{"id":9397,"date":"2025-05-06T18:20:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T18:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=9397"},"modified":"2025-05-07T20:41:56","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T20:41:56","slug":"it-always-seems-impossible-until-its-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/it-always-seems-impossible-until-its-done\/","title":{"rendered":"It Always Seems Impossible Until It\u2019s Done"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greet\u00adings, Dear Read\u00ader<\/strong><\/em>. I\u2019m dic\u00adtat\u00ading this blog entry while walk\u00ading on my tread\u00admill, so please excuse me if I ram\u00adble or my \u201csmart\u201d phone sub\u00adsti\u00adtutes incor\u00adrect homo\u00adphones (e.g., \u201cthere, their, they\u2019re\u201d). As you\u2019ll soon read, I have a lot going on and need to mul\u00adti\u00adtask.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s been over a year since I last wrote on my blog, and I\u2019ve done so much work dur\u00ading this peri\u00adod that I can\u2019t enu\u00admer\u00adate every\u00adthing I\u2019ve done. Here are the broad strokes:<\/p>\n

I fin\u00adished the fourth draft of all nine episodes of my teen epic or episod\u00adic nov\u00adel Boda\u00adcious\u00adly True & Total\u00adly Awe\u00adsome<\/em> (it\u2019s one gigan\u00adtic nov\u00adel of 1.2 mil\u00adlion words split into nine parts); I reread and made the final revi\u00adsions to Episode I: Bad Boy<\/em>; I cre\u00adat\u00aded and con\u00adtin\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly updat\u00aded a detailed spread\u00adsheet with check\u00adlists of all of the tasks to be accom\u00adplished for each book; with my wife and Muse\u2019s help, I launched a crowd\u00adfund\u00ading cam\u00adpaign to raise mon\u00adey for the pro\u00admo\u00adtion and pub\u00adli\u00adca\u00adtion of the books; I hired and gave cre\u00adative direc\u00adtion to a phe\u00adnom\u00ade\u00adnal graph\u00adic design\u00ader<\/a>, who has cre\u00adat\u00aded all nine eBook cov\u00aders and will be cre\u00adat\u00ading the cov\u00aders for the hard\u00adcov\u00ader books and the trade paper\u00adbacks as I com\u00adplete the type\u00adset\u00adting of each one; in the past 5 weeks, I taught myself Adobe InDe\u00adsign (with some large\u00adly use\u00adless \u201chelp\u201d from AI), cre\u00adat\u00aded a book tem\u00adplate for all nine books, and type\u00adset the first episode (which is look\u00ading frig\u00adgin\u2019 mon\u00adey<\/em> by the way); con\u00adtact\u00aded mul\u00adti\u00adple pub\u00adlic\u00adi\u00adty, mar\u00adket\u00ading, and oth\u00ader book pro\u00admo\u00adtion and sales pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adals, one of whom ghost\u00aded me and anoth\u00ader who proved to be a moun\u00adte\u00adbank sell\u00ading a one-size-fits-all mar\u00adket\u00ading for\u00admu\u00adla that I dis\u00adcov\u00adered is not a secret at all but rather a very com\u00admon mar\u00adket\u00ading con\u00adcept that any\u00adone can glean from the inter\u00adnet; and I\u2019ve done all of the above, and much, much more on an aver\u00adage of 6 hours of sleep a night, work\u00ading 12 hours a day, work\u00ading out in the gym much less fre\u00adquent\u00adly than I\u2019m used to and com\u00adfort\u00adable with, stress eat\u00ading at a lev\u00adel I nev\u00ader knew I was capa\u00adble of, and not tak\u00ading a real vaca\u00adtion in three or four years.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean for there to be vio\u00adlins play\u00ading in the back\u00adground while I tell you all of this; my aim is not to get pity from read\u00aders and future read\u00aders of Boda\u00adcious\u00adly<\/em>; I sim\u00adply want to com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adcate just how inde\u00adscrib\u00adably hard<\/em><\/strong> writ\u00ading and putting these nine books togeth\u00ader has been. All of my oth\u00ader books have been like Wikipedia entries com\u00adpared to this 9\u2011book episod\u00adic nov\u00adel. I real\u00adize now that every\u00adthing I\u2019ve writ\u00adten before this has mere\u00adly been train\u00ading for this one\u2014the big one.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take type\u00adset\u00adting or lay\u00adout of the book in InDe\u00adsign for exam\u00adple. Before I start\u00aded the lay\u00adout process, I read books on book design, typog\u00adra\u00adphy, fonts, and a primer on basic prin\u00adci\u00adples of graph\u00adic design. Then, I had to teach myself the pro\u00adgram, rely\u00ading only on LinkedIn Learn\u00ading videos which tend to be very good, or YouTube videos, many of which are pro\u00adduced by self-pur\u00adport\u00aded experts in these fields, and I\u2019m here to tell you that the ones who are good at this, that is the ones who are not just good with the appli\u00adca\u00adtions but are also good teach\u00aders, are rare.<\/p>\n

