Real Talk About Writing a Book, Episode 2

[Originally published on LinkedIn, July 2025]

Last time I shared real thoughts about writing a book on here, I was desperate for feedback. THANK YOU to all the folks who agreed to read all or part of my manuscript, and special THANK YOU to those who have already done so.

And wow, do I have so much respect now for the differences between a book and an article. I’m not a novice writer--I’ve been doing this for two decades, have published several dozen peer-reviewed academic journal articles, and have served as a journal editor & reviewer. Revisions are HARD, and can definitely change an article. But, in general, in my area of expertise, and in my experience, the amount of change that happens between an article first-to-last draft is nothing compared to the change that happens between the kernel of a book idea, its first draft, and what will be the published version (obviously not there yet, but I can already tell). When my book is published, I’ll share my first idea and the proposal, so folks interested can compare with the final product.

The feedback I’ve gotten so far is encouraging. Much like the peer reviews I got on the proposal, people in different disciplines who have read a draft think my ideas are interesting, novel, and they like my writing style. YAY!

But. You (I) don’t ask for feedback just to get people’s happy thoughts; you (I) want constructive criticism too.

I’ve gotten that, and it’s hard to hear. Of course I don’t HAVE to take any of it--unless & until my publisher tells me--but the reason it’s hard to hear is because in my heart of hearts, I know it’s true & will make my book better. The feedback that I disagree with--that’s easy to ignore, and frankly to forget. The feedback that I know stems from a misunderstanding of my intention--that’s relatively easy to deal with by clarifying. But the feedback that forces me to reckon with core tensions of the various strands of argumentation...this is hard, because I KNOW that the tensions are there, and I’m not dealing with them effectively!

So I’ve been struggling with making progress over the past month. I’ve let myself be distracted by fun stuff (🎂 🥳 🪅 📖 ) and not-fun stuff ( 🌎 📰 ⚠️ ) and blamed waiting on more feedback for my lack of progress.

But today I’m back to writing the book. And I’m trying something new and maybe radical. I’m starting the manuscript from scratch! My old drafts are a mishmash of comments, color-coded notes and potential language, and just messy. So this morning, I opened a new document, set up my formatting (#procrastivity, see also this post), and I am going to write the introduction from scratch. I am hoping that the blank page will free me from the constraints I’ve been imposing on myself. I’m going to try this with the 3 chapters that are giving me the hardest time.