

Sell yourself to the prospective audience in your introduction, which states your name and your professional handles such as published author, journal contributor, e-book author, magazine writer or writing coach, for example. Focus on professional titles and stay away from personal categories such as wife of, husband of, homemaker, mommy, daddy or uncle or nanny, unless they enhance your career description or credential as an author.

This is how I introduce myself: Sunny Nash is an award-winning writer, photographer, producer and author of Bigmama Didn't Shop At Woolworth's, a memoir told from the perspective of a black child growing up in the mid-century American South, describing discrimination, sit-ins, boycotts, riots, police brutality and personal triumph.

After introducing yourself, the key component of your author biography is a description of the book that you are seeking to present. The description should be a powerful, short, self-contained statement about your book. Remember, this statement is not a review or an evaluation or an excerpt. The statement is a description that should leave the reader wanting to know more and to hire you to speak about the book. Dedicate one paragraph of your author biography to this summary. Here is a sample of how I describe my book: A collection of nonfiction essays about life with her grandmother, Bigmama, during the civil rights era, Nash recalls the U.S. Supreme Court 1954 decision, Brown v. the Board of Education, and the civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Before Nash's book was published by Texas A&M University Press, her syndicated column had earned her prestige and attention as a writer. She is working on her second book for this publisher.

Personal experience, interviews and research gave me the authority to write and speak on my subject. Demonstrate your authority even if you write fiction. To support your credibility, include a mention of previously published work, speaking engaghere.ements, television show appearances, writing awards and your website. You don't have a website? Get one and learn how to use search engine optimization tools to get people there. To publicize your website, write an internet press release to distribute online.

If you do not belong to any on-line or community or other writing groups, join one today! Not only are professional writing groups helpful in your endeavors, they look great on the author biography. Pay some dues and get listed in writing directories to increase trust and respect from potential audiences.

When seeking to be booked to speak about your book, be sure to include all necessary contact information, including your website. If your website or any other part of your contract information changes, update them immediately. Do you know what happens when people can't find you? Your author biography along with your entire press kit gets tossed into the trash.