The Higgs boson and Your Book

“What in the heck does Higgs boson have to do with my book?” you may be asking. Higgs boson is some little tiny thingamajig physicists imagine exists. Or at least have determined that it doesn’t not exist. So now they think they know what it is. Everybody’s excited about it, even if they don’t really understand what is is.

In the simplest terms, Higgs-Boson is a particle of mass that gives other particles a reason for existing. Without the Higgs boson, no people, no Earth, no solar system, no universe. Nothing.

With that enlightenment, I imagine you now want to know what this thing called mass is all about, and why it applies to your book. For our purposes, mass is what gives your book meaning. Without mass, your content doesn’t cohere. The ideas don’t stick together. In the words of Scott Norton, a developmental editor at the University of California Press and author of the book Developmental Editing, “All too often, authors are bewitched by the richness of their content into writing without a concept.” Put another way, the author’s book-in-progress lacks mass.

What you write must cohere into a solid thesis and reach a meaningful (and distinctive) conclusion, otherwise it’s a jumble of thoughts, ideas, and examples that go nowhere. That coherence is, to use the Higgs boson analogy, is your mass.

This is no random idea. It’s the fundamental nature of life, the universe, and everything, embodied in the laws of physics.

If you’re having trouble determining what your book project’s Higgs boson is, give us a shout. We’ll have an enjoyable and enlightening time talking about your ideas and how to give them mass.