On Writing a Book
I had a friend say I should write a book a few days ago. This came after I shared a post I wrote on my site. Another friend, who had read the same post, was within an earshot of this conversation and concurred. I didn’t think much of it. I write what I write. I have my reasons for writing. The goal to write a book isn’t anywhere near the front of my mind.
Maybe writing is in my DNA. My father used to write essays for a small local paper in Florida. The publication was full of these kinds of short stories. Mostly about the experiences of the locals in the area. I frankly don’t even remember what he wrote about, but I wish I had access to those writings. I can’t quite remember what the publication was at this point.
I’ve also taken three composition courses and a public speaking course in college. So, I’ve been taught, to a degree, how to put words together. I don’t really feel like I write at a high level, definitely not with a college vocabulary. I sometimes feel like my writing is fragmented. I don’t edit too hard with the majority of my pieces, just basic proofreading. I often see things I could have done better after the fact, sometimes far after. But, that’s not the point of why I write. I write because it’s therapy for me, first and foremost. Connection & communication are benefits I welcome as a result.
But, being told I should write a book made me think of a talk fellow writer Patrick Rhone did a few years ago. He mentioned a few things during this talk. First is framing. He used the example of Coca-Cola in a champagne glass. The vessel in which you drink a Coke changes the experience of doing so. So, while you wouldn’t think of drinking Coke from a champagne glass, the vessel itself has a purpose which changes how you experience that drink, both with taste and smell, but also just the prestige of that glass as well. It’s elevated in our minds.
Conversely, I can say “I’m a blogger who’s blogs on a blog”, or I can say “I’m a writer who blogs writes for public audience”. Those two statements have a totally different feel, much like how it feels different when you drink a Coke from a bottle or can, as opposed to a champagne glass. I recognize myself as a writer. It doesn’t matter if I’m not acclaimed or recognized on a wide scale, I write.
The other thing to think about, and Patrick brings this up, is the issue of our words lasting over time. I don’t care who it belonged to, but if I was digging around an abandoned home and found a journal with entries from 50 years ago, I’d find the perspective of someone from that time interesting, even if I didn’t know the person. History is a record of what survives. As far as we’re concerned, anything digital can be fleeting at any given time. Backups are important and the more backups you have, the better. Those backups don’t have to be limited to other digital versions, printed versions can also come into play.
For over a decade now, I’ve used a digital journaling app called Day One. What I love about digital journaling is it’s much easier on my hands and often faster than written word. Where my written journals are 99% in the bullet journal format, I’m much more likely to have full paragraph and sentence structure when using a keyboard. Words flow easier.
But I’m not always great at using Day One. My writings for this site originate from an app called iA Writer. I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s as minimal as it gets and stays out of the way. What’s great about iA Writer is it uses the same writing format Day One uses, so I can easily transfer my posts from one app to another. But why do this? Because Day One has a book printing feature, where they’ll send you a physical version of your journals. Literally anyone could be writing a book right now. They’re nice looking books too.
This is all to say maybe I am writing a book right now, but it wasn’t just how my mind was framing it. I think I’m going to take the time to transfer this year’s posts over and see what a 2025 volume of this blog would look like in book form. I did this with a post before writing this and I just had to reinsert a couple photos and do a couple other small edits so that things made sense. Otherwise, it’s pretty straightforward. I also think I’m going to start doing this going forward, so I don’t have to go back and transfer a whole year again.
It’s all about framing. For example, we’ve all been blogging this whole time. Any of your social media posts, yes even your most ridiculous ones, could have been a blog post. You’re just trading the vessel of a closed siloed social media service over the open web vessel of a personal website. Same goes for writing a book. It’s all about what you publish to. We can all be book writers.