Wherever you are on your book writing adventure, you’ll find what you need here…
What to do if you’re just starting out on your Author Adventure: planning, preparation, and dealing with your Inner Dickhead
Beauty lies in the gaps. In the imperfections.
Because the imperfections are what makes life interesting.
The way the trapeze spins slightly faster than you were anticipating, so your movement quality changes almost imperceptibly and surprisingly, and your face makes a different shape to the one you were planning — but it works.
One of my MicroBook Magicians asked me this week — what if I don’t feel like planning today? What if I just want to dive right in? I want to write write write but I know I need to research some stuff!
And to that I say: HURRAH!
Fill yer boots, because there is no wrong way to write a book.
“You’re an author? That’s so cool!”
“I self-published it, it’s not in Waterstones or anything,” I replied.
I had this conversation — paraphrased, natch — a few years ago, just after I wrote my first book. I felt uncomfortable with the praise, like publishing it myself was pure vanity.
Writing isn’t a measuring exercise you know.
Nobody cares that your book has 4,392 pages, Gerald.
Actually, they do, and they probs won’t read it because that sounds like a CHORE.
Look: whoever told you a nonfiction book has to have 300 pages and 90,000 words was WRONG.
There are approximately 8,193 notes in my Notes app. Even more in my Notion.
I’d say more-or-less 48% of them are lists. Plans. Plots, if you like.
I live my life via lists, plans, and plots, or nothing would ever happen. They’re comforting and they make me feel like I’m making progress.
Every time I sit down to write it’s like whack-a-mole: which obstacle is my brain gonna chuck in the way today? Who knows? It’s a surprise!
One consistent blockage, though, is my arrogant and pathological need to write a brilliant first sentence.
Sometimes, people tell me they hate their book. Their work in progress.
On occasion, I say it myself, about a book I’m working on.
“Okay,” I say. “That’s okay.”
And then I ask: “What do you mean by hate?”
In today's video, I ramble on about why writing like you speak is dumb and leads to badly written books.
Writing a book isn't just about the writing; it's about the details, too. The fine points that mark you out as a professional. Stuff your readers may not notice on a conscious level, but if you get it wrong, they'll feel it. They'll know.
