I published https://makersatwork.com/ It's a great book, but not because I'm a talented writer. It had moderate success, but I didn't tell my story. I took other people's stories and compiled them using a model proven by Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work. It's a book of interviews of interesting people and industry experts. You don't have to be a fiction writer to be a published author. You don't even have to be the story teller.
Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
101–110 of 134 posts
Re: Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
#102I published https://makersatwork.com/ It's a great book, but not because I'm a talented writer. It had moderate success, but I didn't tell my story. I took other people's stories and compiled them using a model proven by Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work. It's a book of interviews of interesting people and industry experts. You don't have to be a fiction writer to be a published author. You don't even have to be…
I think Susan Lammers did the original in the tech/computer field, "Programmers at Work." (Not sure if Lammers based it on something else that was also titled similarly):
https://www.amazon.com/Programmers-Work-Interviews-Computer-...
Re: Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
#103Honestly, even accomplished writers sometimes don't have a book in them. I've many works that would be a great Harvard Business Review article but got expanded into books for some reason or other. You probably have a great long read article in you, book... not so sure.
Pretty much every business book ever written (hyperbole alert) would have been improved by being an HBR article augmented with some detail and case studies that ended up in the 75-100 page range. But the economics of publishing apparently demand 200-250 pages.
Re: Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you need to be "arsed" to write a book and you can't be "arsed" to write a book, then, logically, you can't write a book.
"Can't be arsed" is just an expression, mate. I'm sure you can understand the point they were making.
I think l9k might have been making a more subtle point: maybe motivation/willpower isn't quite so different from the other required personal attributes (in this case, physical fitness) as we tend to think. Perhaps because it can't simply be switched on and off like a tap, but requires training analogous to physical exercise; or perhaps for deeper reasons. (Going down this road pretty quickly leads us into a thicket of ambiguities and philosophical puzzles around 'free will', so it might not be very productive, but it's still worth bearing in mind occasionally.)
Re: Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
#105A negative article. I spent 2 years writing a sci-fi about a guy who builds a blackhole powered computer to simulate another universe. It got less than 150 downloads in 18months. I did it because I was doing nothing else with my life. Ultimately it failed to be succesful. But I gained a lot. It really helped me get a lot of crap off my mind. I learned a lot. I also read 400 books and graphic novels over 4 years. It w…
Its a negative, click-baity headline. A more accurate headline that matches the article would be "Its harder to write a bestseller than most people think."
Ultimately the article agrees with your perspective. The last paragraph: "If you want to write a book, do it. It’s wonderful and horrible and fulfilling and soul-crushing all at the same time. But do it because you want to, not because someone suggested it one time."
Re: Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
#106I think this author has the misconception that people only write to be successful, others, like you, write for their own reasons. I had a relative who once wrote a book about her life, honestly the book was not very good (both the writing style and content), and largely "sold" (or was given away to) only to family (despite her paying for a book run out of her own pocket and shopping it around to bookstores on her own…
Simply documenting people's story has value. I know someone who wrote an autobiography that was basically a chronological description of their life. It wasn't an enjoyable read however it was a largely unvarnished description of their long and varied life.
A large library happily took some copies to go into their archives. First hand descriptions of events are hard to come by. Chances are it will sit unread in their archives for decades but it could one day be interesting source material for someone.
Re: Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
#107This reminds me of the idea that seemed to be very popular a couple years ago that everyone can and should become a programmer. Nothing is quite that simple.
It's really sad. The original idea is that application interfaces should make programming accessible. Think the vi editor as used by AT&T secretaries, or Excel spreadsheets. Some concepts and interfaces simply can't be shrouded in clickable widgets that command the computer to perform some pre-scripted task. Just like people need to use math directly and require the ability to input and manipulate simple equations, s…
The fact of the matter is that, broadly speaking, basic programming is a suite of cognitive processes that pretty much all come online at the same, reasonably above-average IQ, and they are irreducibly complex; they cannot be further simplified except by rote execution of formal process, at which point you should just let the computer handle it.
Re: Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tell that to my knees Almost came here with this exact same comment. Absolutely not amount of motivation or feel good thinking about my own capabilities and willingness to 'do the damn thing' can surmount the sheer agony and pain I feel after a 2 mile run (because that's the most I can bear to stand) after years of jumping out of airplanes for a living (US Military) over 12 years. Ever have your knee shattered to pie…
The motivational quotes are told to people because for every ex-paratrooper or person with naturally bad knees, there are hundreds of people with perfectly fine health that they're neglecting or abusing. Being a paratrooper is almost as uncommon as being lazy is common. People with chronic health problem just end up caught in the crossfire between lazy people telling each other to work harder.
there are hundreds of people with perfectly fine health that they're neglecting or abusing
Let's not ignore the other option (among many) which is: people in perfectly fine health who aren't particularly fond of having the ideals and opinions of the hyper-health conscious and uber-active lifestyle types projected onto them from someone who doesn't have the letters M.D. following their surname.
Re: Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
#109Has anyone just farted around self published books or fanfic a bit? Let me tell you: there's a lot of writing that is nearly unreadable. Sure, you can do it. It's probably best written down and then gently carried over to the archives, only taken out for a good laugh down the road. Writing well is like programming. You have to spend some time doing it before its really ready for public consumption. Then you get to be…
> Has anyone just farted around self published books or fanfic a bit?
I just published my first print book [1] with Amazon CreateSpace.
I learned a heck of a lot technically - I wrote it in LaTeX for ultimate formatting control, then ran it through PanDoc and a bunch of my own scripts to massage the epub how I wanted.
CreateSpace make it extremely simple, in all honesty anyone that has used facebook has enough computer skill to publish their own book.
I also learned a massive amount about writing, editing and so forth. Each new draft I kept saying it was "almost done", then would spend months re-writing entire chapters and paragraphs. Along the journey I read many fantastic books about how to write, and how to make my stories more engaging.
It was an extremely rewarding process. The first time you get a draft copy in your own hands is fantastic - it's staggering and the only thing you can say is "holy sh, it's a real book!" Haha.
I'm already working on my next books, and I plan to write for the rest of my life.
[1] The Road Chose Me Volume 1: Two years and 40,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina - https://amzn.to/2vo3S3G
Re: Everyone does not, in fact, have a book in them
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you need to be "arsed" to write a book and you can't be "arsed" to write a book, then, logically, you can't write a book.
"Can't be arsed" is just an expression, mate. I'm sure you can understand the point they were making.
I think you are confused. "Not being arsed" to do something is the same whether it is running a marathon or a writing a book.