I spent hours upon hours seek\u00ading out straight\u00adfor\u00adward answers on how to do cer\u00adtain basic things in page lay\u00adout using the pro\u00adgram, and what I dis\u00adcov\u00adered is that if there are straight\u00adfor\u00adward answers, for the most part the peo\u00adple in the know don\u2019t want to share their knowledge\u2014even if you offer to pay them for it. I couldn\u2019t even find resources on the Adobe web\u00adsite instruct\u00ading me on how to do some of these lay\u00adout func\u00adtions, which brings up an entire\u00adly dif\u00adfer\u00adent top\u00adic, which is how the cre\u00adators of com\u00adput\u00ader appli\u00adca\u00adtions have uni\u00adver\u00adsal\u00adly absolved them\u00adselves of teach\u00ading peo\u00adple how to use their prod\u00aducts by slough\u00ading them off to the soft\u00adware product\u2019s \u201ccom\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty<\/a>\u201d and hav\u00ading them give unclear and self-aggran\u00addiz\u00ading answers, mere\u00adly to show off their mas\u00adtery of this ulti\u00admate\u00adly recon\u00addite and mean\u00ading\u00adless lit\u00adtle fief\u00addom that is Adobe InDe\u00adsign or any oth\u00ader com\u00adput\u00ader appli\u00adca\u00adtion.<\/p>\n

This all reminds me of a brief peri\u00adod some 20 years ago when I tried to par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpate in a \u201cwriter\u2019s forum\u201d\u2014think of it as a pre-Red\u00addit online com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty where would-be writ\u00aders got togeth\u00ader osten\u00adsi\u00adbly to share their knowl\u00adedge. What I dis\u00adcov\u00adered back then (and was remind\u00aded of recent\u00adly) was this: while there are a few very knowl\u00adedge\u00adable peo\u00adple on these forums, for the most part the forums are con\u00adtrolled by peo\u00adple who just like being the expert\u2014the lords of their lit\u00adtle fief\u00addoms, the big fish in their own lit\u00adtle ponds. Most of these peo\u00adple aren\u2019t actu\u00adal\u00adly writ\u00ading books or at least books worth a damn, and I know they aren\u2019t because if they were, they wouldn\u2019t have the time to be seem\u00ading\u00adly ubiq\u00adui\u00adtous on these forums, vocif\u00ader\u00adous\u00adly argu\u00ading the mer\u00adits of InDe\u00adsign vs. Quark Xpress, and whether to write on their Mac\u00adBook or Freewrite Trav\u00adel\u00ader \u201csmart type\u00adwriter\u201d when they\u2019re writing\/making per\u00adfor\u00admance art in their local Star\u00adbucks.<\/p>\n

