I have been keeping a secret for four years.
I've been kind-of, sort-of working on an idea for something that could turn into ... you know, a book. Maybe. I wanted to have it at least 20% finished before I even made mention of it. After all, how many people have you met who are "writing a book" ??!! People talk big and have nothing to show for it. I didn't want to be one of those talkers -- especially since my book is a "history of everything." Uggh; it sounds so grandiose. I was embarrassed to even bring this up before I was confident that I could follow through. The seed was planted in my mind in 2009. I can hardly believe that I have now spent four years of my spare time on it. I made a deal with myself: finish the first and last chapters and the introductory material, and then I'll promote myself from "thinking about" the book to genuinely "writing" it. The date for this goal kept shifting. First 2011, then 2012 ...... and most recently by my birthday in 2013. I only missed that goal by three days!
But now I have met my first goal. The book is 20% done. It's official. I'm no longer kind-of, sort-of thinking about a book. I'm writing it! Woo-hoo! And how appropriate that I'm writing a book about Life, the Universe, and Everything at age 42.
So here's the nutshell:
The working title of the book is "The Evolution of Human Beings, Institutions, and Belief Systems: A Logarithmic History of Everything," or "The Evolution of Human" for short. It's not really a history of "everything," as it is focused on human history and beliefs. But it does cover all periods of time. I realized one day that I could manage a history of all periods of time if each chapter represented a power of ten years. I call this format a "logarithmic history." It allows me to cover all scales in equal breadth, in just ten chapters. It has involved as much reading as writing. The research is only half the challenge. The other half is deciding what to write and how to prioritize and pace the material.
I chose to write the oldest and newest chapters first, to convince myself and others that I can research at both extremes. "Chapter 10" (the oldest chapter) covers the highlights of the past few ten-billion years, from the Big Bang to bacteria. "Chapter 1" (the most recent chapter) spans the last few decades, the recent history and current events / trends from 1980 to the present day. I will put my writing on hold for the rest of this year. I want to momentarily shift my focus to self-publication and a little promotion. I will start exploring the world of "real" publication and literary agents and all that, and see if there is any possibility of doing anything commercial with this project. If not, that's okay, because I've come to love this book like a child, and I am committed to writing the whole thing just because it's a life-long personal goal of mine that is actually becoming a reality. I would also like to find a few expert readers and some lay-readers. If you are interested in reading some of this and helping me with feedback, or know someone who might be interested, I would really appreciate your contacting me.
Stay tuned!
Your favorite author
Scot
