How to write a book
It took me ten years to write my book. I learned few lessons on the way.
Writing a book has got to be one of the big badass things I've ever done. And I'm writing this post to let you know you can too. Why? Because I thought I was the worst ever writer.
When it came to essay writing, my school years were torture. This was amplified by having an elder sister in the same school who was a brilliant essayist and storyteller. She most likely followed in my father's footsteps. He as a lawyer and loved nothing more than to debate, especially on paper. Once I had entrenched myself in the belief that "I couldn't write for shit but I was good at math" my Dad's skills and dislike for authority came in quite handy. He would eagerly wait to find out what my latest essay assignment was and even took to being my ghost writer.
While this seemed like a brilliant short-term solution for everyone including the teachers who could brag about their A* student, this did nothing to help me pass my English exams, where I got a spectacular D. It also entrenched my views I couldn't write as well as setting the bar really high for being a 'good writer'.
In the early 2000s, I was setting up a website for my testing business, and the web developer (remember those?) advised me to start blogging to market myself. It took a few starts, but by 2006 I was onto it. My first blog post in 2006 received rave reviews from the ten people who knew what a blog was and were interested in software testing.
Nevertheless, I persisted and have been writing since then. I'd been approached to write a book with others, but for a multitude of reasons, the enthusiasm died. But the idea of writing a book was born—a book written by me, myself, I.
Ten years later, here we are. The book is published. I call this the longest pregnancy ever.
Here are my lessons learned.
I attempted to write my book three times. I would get a third of the way through and stop because either I had lost my way, the book's structure needed revising, or my ideas had evolved. Questions like, should I write the book about quality engineering, or quality coaching? Should I write it from the point of view of the reader, or by topic? Or, I've changed my thinking on that topic, should I include it?
By committing to writing a post once a month and publishing its content, I freed myself up from these rabbit-in-the-headlights moments, and just write. I had to let go of the fact that it might become outdated, that the content might not be suitable for the intended audience.
What I realised was that structures are not defined, but emerge, and sure enough, as I continued to write, themes became clear.
I continued this approach for four years, until I reached the point where I decided it was time to stop. I could have written more, way more, but I knew it was time to draw a line in the sand.
I thought at this point, it would be more of a case of assembling content than writing a book, but that too proved to be untrue. Fortunately, I decided to hire Fiona Charles as my editor. With a major in English and a deep understanding of testing, she was able to critically question and refine my content. My blog writing style is quite colloquial and conversational, while the tone of the book was to be more direct. Images had to be refined and redrawn.
As I assembled the book, I discovered missing content and had to add more. And I took some away, a whole section of the book as it would have been too long.
It took what felt like forever. Anyone who has done this knows the painful requirement of rewriting, re-editing, and redoing multiple times.
Look, I could write forever about the whole thing, but I'll end with these words of advice:
- Writing is a process. Start small and keep going
- Forget about 'the book', write about what you want to
- Assemble the book when you've written the things you want to say
- Less is more, it's ok if it doesn't address all the things
- Get your writing out there and make it public.
- Get an editor
- Worry about distribution when you have a book
That's it! My book is available for purchase at https://leanpub.com/qc
A final shout-out to the Leanpub people who have been a fantastic support along this journey.
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