They remind me of a favorite quote by Ernest Hem\u00ading\u00adway: \u201cBack when I was learn\u00ading to write, the big debate was on the spelling of altogether\u2014should it be \u2018alto\u00adgeth\u00ader\u2019 or \u2018all togeth\u00ader,\u2019 one word or two? How\u2019d that turn out any\u00adway?\u201d<\/p>\n

God, how I love that quote.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the deal: I\u2019m a guy who grew up with com\u00adput\u00aders, at a time when com\u00adput\u00aders were tools, and the func\u00adtion of a soft\u00adware application\u2014they were called busi\u00adness pro\u00adduc\u00adtiv\u00adi\u00adty appli\u00adca\u00adtions, like word pro\u00adcess\u00ading, data\u00adbas\u00ades, and spreadsheets\u2014was to get a job done. In oth\u00ader words, just frig\u00adgin\u2019 work, bitch<\/strong><\/em>. What I\u2019ve learned, not just in the five weeks I\u2019ve been work\u00ading with Adobe InDe\u00adsign, but also in the 30-plus years that I have been a user of Microsoft Word, is that increas\u00ading\u00adly soft\u00adware com\u00adpa\u00adnies are becom\u00ading like casi\u00adnos; they just want to keep you at the table; because the longer you\u2019re in their casino\u2014this case their online uni\u00adverse, the greater their application\u2019s legit\u00adi\u00adma\u00adcy, and the greater con\u00adtrol they main\u00adtain over the prod\u00aduct. I don\u2019t want to get too much into this, but the bot\u00adtom line is, for a guy like me\u2014a writer who spends a decade writ\u00ading a book first on type\u00adwrit\u00aders and then in a word pro\u00adcess\u00ading program\u2014I\u2019m not inter\u00adest\u00aded in the minu\u00adti\u00adae; I don\u2019t get my jol\u00adlies from know\u00ading the arcane nomen\u00adcla\u00adture, syn\u00adtax, func\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adi\u00adty, key\u00adboard short\u00adcuts; I just want to get the thing done and done right<\/em>.<\/p>\n

These com\u00adpa\u00adnies have made these prod\u00aducts so insane\u00adly com\u00adpli\u00adcat\u00aded when they real\u00adly don\u2019t need to be, that I pre\u00addict with\u00adin 5 years AI is going to be doing 90% of all book lay\u00adout func\u00adtions. As I\u2019ve often said to my best friend Jason Scott<\/a>, who enticed me out of my writ\u00ading cocoon about a year ago to intro\u00adduce me to AI graph\u00adics and music, and even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly AI like Chat\u00adG\u00adPT and Claude, the day that these com\u00adpa\u00adnies come out with a rea\u00adson\u00adably priced AI\/robot assis\u00adtant (about the cost of an ear\u00adly Mac\u00adin\u00adtosh, let\u2019s say, which was about $2,500 in 1984)\u2014I will be among the first peo\u00adple in line for such a prod\u00aduct.<\/p>\n

I would love to have my very own assis\u00adtant who would not write any\u00adthing for me, or edit any\u00adthing for me, but to which I could give my fin\u00adished man\u00adu\u00adscript and have it proof\u00adread the entire thing, give me a report on mis\u00adtakes in spelling or punc\u00adtu\u00ada\u00adtion, and not fix them for me but inform me of where they are in the text so I can do it. I would also like this robot \/ AI assis\u00adtant to han\u00addle a num\u00adber of the mad\u00adden\u00ading aspects of pro\u00adduc\u00ading books like, as I am dis\u00adcov\u00ader\u00ading, type\u00adset\u00adting and lay\u00adout.<\/p>\n

