Why I'm Writing a Book

Dozens of Index Cards

Yesterday, after doing quite a bit of really fun work, I was exploring and just writing a lot.

I'd been writing index cards, like I talked about in yesterday's post. I wrote probably dozens of index cards on various ideas.

Then I thought about how powerful it is to put your ideas somewhere clear, where you can organize and visualize them.

I came across a great quote, and I had it saved in my quotes:

I don't know what I think until I write it down."

― Joan Didion

A Better Question

Then I asked myself a question, because sometimes life is about asking better questions.

I asked: if I were to write a book, what would it be about?

I started coming up with ideas, and one thing led to another.

I'm obviously in the early stages, and there's always the excitement of new endeavours. But I did decide to start writing a book.

Proving the Tools

Building the Right Tools

I think I've developed the skills of, above all, organisation.

A big part of writing a nonfiction book is having the right tools. And not only having the right tools, but also building them.

Branch Writing is an invaluable system I've created for writing ideas. I've been using it for things like blog posts, online content, and the scripts of my YouTube videos.

But now I'm taking on a bigger journey to prove its power, along with the other systems I have in place, and to set myself the challenge of writing a book.

One Year, or Six Months?

If I had to guess, this journey will likely take one to two years, but I don't really want to set a deadline.

I'm still debating whether it would be great to challenge myself and ask, what happens if I finish it in six months? I think that would be an incredibly challenging thing to do.

What I do want is to document my journey as I go, because that would be a super valuable experience.