Daily Productive Sharing 092 - 如何像 Kickstarter 前 CEO 一样写一本书?

One helpful tip per day:)

(The English version follows)

Kickstarter 前 CEO 在退休后写了一本书 This Could Be Our Future,今天的文章就是 Yancey Strickler 分享他如何写作这本书的:

  1. 一开始只读书,不写作;
  2. 把点子写在便利贴上,然后贴到墙上;
  3. 根据便利贴的内容整理出提纲;
  4. 利用 Scrivener 开始写作,在这个阶段并不太关心结构,只要持续输出即可,然后把写下的内容丢到 Scrivener 内对应的位置。

整个写过程并不完全是线性的,有点像先一个点一个点地击破,然后拼凑出一整幅画。

And soon, I was kind of able to see these Post-Its transitioning into a book, as if they were in a stop-motion animation.
I wrote it chunk by chunk, with 300 here and 1000 words there. The structure of Scrivener let me reflect the style of the book I was trying to create.
I find that drawing creates metaphors, and metaphors are enormously useful.
My wife had just shown me a book that mentioned bento box. It talked about how the bento box always provided a balanced meal. It also honored the Japanese dieting philosophy hara hachi bu, which says the goal of a meal is to be 80% full. That way you're still hungry for tomorrow.
So when I wrote out “bento” in my notebook I flashed back to that book and I was like, Oh wow — this is bentoism.
The process of writing a book was just as much an emotional experience as an intellectual one. I felt things out and let visceral responses direct me. I tried to provoke those subconscious shadow fears to reveal themselves so I could grapple with them.

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Thinking Physically with Yancey Strickler

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The former Kickstarter CEO wrote a book This Could Be Our Future after he retired, and today's post is Yancey Strickler sharing how he wrote it.

  1. Start out by reading, not writing.
  2. Write ideas on post-it notes and posting them on the wall.
  3. Organize an outline based on the content of the post-it.
  4. Start writing with Scrivener. At this stage, you don't care much about structure, just keep outputting, and then drop them into its corresponding place in Scrivener.

The writing process is not completely linear, but is a bit like breaking down a whole picture point by point, and then putting it all together.

And soon, I was kind of able to see these Post-Its transitioning into a book, as if they were in a stop-motion animation.
I wrote it chunk by chunk, with 300 here and 1000 words there. The structure of Scrivener let me reflect the style of the book I was trying to create.
I find that drawing creates metaphors, and metaphors are enormously useful.
My wife had just shown me a book that mentioned bento box. It talked about how the bento box always provided a balanced meal. It also honored the Japanese dieting philosophy hara hachi bu, which says the goal of a meal is to be 80% full. That way you're still hungry for tomorrow.
So when I wrote out “bento” in my notebook I flashed back to that book and I was like, Oh wow — this is bentoism.
The process of writing a book was just as much an emotional experience as an intellectual one. I felt things out and let visceral responses direct me. I tried to provoke those subconscious shadow fears to reveal themselves so I could grapple with them.

Get 20% off for 1 year

Thinking Physically with Yancey Strickler

Try our sustainable productivity tool BRNR List