Pragmatic Life

Fresh Snow

It's the first Monday of a new year in a new decade. I sit sipping a fresh cup of coffee looking out of the window at the snow that's falling here in Cleveland.

The weather feels like a metaphor for the day. The snow has been slow and steady for three days accompanied by a light wind. Just enough to keep the surface white and to erase the footprints of people and animals that passed earlier. There is no well trod path of what's gone before only an empty lawn waiting for new footprints or whatever.

Quick, before meetings mar the day, the year, the decade---lay in the snow beside me and flap your arms and legs to make a snow angel.

Kill, commit, or transform your projects

Johanna Rothman wrote a wonderful book this year about managing your project portfolio that can help you manage projects in your personal life as well. At the beginning of the year it's a good time to take a look at your major ongoing projects and decide whether to kill, commit, kill or tranform a project.

You have limited resources---what are you going to devote them to this year? What successes are important to you in 2010. It's easy to just continue what you're doing but you probably have a bunch of open projects that you're just "kind of" doing.

Johanna writes that "When you commit to a project, it's a real commitment, not a partial commitment." You commit your time, find the people to help, ensure that there's funding and resources. If you don't fully commit, she explains, you'l revisit your projects again and again. 

You need to understand what is required to commit to a project---this should be concrete. Maybe you want to learn a new language or improve some hobby like drawing, photography or playing an instrument. Decide how much time each day that will take--- half hour, an hour---and ask if you realistically can commit that time. If it takes an hour a day of practice and you can only commit to a half hour a day or an hour three days a week then you aren't able to commit fully and you won't be successful.

It's tough but you need to face up to those projects you can't or won't commit to. You have two remaining options.

Perhaps you should kill the project. Johanna advises that "The key to killing a project is to make sure all activity associated with the project stops." This may give you pause. You may look at all of the sunk costs and feel that you can't kill the project. You can.

You may think you're being clever by postponing a project. It's kinder and gentler. You're not. You're just putting it on hold for now. Johanna makes it clear that "Postponing a project is another form of killing the project." You'll be happier later if you do this in an active way rather than just putting the project on hold and never getting back to it. A project on ice is one of David Allen's "open loops" and will be a quiet but continuous source of stress.

The third option is a bit of a hybrid. When you transform a project you are committing to this new version. You've killed off parts of the old project and redirected it but you are now fully committed to the success of this new project. You might change the team, change the goals, or change how you go about your daily work on the project but you still need full commitment.

Take some time this weekend to look at your major ongoing projects and decide to kill, commit, or transform each one. 

More of the same

In thinking about this year's resolutions I've decided that I don't really plan to make new ones so much as I'd like to apply things I already do in one area of my life to other areas.

As an example, I love to cook. Each New Year's Eve I choose a cookbook I've never cooked from and we invite some friends over for a meal I prepare from that cookbook. The husband and I have been friends for twenty-five years and the wife and I have known each other forever (there's a picture of her at my second birthday party). 

I want to have a relaxing evening and at the same time serve really good food. The trick to accomplishing this is easy. I am a very organized cook. I prep what I need before I head to the stove and I have a general idea of the order and the rhythm I'm going to need to prepare the meal. The second trick is even more important: I clean as I go. When I finish with a pan or a knife or a bowl, I wash it. 

Just those two practices - preparation and continual tidying - make cooking easy and enjoyable.

This year's resolution, therefor, is to try to apply those two practices to other activities in my life.

Instead of looking for new practices to embrace, take a minute as 2009 ends to identify things you do pretty well in one area of your life and ponder whether they are applicable in other areas.

Happy New Year.

Preparing for the New Year

In his TED talk from February, 2008 composer Benjamin Zander looks at the opportunity presented by only about 3% of the population here being interested in classical music enough to support it. While others bemoan the closing of institutions and puzzle over how to grow the audience from 3% to 4% he truly believes that everyone can enjoy and value classical music.

He divides people into these categories:

• A small group of people who are passionate about classical music.
• A slightly larger group of people who don't mind classical music. They don't turn it on but if it's playing they are happy with it.
• The largest group of all is comprised of people who never listen to classical music.

He adds a fourth group that claim to be tone deaf and then dismisses the idea that this many people could actually be tone deaf.

He then talks the audience through the "story line" of a Chopin prelude and asks them to picture a specific thing while listening to him play the piece. Everyone gets it. You'll get it.

But I don't bring this up to enhance your life through classical music.

As you prepare for the new year, think of something you are passionate about that you wish other people would better understand or just appreciate. How can you tell its story and move them to a point that they get it? 

I never much felt the passion for history until I read Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation. Since then I pick up biographies and historical accounts for a fun read while I'm traveling. Vowell's book convinced me.