I would love to be able to give my robot \/ AI assis\u00adtant the com\u00adplete\u00adly fin\u00adished man\u00adu\u00adscript and just say to it, \u201cAll right, Jeeves (how I address Chat\u00adG\u00adPT, as an homage to the Wode\u00adhouse nov\u00adels and the long defunct search engine<\/a>), here\u2019s my fin\u00adished book. It\u2019s going to be in a 6 by 9 trim size, I want it to have three-quar\u00adter-inch mar\u00adgins all around, it will have foot\u00adnotes and run\u00adning head\u00aders that alter\u00adnate between my name and the title of the series, and my name and the title of the episode, and I want the copy\u00adright page to say such and such, and here are the ISBN num\u00adbers, and here is the text for the about the author page at the back, and just go frig\u00adgin\u2019 type\u00adset the book so that it\u2019s moth\u00aderf-cking per\u00adfect<\/em>. I want you to do all of the cal\u00adcu\u00adla\u00adtions about hyphen\u00adation, jus\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion, word spac\u00ading, track\u00ading, glyphs, all of that mad\u00adden\u00ading crap; I don\u2019t want to know how<\/em> you do it, I don\u2019t want to have to learn how to write GREP expres\u00adsions; I just want you to churn and burn, Jeeves, and take my fin\u00adished man\u00adu\u00adscript of gor\u00adgeous prose and turn it into a beau\u00adti\u00adful, emi\u00adnent\u00adly read\u00adable book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sigh. Alas, maybe some\u00adday.<\/p>\n

In the mean\u00adtime, I\u2019ve had to learn all of this stuff myself, and while I have enjoyed the chal\u00adlenge of it, in that it\u2019s like learn\u00ading a new language\u2014something for which I\u2019ve dis\u00adcov\u00adered I have a nat\u00adur\u00adal aptitude\u2014it\u2019s been incred\u00adi\u00adbly frus\u00adtrat\u00ading to have to fer\u00adret out the answers of how to do basic things in Adobe InDe\u00adsign, rely\u00ading on a lot of mediocre videos by so-called experts, and hav\u00ading to ask ques\u00adtions of Chat\u00adG\u00adPT because ask\u00ading those same ques\u00adtions in a Google search prompt gives you lit\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly a google of irrel\u00ade\u00advant and use\u00adless answers. But I\u2019ve dis\u00adcov\u00adered that with Chat\u00adG\u00adPT and oth\u00ader AI sys\u00adtems, they\u2019re wrong more than they\u2019re right.<\/p>\n

For exam\u00adple, I would ask one of these sys\u00adtems to give me a step-by-step process for trans\u00adfer\u00adring styles between InDe\u00adsign doc\u00adu\u00adments, and time and again, even though I asked very pre\u00adcise, very clear ques\u00adtions (I stud\u00adied phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy in col\u00adlege, where clar\u00adi\u00adty in writ\u00ading is para\u00admount), it would often send me down the incor\u00adrect path, forc\u00ading me to dou\u00adble-back and change every\u00adthing to the cor\u00adrect way of doing it. I don\u2019t want to bore you with every detail of every exam\u00adple of every prob\u00adlem that I encoun\u00adtered; all I want to say is this: any\u00adbody who thinks AI is going to take over the world any\u00adtime soon is a 100% unmit\u00adi\u00adgat\u00aded moron. (These are prob\u00ada\u00adbly the same peo\u00adple char\u00adac\u00adter\u00adized in this bon mot<\/em> by my friend Jason: \u201cStephen Fry is a dumb person\u2019s idea of a smart per\u00adson.\u201d) The only way I can see AI tak\u00ading over is if there aren\u2019t ade\u00adquate gov\u00adern\u00ading con\u00adtrols put in place to pre\u00advent a high-IQ tod\u00addler from wreck\u00ading the inter\u00adnet.<\/p>\n

