On writing

I write every day, whether blog posts, longer articles, journaling, or even working on another book. The tools I use, Scrivener and Drafts, allow me to write in chunks and get ideas down quickly and easily. Pretty much all of my writing is intended for the web. As a result, the idea of documents, especially documents printed out on paper, is for me a thing of the past.

I write words in different sized chunks depending on how much I have to say on a particular topic, and in the first instance, I am saying it to me. I have often commented that my blog posts are really "memos to self". As a result, my writing style is conversational – I am really having a conversation with myself. And so the length of my writing depends on the length and depth of the conversation I feel like having. The idea of a book is beginning to appeal again because I fancy having a more extended and in-depth conversation with myself.

If I ever get around to writing another one I will self publish it. I have over the last few years got a lot of value out of short, to the point, non-fiction Kindle books. They can be as little as 20,000 words but cost only £3 or £4. They hit the mark and don't have any padding. So even the idea of a book is becoming more malleable. What makes a book a book? When does a tweet become a blog post? When does a long blog post become an article? When does a long article, or collection of articles, become a book?

So my motivation is the type of conversation that I want to have. Short ones like this blog post, or longer ones that a "book" would allow me to have. Content is starting to drive form. Interesting times.