What Is It Like Becoming a First-time Author?
I had 22 days left before I turned over an 80,000 word manuscript to my publisher, Prometheus Press. Soon millions of people throughout the known universe would be reading Firestarters: How Innovators, Instigators and Initiators Can Inspire You to Ignite Your Own Life.
Writing a book has been a life-long dream. Attempted multiple times with no orgasmic moment of completion. I'm a journalist-trained, agency-bred, blog-loving short form writer. Less is more. Deadlines are measured in hours and days. 80,000 words is Mt. Everest, and I can barely make it up two flights of stairs.
Not this time. Now the challenge is compacting some really cool research, a clever framework, inspiring exercises and the 30+ amazing Firestarter profiles into ONLY 80,000 words.
Also, I've always been a solitary writer. I started my career with a cigarette in one hand and coffee in the other, surrounded by an invisible cocoon in a noisy newsroom. Distraction is my enemy. For this book, I had two terrific co-authors The accountability and discipline of co-authoring made this book a reality.
Here are a few other things I learned:
Creating a New Language. I have always admired brands that either created new words or used existing words in cool ways like Apple Evangelist on their business cards or Genius Bar instead of help desk. With our book, we created three types of Firestarters -- Innovators, Instigators and Initiators as well as different factors that affect Firestarters such as Ignitors, Fuel, Accelerants and Extinguishers.
By starting with fresh terminology, we found that it really made us think about the meaning of words and what appeal they would have. It also opened up a dialogue, a powerful interaction between people about their interpretation.
Creating Models. One of the key aspects of the book was creating a model that answers the question -- what makes someone a Firestarter? We were interested in difference between Firestarters and other people, as well as how to ignite the potential in people to become Firestarters. It's pretty complex and that is okay. But like many ideas and technologies, we want to make it clear visually and with our language.
Capturing Stories. My favorite part of being a journalist was writing feature articles.. I love to capture a story. For my book, I interviewed such amazing people and been deeply touched and inspired by their stories. For the first time, I did profiles from taped phone and video interviews, and then transcribed them. I have this technique rich. It gave me the ability to truly capture their voice and keep myself out of their stories Crafting someone's story is an honor. Capturing their voice is a privilege. And trying to do it in 1500 words or less is so difficult.
I have my pen ready to sign copies. But first, I better end this little blogging distraction and get back to work.