Out of one book another is born
Charlotte Booth • 3 January 2022
A Case Study - From Brain to Book Programme
When clients come to me they sometimes have a very clear idea of what they want to write, and then it's my job to work out how that can be made into a sellable book.
When Ros joined the From Brain to Book Programme
she wanted to write a memoir which included a number of letters from her mother. She had a rough idea of what she wanted it to look like and how she wanted to express her memories.
However, when going through the planning stage of the programme, the idea didn’t sit quite right, and we couldn’t get it to work into a coherent product which would please publishers, readers and Ros as the author.
It's difficult with memoirs as they are so very personal, and can be upsetting, traumatic or simply difficult to recall in a chronological manner. And, like all books, a memoir is ultimately a product, and the audience are consumers who want to gain something from the book.
We continued working through the programme, gathered material and created a content page that worked with Ros’s original idea.
But there were further issues to address in the form of potential libel, as anything that presents someone in a negative light can be problematic if that person is recognisable. Without written permission from those individuals this could open a whole can of worms.
Throughout the programme, Ros, then decided her better option would be to change the memoir into a novel, meaning all people, places and actions were fictionalised removing potential libel issues, allowing for embellishments and creating a more coherent journey for the reader.
This was totally the right thing to do for Ros and her book, and as we speak the finished manuscript is currently on the desk of a publisher who has agreed to publish it.
A massive congratulations right there!
Ros also has the germ of a second novel and will be sitting down to plan the Ridiculously Detailed Content Page soon, before she starts writing.
Ros said:
“Working with Charlotte helped me focus on what my novel was really about. Charlotte helped me plan out my book until I knew exactly what I was going to write. Her knowledge and experience were SUPER helpful, and she was very encouraging.
That help at the beginning of the process of writing my novel made everything so much easier and I completed the book within nine months.”
Working with Ros was challenging as the book she wanted to write turned out not to be the book that needed to be written. But going through the process made that clear for her and for me.
In the end Ros was able to tell her story in a way that worked for her, and she has a publisher as well – and all within a year.
If you would like to find out more about the From Brain to Book programme
email
me or give me a call.
There is nothing more amusing than checking out mediaeval artistic renditions of lions and other heraldic creatures. These beasts, grimacing and gurning are a strange juxtaposition of human, animal and demon and as far from the cute image of Alex from the Madagascar franchise or in fact a real lion as you could possibly get. There are three main reasons mediaeval lions are so ‘bad’ and un-representational; The artists were following a very tight brief. Some of the artists may never have seen a lion, and were following the descriptions they were given. These lions were representing heraldic principals of bravery, nobility and authority; all very human characteristics. When viewed through this lens it becomes more understandable why they look the way they do, but they are still ‘not right’ and not a great tool for learning about lions. Generative AI is very similar to an uninformed but talented mediaeval artist. There is a element of intelligence but at the end of the day it is following a brief, with no actual ‘knowledge’ of the thing it is producing. As an example, if you prompt your generative AI (ChatGPT and the like) to produce a blog for your new product or service, aimed at your ideal customer avatar you will in all likelihood get a mediaeval lion out the other end. Sort of recognisable, and sort of not. This is because AI doesn’t know what a customer is (ideal or otherwise), has no idea what your product or service is and does, and has no true understanding of how this service or product will serve your ideal customer and their needs. Of course, AI is pulling all the information available from the internet to help with its answer but there is no understanding there. There is no determining fact from falsehoods or even which websites are trustworthy and which are not. So, it skims the internet and puts together content which suits the brief as it understands it. This is then when the actual work should start as this content shouldn’t be used in the raw. It should be edited and tweaked by a human who DOES understand the brief, has been a customer (ideal or otherwise) and can imagine what your ideal customer will feel when using your product or services. We are in a world now, where we have generative AI promoting products and services to humans, when it has no concept of what a human is and how it thinks, meaning the marketing department are in fact more important than ever for ensuring content and copy is aimed at humans and human emotions. You could argue that the world would be a more entertaining place if there were more mediaeval lions in it, but it wouldn’t be a great environment for learning, or for basing purchasing decisions on. If you want to maintain the human element in your content, then I would love to help . Explain the brief, your CTA and your ideal client and I will know what I need to ask to get a clear idea before writing. Then you can rest assured your content was written by a human for a human and we can leave the mediaeval lions to the museums.
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