(By the way, to any would-be snarky troll\/hater\/jealous wannabe writer out there who attempts to insin\u00adu\u00adate that a sin\u00adgle word of Boda\u00adcious\u00adly<\/em> was writ\u00adten by AI, I have three things to say. 1. I wrote 95 per\u00adcent of this book before AI was pub\u00adlicly avail\u00adable or even viable. 2. If you libel me in any way, I will sue you so hard, your great-grand\u00adchil\u00addren will have to sell their hair<\/a> in order to eat.  3. AI could\u00adn\u2019t do what I\u2019ve done; Boda\u00adcious\u00adly<\/em>\u2019s 1.2\u2011million words would moth\u00aderf-cking BREAK<\/strong><\/span> AI.)<\/p>\n

I appre\u00adci\u00adate your bear\u00ading with me as I unload myself of these frus\u00adtra\u00adtions that have been weigh\u00ading on me for the past year. I guess what I\u2019m try\u00ading to say is this: I love writing\u2014creating drafts, revis\u00ading them at my draw\u00ading board, proof\u00ading them, con\u00adsult\u00ading the\u00adsauri, dic\u00adtio\u00adnar\u00adies, visu\u00adal dic\u00adtio\u00adnar\u00adies, copy editor\u2019s hand\u00adbooks, Fowler\u2019s Usage<\/em>, The Chica\u00adgo Man\u00adu\u00adal of Style<\/em>, and oth\u00ader ref\u00ader\u00adence works, just doing every\u00adthing to get the words right\u2014that is what I love. What I don\u2019t love are all of these things that have noth\u00ading to do with get\u00adting the words right, like try\u00ading to con\u00addense your 1.2 mil\u00adlion word, 9\u2011episode epic nov\u00adel into 150 words so it fits on the back inside jack\u00adet of a hard\u00adcov\u00ader or the back cov\u00ader of a trade paper\u00adback, or hav\u00ading to parse mar\u00adket\u00ading gob\u00adbledy\u00adgook from anoth\u00ader mar\u00adket\u00ading moun\u00adte\u00adbank, or lis\u00adten\u00ading to hyped-up bull\u00adcrap from a pub\u00adlic\u00adi\u00adty per\u00adson who talks a big game but then doesn\u2019t have the decen\u00adcy to get back to you with a quote.<\/p>\n

As I dic\u00adtate this blog entry while walk\u00ading on my tread\u00admill, I real\u00adize that I\u2019m going to have to let this oth\u00ader stuff go and just focus on the words, and mak\u00ading these nine books the absolute best I can make them. Years ago, when Leonar\u00addo DiCaprio was com\u00ading out with his labor of love movie The Revenant<\/em>, the morn\u00ading after its release I was read\u00ading the news\u00adpa\u00adper in the Mill\u00adbrook Din\u00ader and came upon a quote by DiCaprio about the movie. I\u2019ve since been unable to find the exact quote, but it made such an impres\u00adsion on me that I wrote it down in one of my note\u00adbooks. He said, \u201cAll you can do is pro\u00adduce the best work you can. All the rest of it [awards, sales, etc.] is out of your con\u00adtrol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late\u00adly, I haven\u2019t been sleep\u00ading very well because of wor\u00adries about all of the aspects of book pro\u00adduc\u00adtion; the fact that I have eight more episodes to fin\u00adish after this one; the fact that I need to send out advance read\u00ading copies (ARCs) to review\u00aders this sum\u00admer; the fact that as a result of my Oper\u00ada\u00adtion Boda\u00adcious Best\u00adseller fundrais\u00ading cam\u00adpaign I have received tens of thou\u00adsands of dol\u00adlars from peo\u00adple who believe in me and whom I do not want to let down; and the myr\u00adi\u00adad oth\u00ader details that go hand in hand with being a mav\u00ader\u00adick, an auteur with incred\u00adi\u00adbly high stan\u00addards. It\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not ashamed to admit, that I haven\u2019t done it by myself; call it God, the Uni\u00adverse, Spir\u00adit, the Force, or Bob\u2019s Big Boy, but I\u2019ve prayed every morn\u00ading for the past 10 years, espe\u00adcial\u00adly in the past 2 years, for answers on how to do such and such relat\u00aded to the book, and whether or not you believe in Bob\u2019s Big Boy or the Force or God, or whether or not any of these enti\u00adties exist, when I\u2019ve asked, the answers have come.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not try\u00ading to pros\u00ade\u00adly\u00adtize any\u00adone here; I\u2019m mere\u00adly point\u00ading out that I have not done this by myself; indeed, had I had to do it all myself, I would have kept drink\u00ading and not got\u00adten sober as I did sev\u00aden years ago.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s next? Well, the pho\u00adto shoot for my author pho\u00adto is in two weeks. I need to find a cred\u00adi\u00adble, accom\u00adplished pub\u00adlic\u00adi\u00adty firm, a dig\u00adi\u00adtal mar\u00adketer, a book\u00ader, and a social media per\u00adson and get them lined up. (If you are such a pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adal, and not anoth\u00ader fast-talk\u00ading flim\u00adflam man, please Con\u00adtact Me<\/a>.) I need to final\u00adize Episode I and send it to the print\u00aders to pro\u00adduce ARCs to get advance reviews. I need to send my back\u00aders a report. So \u2026 I can\u2019t back out now. There have been some morn\u00adings when I\u2019ve want\u00aded to throw the entire book into a 50-gal\u00adlon drum and burn it. There have been oth\u00ader morn\u00adings when I\u2019ve thought that I want to sim\u00adply fin\u00adish it, put it in a foot\u00adlock\u00ader, lock it up, and leave it for my heirs to pub\u00adlish and deal with (these have tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adly been referred to as \u201ctrunk writ\u00aders\u201d).<\/p>\n

