What you are about to read (over the next several months) is completely unfinished. There is a purpose for it to be this way – representing who and what I am. It is also very difficult to classify what I am about the journey I am about to embark on. It is hopefully (you will see why I say hopefully in a minute instead of being definitive) a continuing, evolutionary approach that will prove useful in some method and also provide a value to both the author and reader.
This thing I am about to introduce you to – let’s just call it A Book for right now – will be approached a bit differently. Instead of writing a manuscript and then editing the manuscript and then publishing the final work and then updating it to a second publishing (blah, blah, blah), it will be creating using an iterative (or “Agile”) approach. What this means is:
- Every chapter will be released as it is completed.
- Every chapter release will be scripted, edited (sort of, and hopefully), and formatted before hitting my blog.
- Each chapter will be building on the previous and will be “mostly” complete; adding to the book over the next months or year.
- I might go back and make slight changes to the wording or grammar or even structure, but will not change the message and intent (this is called refactoring).
- Each chapter will be called an increment.
- It will not be perfect, but I hope it will be valuable.
- At any time I could write a conclusion and just be done. I want to make sure this is helping someone. I do not want to write a book just to say I wrote a book.
This is an experiment for me and will be a very open and, sometimes, vulnerable process. There are multiple reasons for writing this and multiple possible outcomes based on multiple variables. If you hate A Book, feel free to “change the channel,” per se. If you like what you are reading and it provides some help or value to you, please let me know. And finally, if you believe that you can help me make this better, I long for your feedback!
Some may ask why I am writing this book, this set of ideas, this blog-gone-crazy. Throughout my life I have found that others might have gone through situations that help me. They probably overcame/succeeded in a completely different way than what I what have done. Or maybe they didn’t succeed (that can be helpful to know about too)! The point is that their experience in the very attempt was and is extremely valuable. I think my life represents this idea as I have had my number of successes and failures alike. My hope for this work is that someone might either benefit from my failures or my successes, but in the least, know where and Who to find the answers.
All that being said – let’s just jump right into it, shall we?
Joshua Thinks 