I’ve read several books recently about self-publishing books by writing them on your blog, one chapter at a time. (One of them was written this way!) Most of these work for non-fiction, however. I’m genuinely curious about writing a fiction novel (or series) by posting it chapter-by-chapter.
The problem is, everything I’ve read about this style of publishing is strictly about non-fiction. And as far as that goes, all the non-fiction stuff I write, you can pretty much read here. And I have to ask myself: could I write a non-fiction book based on what I know? And that begs the next question:
What exactly is it that I know?
The truth is a bit more complicated than me being an “expert” on anything specific. There’s a few things I’m considered an expert at… playing the saxophone, cycling for fitness, using Linux, or being an idiot… I’ve got decades of experience in those fields.
But those things are practical, and with the exception of playing the sax, they’re all things I taught myself for practical reasons. I don’t necessarily want to teach people how to do something specific, as much as I want people to learn how to think in a manner that will let them accomplish and learn things. I want to teach them my mindset. I want to get people to learn how to direct their unguided yet limitless energy to accomplish great things.
I could write a book about how to use your Attention Deficit Disorder to actually be awesome, and do amazing things. How to take what you have, your God-given personality, and run with it. Those of us with “the ADD” think it’s a feature, not a bug. What could you accomplish if you just went for it? What’s the worst that could happen?
Of course, it also stands to reason that there should be some sort of standard in place. I can see some of my readers saying “Yeah! I’m going to use my ADD to break the world record for days standing on your head!” or something like that.
Yeah, well… that’s all fine and good. I mean, somebody’s got to hold that record. But what if you could catch a vision for something incredible?
A lot of people think that I’m just naturally an awesome guy, and I guess if you only saw me in public gatherings, I could understand why you’d think that. What most people don’t know is that there’s a lot of introspection and thinking- mindset, if you will- that goes into my bombastic personality. When I’m outgoing, I’m passionately outgoing. But when I’m at home, I’m usually deep in thought, pondering on the vast world of Things I Could Be Doing©.
A lot of people think I’m impulsive (my wife used to think this) because one day I will just up and go do something crazy. But the truth is, I’ve been thinking through it in my mind for weeks, possibly months, going through the pros and cons. I don’t usually tell people everything I think about, because if you could listen in on my thoughts, it would sound something like a Faulkner stream-of-consciousness novel played at 3X speed, written in shorthand. It would sound like gibberish and only make sense to me, so I hold it in until the ideas are practically bursting out of my head. This drives my wife absolutely nuts.
What I want people to understand is that being awesome:
- Is something that doesn’t come naturally
- Takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work
- Is 100% your choice
Nobody’s going to force you to be awesome. And yet, we’re under the obligation to only use it for things that are genuinely helpful and good. It really is like a superpower: you can waste your “awesome” energy on things that are pointless, and it’s really easy to do so. But you can accomplish so much more with just a little direction and focus.
If we could harness the raw energy of ADD, we could solve all of the world’s problems in days. But as long as we’re distracted by trivial things, it will never happen.
Anyway, enough ranting on this for now. I’ve got writing projects lined up that will keep me busy for years, and of course, I’d love to put some time into music projects again… but those will have to wait for the right time and place.