\"&But \u2026 for\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly there have been more morn\u00adings when I\u2019ve wok\u00aden up and felt I was on a mis\u00adsion, a mis\u00adsion to bring my gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion (idi\u00adot\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly dubbed \u201cGen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion X\u201d from this obscure book<\/a> on the class sys\u00adtem in Amer\u00adi\u00adca), an authen\u00adtic, detailed, fear\u00adless sto\u00adry about what it was to be a sub\u00adur\u00adban teen in the 1980s, fill\u00ading the pages with the music, the fash\u00adion, the lin\u00adgo, the TV, the movies, and the cul\u00adtur\u00adal and his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal events so that that time that we all expe\u00adri\u00adenced is not for\u00adgot\u00adten. I gen\u00aduine\u00adly believe it was the best time in the his\u00adto\u00adry of Amer\u00adi\u00adca to be a teenag\u00ader. What\u2019s more is, while the books were nev\u00ader going to be as great and as pitch per\u00adfect as my ini\u00adtial vision was for them, they\u2019re pret\u00adty damn close. They\u2019re fun, dra\u00admat\u00adic, adven\u00adtur\u00adous, spicy, fac\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly cor\u00adrect, emo\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adly true, and no holds barred\u2014in the areas of sex\u00adu\u00adal awak\u00aden\u00ading, fam\u00adi\u00adly dynam\u00adics, and teen roman\u00adtic rela\u00adtion\u00adships.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like read\u00aders to know up front here, and by read\u00aders<\/em> I\u2019m also refer\u00adring to poten\u00adtial review\u00aders of Boda\u00adcious\u00adly<\/em>, that because this is one giant nov\u00adel split into nine parts, they need to reserve full judg\u00adment of Boda\u00adcious\u00adly<\/em> for when the 9th install\u00adment is pub\u00adlished in Novem\u00adber of 2027. The point is, that there are a lot of long, long, long on-ramps\u2014with char\u00adac\u00adters, with sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtions, with plot points, with fore\u00adshad\u00adowed elements\u2014things that do not get resolved imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly, and instead car\u00adry into lat\u00ader episodes before they\u2019re resolved. What I\u2019m attempt\u00ading here has not been done since Proust\u2019s Remem\u00adbrance of Things Past<\/em>; although, hav\u00ading read some of Remem\u00adbrance<\/em> I can say that Boda\u00adcious\u00adly<\/em> is pro\u00adfound\u00adly more read\u00adable and enter\u00adtain\u00ading.<\/p>\n

