Welcome to Writers and Readers

Would you like to write a successful story? Would you like to improve your internet communication? How about being persuasive with your written word?

With Writers and Readers you can learn by doing and through the feed-back you receive from those who share this adventurous journey across the art of writing and reading your texts aloud. Explore and practice how to write short stories, novels, non-fiction, working mails, your blogs and even how to write on social networks.

What is it

Writers and Readers is a project crafted in Italy between 2011 and the beginning of 2012 by Ivan Ottaviani and Davide Giansoldati. It springs from their direct experience as public speakers and members of Toastmasters International and it was created specifically to face the challenges of another set of communication skills, writing.

The heart of the project lies on two pillar-principles:

1. Learn by doing: each meeting is downright practical, doing, sharing, creating, brainstorming.
2. There are no pundits, experts or gurus: everybody gets a feedback from everybody else as you can always learn something new and improve your skills.

There are no lessons in Writers and Readers and therefore no teachers.
You learn from practice and the help of those who share this journey with you.
Every meeting, you write and listen to what others have written; giving and receiving feedback is the key to improve constantly.

You write: at the meeting and at home to prepare yourself.

The more you write and a better writer you become.

You listen: because we write to communicate, share and get others interested in our ideas and those who listen in turn can share their own personal opinion and at the same time learn how to write and give an effective feedback.

Through this method you also learn how to evaluate your own work and be open to new ideas and styles different from yours.

The Manual

Arm yourself with paper and pen,
clear your throat and get ready,
let's start!

This book is a practical manual that makes you discover the endless creative use of the written word especially when read aloud.

It is the result of six years of trainings, projects, experiments and feedback that contributed to the creation of the method "Writers and Readers" to improve your writing ability and based on four basics skills: writing, reading, listening, evaluating.

By following the directions of this journey you will achieve one after the other, different goals and with each one you will comprehend and practice the key writing factors.

You will start writing about yourself, then you will give voice to your characters and in the end you will write a full short story. Since project one you will discover your strengths and you will receive useful point of improvements.

To transform the blank page into a published story is easier than you think!

More & Better

The basic rules of every creative act identify two specific moments: the divergent phase and the convergent phase.

The first phase suggests to explore every possibility, no matter how unrealistic or practical, crazy or reasonable. What we highlight in this phase is to register and take note of every idea.

The convergent phase suggests to take those ideas and concepts and work on them to one end that responds strictly to two criteria: "this is what I like in this idea" and "stay on topic"

The two phases should be kept separated in order to foster the maximum result in our creative process. We followed these two phases also while working on the manual.

We had a divergent phase to explore endless possibilities, without limitations and judgements and we had a convergent phase to choose critically and positively and fine-tune the ideas as much as possible.
Just working and playing with and on these same concepts we came to the creation of the logo payoff: more & better.

The Authors

Davide Giansoldati

Writer, creative thinking facilitator, storytelling, communication and public speaking trainer.

I studied the development of creativity with Laura Barbero Switalski, Blair Miller and Gerard Puccio from the International Center for Studies in Creativity (Buffalo State College). I also participated to in-depth workshops with Hubert Jaoui, Piera Giacconi and other creative trainers.

Thanks to these studies and my experience I help people to discover their own resources.
I plan workshops and tools to train writing skills and further develop thinking out of the box.

Ivan Ottaviani

Communication and problem solving trainer, theatre actor and author.

I studied languages and literature and explored communication 360: public speaking, body language, theatre impro, ericksonian hypnosis, Pnl, strategic problem solving.

I worked as actor in Italian and English language and authored scripts and sketches for theatre and training events: "Hamlet and the evil of procrastination", "Listening: the subtle art of catching the invisible", "Krishna and the secrets of communication".

I like to do workshops and also work as an individual coach to explore and develop those personal success skills that become the key contribution to every team and enterprise.