A review of how to write

One of the requested blog posts on my backlog has been “How do you write a book?”

People think I’m a good person to ask this to, as I’ve written two books (one self-published and still in alpha, but not for long, the other with a publisher). Not many books there, maybe they’re mediocre (likely), but on the other hand, that’s most definitely more books written than a lot of people.

The real answer to “How do you write a book,” which sounds completely smug and unhelpful is:

(drumroll)

Write.

Write often, and in public.

I warned you it sounds smug.

But here’s the thing that’s happened for me lately; writing in public has gotten harder. As much fun as I have on Twitter, it feels like with every “follower” there’s more stress on what I write (there’s not), that there’s some new, higher bar of “good enough” (there’s not).

The problem is forgetting my own advice, which is also a common thing people do: we’re great at giving advice (or we think so) but really should probably talk less overall and listen more, which includes to ourselves.

Something I have asked myself in the past (note: by past I mean “on a regular basis“) is: “What would I pay someone $100 right now for to tell me?” Where the answer is the thing I actually want to do. Right now, it’s “write.”

Tangent: It’s no secret that I have behaviors that people would file into the “hippie” category – I eat lots of plants, ride bicycles, and mediate every day (ideally, even if it’s only for 5 minutes). I say that as a bit of a caveat before I mention that meditation has been really helpful in developing my listening muscle.

So really this post can be that post that was requested (I warned the requestors that the book advice was a short answer), but this is also helping me by breaking the surface so I can write more. It might not be great, but it can be mine.

And here, sneakily at the bottom of the post, is where I mention that I’m leaving my day job to focus on consulting full-time, building web and mobile apps (also interested in trainer opportunities), but also more than that: to take some time to learn, to write more, to recharge my batteries.

Because here’s a way to go from A to B. It’s called: “Taking a step away from point A and towards point B”

And that’s why how you write [a book, an article, a blog] is such a short answer: Write.