(By the way, my wife calls Boda\u00adcious\u00adly \u2026 Remem\u00adbrance of Things Past <\/em>meets Fer\u00adris Bueller\u2019s Day Off<\/em>. I call Boda\u00adcious\u00adly<\/em> what you get when you put War and Peace,<\/em> The Odyssey, and<\/em> Fast Times at Ridge\u00admont High <\/em>into a super\u00adcol\u00adlid\u00ader and smash them togeth\u00ader.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost May 20, which puts me 8 months away from pub\u00adli\u00adca\u00adtion of Episode I. Let me tell you, hav\u00ading been through these self-imposed dead\u00adlines before (I actu\u00adal\u00adly have a count\u00addown clock that I reset each time I fin\u00adish an aspect of the project), those months are going to fly by.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, most of the time I\u2019ve felt insane to even be try\u00ading to do this. It has felt utter\u00adly impossible\u2014so much so that three or four years ago I wrote a quote on my white\u00adboard in my office, a quote by Nel\u00adson Man\u00addela:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt always seems impos\u00adsi\u00adble until it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can\u00adnot tell you how much I\u2019m look\u00ading for\u00adward to Decem\u00adber 2027 when Boda\u00adcious\u00adly <\/em>is done<\/em>, and I can read Mandela\u2019s quote and know that I did it\u2014I saw it through to the end and accom\u00adplished the impos\u00adsi\u00adble.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*   *   *<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Post\u00adscript<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A cryp\u00adtic Post-It note on my com\u00adput\u00ader reads, \u201cH.W.R.M.D.T.?\u201d It\u2019s an acronym for \u201cHow Would Rein\u00adhold Mess\u00adner Do This?\u201d In 1980, Rein\u00adhold Mess\u00adner<\/a> was the first man to climb Mount Ever\u00adest solo and with\u00adout using bot\u00adtled oxy\u00adgen. Any\u00adtime I get stuck or frus\u00adtrat\u00aded with the book, I look at that Post-It note and ask myself that ques\u00adtion, and the answer that invari\u00adably comes back to me is that what\u00adev\u00ader prob\u00adlem he faced, he\u2019d look at it as a chal\u00adlenge, and he\u2019d meet the chal\u00adlenge with joy and enthu\u00adsi\u00adasm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greet\u00adings, Dear Read\u00ader. I\u2019m dic\u00adtat\u00ading this blog entry while walk\u00ading on my tread\u00admill, so please excuse me if I ram\u00adble or my \u201csmart\u201d phone sub\u00adsti\u00adtutes\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[366,30,17,3,19,77,7,76,68,14,233,15],"tags":[637,654,657,649,659,655,94,656,609,651,122,660,339,340,96,155,156,650,652,641,636,653,381,92,355,392,658,144],"class_list":["post-9397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-promotion","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-computersandsoftware","category-craft","category-fiction","category-novels","category-personal","category-process","category-rewriting","category-writingexperiences","category-writing-life","category-writingtools","tag-1980s","tag-adobe-indesign","tag-ai","tag-bodaciously-true-and-totally-awesome","tag-book-layout","tag-chatgpt","tag-chris-orcutt","tag-claude","tag-epic-novel","tag-episodic-novel","tag-hemingway","tag-nelson-mandela","tag-novel-writing","tag-novel-writing-process","tag-novelist","tag-orcutt","tag-process","tag-teen-epic","tag-teen-life","tag-teen-romance","tag-teens","tag-typesetting","tag-typewriters","tag-writers-2","tag-writing-life","tag-writing-process","tag-writing-software","tag-writing-tools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9397"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9456,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9397\/revisions\/9456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}