That's not the title! Way back in 2012, I wrote a short-ish book called - well, see left. A friend was setting up a publishing company, and he send out an email to various people asking if they just happened to have any 10,000-word manuscripts, fact not fiction, tucked up in their sock drawers.
No, I didn't. But I did have an idea. So I wrote, I think, 9,996 words and sent them off. Yes, came the answer. Soon, came the answer. I really do want to publish your book, came the answer. Then: it's been a while, do you think it needs updating? came the answer.
So we - or rather, I - started procrastinating. After all, the easy part of writing a book is thinking about writing a book. I can do that all day.
Then, a week or two back, I found a discussion on LinkedIn about procrastination. Other people are as good at it as I am, it turns out. We all have parallel lives in which our dream-selves are scribbling away madly, getting things done, keeping fit, not drinking too much coffee, achieving. While we think about getting round to all that.
So here's the solution. The only way this book is going to get out of my head and my sock drawer*. I'm going to update and finish writing it (duh). But not only that. I'm going to teach myself Adobe CS InDesign and upload it in PDF form, at a rate of 1,000 words per week, excuses permitting, until it's done. Nine weeks? Ten? Then I'm going to talk nicely to my friend with the publishing house, or do something else pro-active and dynamic that I haven't thought of yet.
You'll find a link to what I've done so far under the Read Me tag above, or you can just click the title here. It's now called Extra-Ordinary Popular Perceptions And The Sanity Of Crowds, which kind of resonates with me and perhaps with you. And fits better with the mobile in the picture, perhaps.
Don't expect perfection. To get it right first time would be an unrealistic aim, and to learn by doing (InDesign, et cetera) can turn rather too easily into learning while delaying. Or not learning while procrastinating.
It's free. Download it. Offer closes whenever I get it finished.
*No, I don't have a sock drawer capable of storing Word, InDesign and PDF files. I have clouds, like everybody else. It's my dream-self who keeps dog-eared manuscripts in his sock drawer.
No, I didn't. But I did have an idea. So I wrote, I think, 9,996 words and sent them off. Yes, came the answer. Soon, came the answer. I really do want to publish your book, came the answer. Then: it's been a while, do you think it needs updating? came the answer.
So we - or rather, I - started procrastinating. After all, the easy part of writing a book is thinking about writing a book. I can do that all day.
Then, a week or two back, I found a discussion on LinkedIn about procrastination. Other people are as good at it as I am, it turns out. We all have parallel lives in which our dream-selves are scribbling away madly, getting things done, keeping fit, not drinking too much coffee, achieving. While we think about getting round to all that.
So here's the solution. The only way this book is going to get out of my head and my sock drawer*. I'm going to update and finish writing it (duh). But not only that. I'm going to teach myself Adobe CS InDesign and upload it in PDF form, at a rate of 1,000 words per week, excuses permitting, until it's done. Nine weeks? Ten? Then I'm going to talk nicely to my friend with the publishing house, or do something else pro-active and dynamic that I haven't thought of yet.
You'll find a link to what I've done so far under the Read Me tag above, or you can just click the title here. It's now called Extra-Ordinary Popular Perceptions And The Sanity Of Crowds, which kind of resonates with me and perhaps with you. And fits better with the mobile in the picture, perhaps.
Don't expect perfection. To get it right first time would be an unrealistic aim, and to learn by doing (InDesign, et cetera) can turn rather too easily into learning while delaying. Or not learning while procrastinating.
It's free. Download it. Offer closes whenever I get it finished.
*No, I don't have a sock drawer capable of storing Word, InDesign and PDF files. I have clouds, like everybody else. It's my dream-self who keeps dog-eared manuscripts in his sock drawer.