David Amerland is a Chemical Engineer with an MSc. in quantum dynamics in laminar flow processes. He converted his knowledge of science and understanding of mathematics into a business writing career that’s helped him demystify, for his readers, the complexity of subjects such as search engine optimization (SEO), search marketing, social media, decision-making, communication and personal development. The diversity of the subjects is held together by the underlying fundamental of human behavior and the way this is expressed online and offline. Intentional: How to Live, Love, Work and Play Meaningfully is the latest addition to a thread that explores what to do in order to thrive. A lifelong martial arts practitioner, David Amerland is found punching and kicking sparring dummies and punch bags when he’s not behind his keyboard.
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Live your life the way you want to. Manage stress better. Be more resilient and enjoy meaningful relationships and better health. We all want that. Such life leads to better choices, better jobs, loving romantic partners, more rewarding careers and decisions that are fully aligned with our aims.
What stops us from getting all that is the complexity of our brain and the complicated way in which the external world comes together. The misalignment between the internal states we experience and the external circumstances we encounter often leads to confusion, a lack of clarity in our thinking and actions that are not consistent with our professed values.
Intentional is a gameplan. It helps us connect the pieces of our mind to the pieces of our life. It shows us how to map what we feel to what has caused those feelings. It helps us understand what affects us and what effects it has on us. It makes it possible for us to determine what we want, why we want it and what we need to do to get it.
When we know what to do, we know how to behave. When we know how to behave we know how to act. When we know how to act, we know how to live. Our actions, each day, become our lives. Drawn from the latest research from the fields of neuroscience, behavioral and social psychology and evolutionary anthropology, Intentional shows how to add meaning to our actions and lead a meaningful, happier, more fulfilling life on our terms.
INTENTIONAL: HOW TO LIVE, LOVE, WORK AND PLAY MEANINGFULLY
is available at:
AMAZON
BOOKSHOP.ORG
When did you
begin writing?
I’ve always felt the
need to write. I was an early, voracious reader. After a while the narratives
you have inside your head begin to shape the narratives you see inside your head.
When that happens the itch to write becomes strong. I wrote a full length book
when I was 13. It was never published and that manuscript, written longhand,
was lost somewhere between my family moving from Australia to Europe. My first
published book was a short action/adventure novel called “Ninjahunter” that
came out in paperback in 1999. Since then I’ve written 18 books. Sixteen on search,
the web and business and two on martial arts and fitness.
Describe your
writing process. When and where do you write?
I am highly research
driven, even on subjects I feel I know inside out. So I start with going
through all the research papers on a subject. I then read them, make questions,
talk to their authors where necessary, find interview subjects if needed. I
next, categorize them. This helps create structure for my book. The writing
process itself is me sitting in front of my laptop each day and writing 2,000
words that make total sense. The word count is easy to achieve. The “total
sense” part way less so, which is what makes writing a challenge and,
retrospectively, fun. My laptop is my place so I can literally write anywhere I
can my laptop down.
Can you tell us about your most recent release?
My most recent book is Intentional: How to Live, Love, Work and Play Meaningfully. It’s an answer to the question of “how do I behave?” when faced with the complexities and ambiguities and challenges life throws at us.
How did you get
the idea for the book?
The seeds of Intentional
were laid while writing and researching my previous book, The Sniper Mind
that uses neuroscientific and anthropological
research to examine how critical decision making works when we are under pressure.
That last book was halted by design at 440+ pages. I then found myself with a
mountain of research and quotes that were pertinent to how we choose to become
responsible for our actions, which means we become responsible for our life.
So, Intentional was born.
What was the
most challenging aspect of writing your book?
Without fail every
book will tire you out at the halfway mark. You will lose your objectivity,
lose faith in your ability to write and lose sight of the need for this book in
the world. Invariably, writers develop personal tricks that help them get past
this slump. What was unique to this book however was the need to find ways to
describe complex neurochemical and neurological processes using only words and
make it as simple as possible.
Do you find it
easier to write nonfiction?
I would say that I
find it just as easy or just as hard to write fiction. I am, however, predominantly
known as a non-fiction writer so right now it is difficult to get publishers to
accept my fiction work without them seeing a complete, finished piece. I am
working on that.
Do you have
plans to write fiction?
Yes, definitely. I have already started several different works and I am adding to them whenever I can. This is not the best way to write anything of course, but right now, my focus is on writing non-fiction books because they sell. When I am ready to get my fiction work in front of my agent and publisher (first), I shall do so.
What projects are you currently working on?
It usually takes me
two-three years to get each book to the point that it’s ready to be sent to the
publisher. This means that during the research and interviews stage I juggle
several projects, work on future book outlines and also keep up with current
affairs as they signal emerging trends long before they become a thing. I am
currently working on a project that will focus on how we learn what is right
from wrong. This is all I can say about it at the moment.
What advice
would you offer to new or aspiring nonfiction authors?
When we first start out or when we are thinking of
starting out as writers we all feel uncertainty. Our craft may not yet be fully
developed or our confidence. Our voice may no have matured. Yet, these are
things that come from actually writing and being a writer. If you vacillate because
you don’t feel ready I can tell you that really you never, ever feel quite
ready. So just put your heart and soul into whatever you’re writing without
second-guessing yourself or undermining your confidence by focusing on the deficiencies
you know you have. See it as part of a process of constant improvement and a
journey that will only end when you decide to stop writing.
Thank you so much for questions that helped me focus my mind.
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