Being an author sounds like a great way to signal intellectual snobbery. I once met an author a few years back and secretly confessed to him that I had a secret desire to write a book and could he tell me the process and I remember the look of disgust on his face with this line of inquiry.
He was very nice to me till the point I expressed this wish of mine. I know what went through his mind. He thought he spent his entire life perfecting his craft of writing and here I was a bumbling idiot who just thinks he can write a book cause he had dinner with an author.
There is a 99% chance I would have reacted the same way if our places were interchanged. Because I know writing is so painful and complex. Especially something like a book.
Finally, I had completely dropped the idea of ever writing a book. We humans on average have 4000 weeks in our lifetime if we live to be 80 years old's. I have exhausted about 2500 weeks of my life, so why should I undertake such a complex project where are chances of failure is almost 99.99%?
The answer is if the idea is going to help millions of people overcome their sufferings and I feel I have had some insight into this idea. I feel it is guaranteed to help millions of people who are miserable and suffering.
The only complicated thing is to put the idea into words so people can understand it. The idea is a cliche, so people won’t get into the depth of it if I explain it in a blog post. That is the reason a book is needed. Something which an immersive, introspective, and solitary activity is the right way of distilling this idea.
Even if I fail to sell a single copy, I will be addressing my issues in this book. So it is a self-help book for me first, others can decide.
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
The challenges
Writing a thousand-word blog post is something I do routinely, but do I have it me to write a 50000/80000-word book. This is my apprehension and how I go about editing and copy checking. Phew. It is already overwhelming.
In case you are an author, let me know your process of breaking down such a big project in the comment box below.