Writing a book in public • Hacker News Board

Re: Writing a book in public

#41

Post by basilesamel » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 3:08 PM UTC

GunjanKarun wrote: post #40

This is a very interesting idea. I started with something more humble "Just 50 Words" a day and the objective was to write articles instead of a book. I also created a simple writing tool https://just50words.com to help me focus and write.

This is nice Gunjan. Post your words in our community, we love to read those! Originally 200wordsaday is still about writing short articles daily. Writing a book is a personal goal of mine. The members have many different goals: just get better at writing, releasing their ideas for the world to read etc.

Re: Writing a book in public

#42

Post by billybatson » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 3:36 PM UTC

franze wrote: post #12

I wrote a book[1] - well - i wrote the same book 4 times again and again, writing, learning, throwing away, writing, iterrating, editing, rearranging, throwing away, starting new, iterrating, ... . Some learnings: I) just write first attemp i made a super fancy setup - google chrome book with custom linux installed that automatically transformed markdown via pandoc into a custom styled PDF everytime i saved. was fun…

Just wanted to say that I really appreciated point II: I've been struggling with this ever since I left college (in which my final semester included a class on Later Wittgenstein).

Do you have any other tips and suggestions on how to "stop Wittgensteining"?

Re: Writing a book in public

#43

Post by nickjj » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 3:40 PM UTC

I'm currently 203,027 words into planning out my next technical video course. I like to write things out before I say them because it helps organize my thoughts.

It's similar to writing a book suppose.

But if you're interested in writing any type of book, just remember your goals will be different depending on what you're writing. Writing a fiction novel is a lot different than a book on some technical topic. You're on a strict time deadline with technical books because the content can get outdated.

On days where I don't have freelance work or other activities planned, getting down 3,000 "production ready" words is very possible in about 6-8 hours. That includes writing, rewriting, iterating, proof reading it multiple times, maybe doing research if needed, etc..

Re: Writing a book in public

#44

Post by h0p3 » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 3:42 PM UTC

r_c_a_d wrote: post #2

Writing the book is the easy part. Getting more than a handful of people to read it is hard. Good luck!

Write the book to yourself. You will always have a reader that cares. Someone might sit down on the bench next to you anyway to read it with you.

https://philosopher.life/

Re: Writing a book in public

#45

Post by franze » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 3:54 PM UTC

billybatson wrote: post #42

franze wrote: post #12

I wrote a book[1] - well - i wrote the same book 4 times again and again, writing, learning, throwing away, writing, iterrating, editing, rearranging, throwing away, starting new, iterrating, ... . Some learnings: I) just write first attemp i made a super fancy setup - google chrome book with custom linux installed that automatically transformed markdown via pandoc into a custom styled PDF everytime i saved. was fun…

Just wanted to say that I really appreciated point II: I've been struggling with this ever since I left college (in which my final semester included a class on Later Wittgenstein). Do you have any other tips and suggestions on how to "stop Wittgensteining"?

that's a hard one: acceptance - accepting that human communication is and always will be imprecise - there is always the context and inner state of the sender and the context and inner state of the reciever. those will never 100% line up, the further away (culturally, on experience, ...) they are from each other, the more they diverge.

obsessing over every word, over every meaning of every word might make the communication 0,5% more accurate, but weakens (to seriously hurts to kills) the overall message. accept that you will be misunderstood, but try not to.

Re: Writing a book in public

#46

Post by jzig » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 4:38 PM UTC

Nice job on the app! I'm reminded of https://750words.com/ that I discovered years ago.

Re: Writing a book in public

#47

Post by O1111OOO » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 4:45 PM UTC

r_c_a_d wrote: post #2

Writing the book is the easy part. Getting more than a handful of people to read it is hard. Good luck!

> Getting more than a handful of people to read it is hard.

1. advertise book (HN)

2. develope following (Social media)

3. write book

4. Profit? :-)

Re: Writing a book in public

#48

Post by swlkr » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:00 PM UTC

jzig wrote: post #46

Nice job on the app! I'm reminded of https://750words.com/ that I discovered years ago.

750words is amazing

Re: Writing a book in public

#49

Post by swlkr » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:00 PM UTC

I also came up with something like this: https://streaking.app

Re: Writing a book in public

#50

Post by jonathanpoulter » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

franze wrote: post #12

I wrote a book[1] - well - i wrote the same book 4 times again and again, writing, learning, throwing away, writing, iterrating, editing, rearranging, throwing away, starting new, iterrating, ... . Some learnings: I) just write first attemp i made a super fancy setup - google chrome book with custom linux installed that automatically transformed markdown via pandoc into a custom styled PDF everytime i saved. was fun…

Thanks for your advice, I'm currently starting down the path of writing (what I hope will become) a book. I'm at your piece of advice I). I'm working on a framework which links LaTeX and Python notebooks in a dynamic compilation setup [1], so reading your first point of advice makes me think I might have started on the wrong path.

Did your setup ultimately prove useful in writing your book? Or did you give up part way through and that helped you get to the task of actually writing?

[1] https://github.com/poulter7/ipynb-tex