Fuck, writing books can be hard work.

Well, let me revise that: figuring out how to begin writing is hard. When I have some sense of structure, writing itself isn’t bad—I’m actually pretty fortunate in that once I decide to write, I can crank shit out, and fast. Getting to that stage, however, is the hard part.

I suppose that I’m staring down a happy dilemma. A certain publisher has expressed interest in receiving a proposal from me given ideas I floated to that publisher previously. They liked the ideas, and now I’d like to get a proposal off to them so that (with some luck) I can begin working on another book with a contract in hand. Having a contract isn’t about money (I don’t really make much money given the kinds of things I write about). Having a contract is motivation. It is commitment. It is knowing that I have to finish. That’s powerful, and not to be under-estimated if you’re me, the guy who didn’t even really begin writing his doctoral dissertation until he had a job contract in hand.

To get a contract requires a proposal. And a proposal requires me writing quite specifically about what I’m going to do in this new book, which gets me to my current problem. I have an assload (technical term, that) of ideas about what I want to write, but the hard part is actually making it all fit together in a way that’s logical and that makes a clear, concise, and (hopefully) brilliant argument. I also have a bunch of notes in backpack, and on random scraps of paper, plus notes and ideas from reading that I’ve done recently. When I stare all of this down, it just looks like a massive pile of “oh-my-fucking-god-how-the-hell-am-i-going-to-make-sense-of-this?”

I’ve had that feeling for a number of days now, and I was tired of it. When I got to work today, I locked myself in my office, cancelled my office hours, put on my headphones, and started dumping my brain junk down into the excellent NovaMind mind-mapping software. I used this for our last book, and it was a real help to have a visual layout to work with, and sure enough, spending a few quiet hours helped me categorize my brain junk into meaningful units that could eventually grow into chapters. Mind mapping really works for me, largely because I think I have a visual approach to information (I’m the guy with the thousand post-its on his desk) and because it lets me get my ideas out quickly without worrying about how stupid they might be.

Now, with mind map of potential chapters and topics in hand, I can begin moving forward on the proposal with a clearer sense of exactly what I’m going to cover. Wish me luck! I’m gunning for this contract.

current iTunes track: 20 Eyes from the album “Walk Among Us” by Misfits