Document, Don't Create.

It’s been over a month since I posted my last article, “Lessons Learned From A Painful Break-Up.” In the days and weeks that followed, I found myself trying to sit down, focus on a single subject, and just write, but I couldn’t find the right words to put on paper. Seriously, it felt like a mental constipation was happening and there was very little that I could do to spark movement again.

As I look back over the recent months, knowing there have been other times that the words escaped me, I noticed that something significant seems to happen right before a long hiatus. Apparently, it takes time to digest it, marinate on it, and then ultimately to find the time to figure out what to say about it.

In this very moment, I am reminded of what Gary Vaynerchuk says, “Document, don’t create.” As I understand his message, he’s telling us to take time to record our journey. What do we see? What are we experiencing? Do as much as we can to capture the now, as we live it, for it may one day serve as a valuable learning tool for us all. This idea of archiving our lives is great for bloggers like me, as I find that my articles are more highly consumed when I write like I do in my journal. Hint: My journals mainly consist of stories and the lessons I learn.

Thinking back, and looking at my web site’s analytics, the most successful articles that I’ve written were done from this very personal perspective. It is the tale of my life and its many escapades that seem to spark the greatest interest. While I feel that I have a lot of knowledge to share in various subjects, maybe the delivery method that I am most successful in writing is one that is done from the first person point of view over my mediocre attempts to do so in the second person. If this is the case, then I gladly accept that truth as it feels much more natural to do so.

On the opposite side of documentation, there is creation. Truth be told, this is probably where I have spent much of my time in the past month. I’ve tried to create an article that was safely removed from how I was feeling and what I was doing to still impart some value to you, the reader. As we’ve seen, the more I try to distance myself from what’s going on within me, the more constipated I become. Clearly, this is the lesson for the day. Embrace who you are and the gifts that you’ve been given. Don’t always try to do things like someone else, but take pride in your talents and use them to the fullest.

As I write that, I want to share with you that I’ve also had further thoughts about the book. I’m not yet sure why a book seems so appealing to me in this moment, but I’ve taken a cursory look at the process for self-publishing and gathering ideas around what I would like to showcase through that medium.

From my rough calculations, 50,000 words would provide a solid publication. Fifty thousand words is equivalent to 100 pages with 500 words per page. My articles range somewhere between 700 and 1500 words, which means that I could write a book based on 50 of my best work. How exciting is that?

The question that remains for me is this, “What topic or topics have I written about so deeply that would actually fill up 50,000 words?” Even as I attempt to catalog my past articles, I don’t think there is any one one topic that fits the bill. This has silently led me to reconsider the process of writing. In order to publish a book, I would need to be more organized in my daily activities and tightly focused on writing consistently. Where is the uniformity, cohesiveness, and solid structure behind the book? It can’t be just a random set of stories...or could it?

As you can see, the process overall, has led me to this place where I stand today. If I plan to write one book or hundreds of them, I need to get going. Where I seem to excel at the moment is in telling my life’s story and sharing the lessons along the way. If I stick to this truth and embrace the journey as I’ve been set within it, I believe the WHAT will eventually become clear. More importantly, if I am to write these books, it does require much more content than what I currently have in my catalog.

In stating that, I imagine that you, dear reader, may experience a slight shift as we move forward. This may be seen in the number of articles that are written and a more focused effort on sticking with the first person perspective over a somewhat distant second.

However it morphs, and ultimately ends, I want to thank you for joining me on this adventure. Thank you for sticking with me thus far as we are all growing together.

Until next time...