10 reasons why I`m writing my first book on Medium
Catchy title!
Welcome! I`m writing a book. I have a vision of how this will work and tldr I`ll be writing it here, on Medium, one article at a time.
I`ve been having this urge to write for about 3–4 years and started 2 book ideas so far, one meant to be sort of an autobiography, another one closer to a self help book that doesn`t take itself too seriously and sometimes and only raises more questions (great fun!). The latter is what I`ll be going for with this book as well in some part, combined with a bunch of other stuff, like tracking a transformation journey that I`m currently going through. The title, “Beyond the job”, is the only certain thing about the book now, I have loads of ideas that I`ll try out but I don`t know if I`ll stick with them `till the end. What I will do for sure is: I will read comments. So if you would like me to approach certain topics or influence the boon with your ideas, please let me know in the latest article comments, I`ll include them if I can. Occasionally I`ll go into philosophical, psychological or spiritual deep dives/rants/personal stories, just so you know what to expect. The main focus of the book, however, will be to investigate my/our approach related to our jobs, our beliefs and habits around jobs, misconceptions, skills, careers, purpose, being a human, society, etc. and how our jobs (or work) affect our day to day lives and vice versa. Sometimes I will go into non-job related stuff, I like the idea of the background and main subject switching places, we`ll see…
I got stuck with both book ideas I had so far and I realized that my workflow needs to change so I came up with a new workflow for this one (that I`ll explain now) that serves as both a motivating factor for me, a strict set of tools (sometimes I have too many options and get stuck because I can do to may things) and as an explanation of what`s in store for you if you choose to follow along on this adventure. I created a list just because I said I will in the title, so here it is:
1. I have limited time
Well, don`t we all.
2. I have a limited attention span
Well, don`t we all. Part of the process of writing this book is to help me improve it and possibly document the change process.
3. I can`t afford an editor
I do have the money for it (at least I think I do), so I could pay an editor, but it`s not about money. I don`t know any editors, getting one seems like a lengthy process and, like I already said, I have limited time. So I`ll be posting one article at a time, hopefully one per week or, who knows, maybe more, maybe less, depending on how much time I manage to put in and how much traction I get from comments, and I`ll publish it “as is”. I`ll do a quick read through at the end and try to at least correct any spelling errors but I expect some will slip through. Sometimes I might do this after I publish the article so, if this book will have any readers at all, you might read some weird stuff which might be changed afterwards. My main focus will be on the current and next articles, no going back (as much as I can).
4. I`ll write only on Medium
I aim to support myself to only move forward. It`s just easy to use one tool and I chose Medium because I want this to be an interactive experience, like I explained above.
5. …
I lied when I said 10 reasons, ok?!? I never had a list, I just realized the title was catchy. If it got you so far, it was catchy, right? Let`s face it, it`s not the first time an article on Medium left you confused.
If you do decide to come along for the ride and go “Beyond the job” with me, I hope you will have as good of a time reading this book as I will have writing. Remember, I`d like to make this an interactive experience so your comments can help us visit places that would be still unknown otherwise, just like the Enterprise. Welcome and let`s have some fun!
Oh, yes! 6. I let myself be inspired by Webtoons
I think we can change our ideas and expectations about what a book is. Working in IT for over a decade made me look at things in a different way, mostly when it comes to execution and delivery. So instead of waiting 10 years to have people read this book (if anyone will read it that is), they can read it as I write it. No trees will be cut (yet, probably the book will be printed when it will become a NY Times bestseller <- I`m joking… or am I?)! One could say: “Andrei, but this is a blog…”. I want to call it a book, ok?!
I read comics online daily using an app called Webtoons. Like popular manga magazines, they have authors (and, for big series, larger teams) that publish one episode a week. Now that`s agile! I`ll be using the same approach. The idea for this paragraph came as I was preparing to publish and, yes, I could have changed the numbers in the list and rearrange them so they make more sense but my job today was to kick the book off and I think I just did just fine.
Fyi, the picture of my cats is here as clickbait as well ;)