Take twenty minutes to enjoy Benjamin Zander on music and passion and make a New Year's resolution to create that shining look in the people around you when you describe your passion.

Agile Diet Holiday Check-in

Christmas Eve day might not seem like the right time to check in to see how the diet is going.

Between now and the time when our New Year's Celebrations end a week from tomorrow I've got a great deal of overeating planned. I'm not talking about healthy stuff either.

But in the December issue of the PragPub magazine I suggested we start a diet together. So far the rule is simple: eat what you want but write everything down. 

We'll add exercise and moderation and rest soon enough, but for now just write it down. If you haven't started yet, you may want to wait until Saturday morning to join in. When you wake up Saturday commit to writing down everything you eat or drink. Everything.

No guilt. No "oh I shouldn't have". For now we're working on the most important skill needed for success in your diet -- noticing what it is you are doing and creating a record.

Enjoy your end of year celebrations  -- I know I will.

Congratulations authors

Wow November went by quickly. Let's assume that you reached your goal (yesterday's blog post was addressed to those of you who didn't).

Congratulations. That's huge. I'm proud of you and so happy for you. Now, what are you going to do with what you've written?

You could decide to do nothing with it. Your goal was to write and you've written. Sharing it is a whole other ball game. Not only that but most novelists will tell you about several books they have started that they had to put down because it just wasn't working out. This is hard for those who have written a bunch of books---it's even harder if it's your first book.

Look at the chapters you've written. Maybe you can continue to shape them into a book or maybe you should set them down and start fresh on another project now that you know more about yourself and about writing.

If you want to do something with it, the simplest thing might be to use your writing as blog posts. Before you share your writing with anyone realize that people can be really harsh. Even if you post it to your blog and give it away for free, there are people who will make comments that come out of left field or are hurtful.

You might have something between a blog and a book. Maybe you want to shape it into a pdf and distribute it on your own or post it to a site that has a community of people interested in your topic. 

You might have a book on the way but you don't want to work with a publisher. You can self-publish or use a site like Lulu. At the minute you cross the line into charging for your work, some of your readers will look at your work differently. Even if you aren't making any money off of your work, they have paid for it. They have expectations of you---and they aren't all good.

If you've chosen a topic that we might publish, feel free to submit it to us. Submissions for our mainline Pragmatic Bookshelf titles should be sent to proposals@pragprog.com and those for our Pragmatic life series should be sent to lifeproposals@pragprog.com. In any case, please read What we are looking for first.

We tend to respond more quickly than most publishers. Our most common reasons for rejecting a proposal have nothing to do with you. We often think a submitted book would be a great book---just not the sort of book we publish. Many times we don't see a market for the book in our existing audience and we're not sure how to reach the people your book would deserve to reach.

Sometimes it is you or your book. We just aren't sold on an idea and we look at that as a warning sign. If we're not getting the kernel of the book how will we explain it to our readers? I would suggest you do what movies do and create a log line. A short catchy sentence on what the book is and who it's for.

Maybe you want to submit your PragProWriMo book to one of our competitors. Cool. We want to see good books get published. Just because a book isn't right for us to publish doesn't mean it isn't a book we'd love to read. We think there are compelling reasons for writing for us but we know that different authors have different needs and we're not right for everyone.

Whether you end up signing with us or with one of our competitors, you probably have a lot of work left to do on your book. With us a development editor will work with you to help shape your story and get the best out of you. I recently edited a book that the author brought to me in a state that he thought was complete. We worked many months through many drafts to get it to the state where we were all happy with his work. It is still his voice, it is still his book, but it is much improved by the comments of tech reviewers, the copy editor, the indexer, the typesetter, Dave and Andy, and me.

Let me know what you decide to do. I hope this month has been a good experience for you and I hope these daily blog posts have been helpful. In the meantime I wrote 80 pages for my book. I'm pretty happy right now.

Congratulations.

On Failure

Tomorrow I'll wrap up the month with some thoughts for those of you who reached your goal or who just got a significant amount of writing done. Today I want to take a minute to talk to those of you who think you failed.

I talked to a woman yesterday who participated in NaNoWriMo. She planned to capture stories she had told her children when they were younger. Goofy entertaining stories with a message. She got twelve thousand words is and stopped.

Not to go all rose-colored-glasses on you, but she captured twelve thousand words of stories that would otherwise be lost. She, her husband, and her kids relived some of that time when they would tell each other stories. She doesn't have anything fit to publish---but she's had a writing based success.

Those of you writing along with PragProWriMo had a goal as well. Even if you missed that goal, I can't see any possible way that this month was a failure.

Some of you have written in to say that although you didn't get a book out of the experience, you did solidify some ideas in your head and you have a better idea about a certain topic than you did before. 

Others have written in to say that book writing is not for them and that they've gained a lot of respect for authors. They are not marathoners but they now understand more what it takes to write a book.

