Everyday I Write the Book

“With my pen and my electric typewriter.”

The Story

I always knew that I’d write a book — I just didn’t know what about.

If you would’ve asked me in college, I probably would’ve said that it would be a work of fiction.  That was my preferred genre at the time.  If you would’ve asked me in my mid-twenties, I probably would’ve said I’d write a non-fiction book about music (I spent much of my twenties covering music for local and national publications).

My first book is neither of those things.

The book is called “Mastering Work Intake.”  It’s the result of a years-long collaboration with a one-time colleague of mine.  It’s the result of a decade of my own work experiences.

How I got to being a published author is really about discipline.  The book is very much the result of lots of little burst of work.  An hour spent writing while one of the kids is at a ballet lesson, or an hour spent working in the evening instead of watching television.  Those hours add up.  Individual paragraphs turn into chapters.  Those chapters turn into books.

I didn’t write the book everyday, but I’m confident that I wrote on more days than I didn’t.

The Lesson

When I was younger, I had the mistaken notion that creativity was the result of moments of epiphany.  I remembering hearing (possibly apocryphal) stories of musicians picking up their instruments and having a finished song pour of them.  Or a writer sitting down over a weekend and banging out an entire movie script.

But reality is much different; at least for me.

Persistence is the key to creativity.

Elvis Costello and the Attractions — “Everyday I Write the Book”