There are plenty of people in between. Those of you who wrote three chapters but not four -- you were successful. I've always graded on a curve. You pass too.

Many times the world's rewards are binary. You either completed something or you didn't. With something like trying to write a book, even if you didn't manage to get very far, you got farther than most and you know more about yourself than you did a month ago.

You can stop saying that you always wanted to write a book and attempt one of the other things you've always wanted to do.

On this week's "On the Media" they devoted the entire program to the state of the book industry. Guests lamented that too many books are being written and that it's easier than ever to write a book. I don't think so. It may be easier than ever to take a book that you've written and make it look pretty enough that someone might say "it's a real book" and buy it. The writing part doesn't seem any easier today than in the days I used to watch my dad write books in long hand on a legal pad.

Failure? I don't think so. Congratulations and thank you for participating.

Freezing Leftovers

We always have extra turkey and stuffing left over after Thanksgiving. There are only so many turkey themed meals we can have in the week after the holiday. I love turkey and feel lucky to have enough to have fed seventeen relatives and still have some remaining but at some point enough is enough. It's time to freeze what's left to use when the time is right.

What about your left overs?

There are examples and explanations that didn't quite fit into one chapter that you are able to use in another chapter. But at some point enough is enough. If you insist on using your left over material you will be harming your book and not helping it.

Wrap those leftovers up carefully. Make sure you label them so that you know what you have. You don't want to be staring at some odd shaped blob wrapped in aluminum foil not knowing what's inside or how old it is.

After your book ships, you are going to need to promote it. These leftovers are ideal. That way you don't have to keep using examples from your book. User your leftovers for a blog post or two to promote your book when it's out. Write an article for an industry website with  your leftovers and point them to your book. Create a screencast from the material.

Whatever you do, don't throw out your leftovers. And don't make the mistake I make with food leftovers---I forget that I have them when I need them. Keep a list of topics you can write or blog on to promote your book. Or maybe ... just like food leftovers ... your book leftovers are the launching point for your next book.

Chex mix

Every year my mom makes Chex mix for Thanksgiving. More than the turkey, the stuffing or the pies, Chex mix is what says Thanksgiving for me. It's a simple trigger where the first mouthful connects me to all of the Thanksgivings in the past.

What are the triggers you're providing for your readers?

Connect with your reader. Think of what you know about your reader. Who are they? What do they like? How old are they? What experiences do they share?

You wouldn't ask a kid if they remember the first time they saw "The Wizard of Oz" in color because they didn't grow up with Black and White tv's. For them "The Wizard of Oz" was always in color. 

Are you writing a computer programming book for people new to programming? That's very different than if you are writing a book on a language or framework for people who are experienced programmers but new to the technology you're describing. In my Cocoa book I can mention objects, variables and for-loops confident that these trigger specific notions for my readers.

You also need to create new triggers. It's like that dish that someone brings to Thanksgiving one year and it was so good that now you serve it every year. Six years later it's one of those "we always serve that at Thanksgiving" foods.

You can't set out to create a new tradition. You just write great examples that resonate with your readers and you wait and listen. You capture an idea in a simple story or phrase. Express it clearly and give it a name like "DRY" or the overused "stone soup". You'll know you've created a new tradition when you see the name used as shorthand in tweets, blogs, and other books.

You can't control what other people will pick up on---you can make sure that you give them material worth adopting and repeating. Whip up your literary batch of Chex Mix today and set a bowl out on the table.

Serving the pie first

At our Thanksgiving table today I will be serving a pumpkin soup sprinkled with home made ginger snap cookies. I'll then plate up a salad of thin sliced pears topped with dried cranberries, toasted walnuts, and blue cheese. Then the main course with all of the traditional dishes: mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, cranberry dressing, green bean casserole, and yams. 

Throughout the meal people will make a show at initially declining seconds. They'll shake their heads and say, "gotta save room for pie". I know that if I hold the serving dish in front of them they'll go ahead and take a second helping anyway. I also know that I don't need to save room for pie because I've already had some.

Friends of ours have a Thanksgiving morning "Pie First" tradition. This year one hundred and forty people came through their house to share Thanksgiving pies before their own family's meal. I tasted a spinach quiche, a lemon tart, and a pecan pie. In a couple of hours I'll be enjoying our Thanksgiving meal without thinking about saving room for pie.

Why don't we serve the pie first in our books.

Not all the time. That could be bad for us. We might fill up on pie and never eat the vegetables or protein. But once in a while why not switch things up. Start your chapter with the fun stuff and then give the reader the background they need. This variety will help keep the reader's attention and sometimes it's fun to imagine the reader saying "That was cool, how did you do that." The pie has gotten their attention. Now you can give them the veggies and meat that they need.

Happy Thanksgiving. Don't forget to write today.