It has been toooooo long, but I’ve just added chapter 9 of my business novel RollingRocksDownhill to the web. It's abut 4500 words which is looooooooong, but it covers a lot, including the following:
- I show how to build and validate a conflict (from Goldratt’s Theory fo Constraints) from scratch. Conflicts are like fingerprints left behind at a crime; they point to bigger underlying problems.
- I show, but not in detail, how to disolve a conflict.
- I show a killer conflict faced by every single poor developer and project manager.
- I talk about the difference between estimates and commitments, about the dangers of treating estimates as commitments, about the evils of multi-tasking, and about parkinsons law. I’m leaving coles law until tomorrows lunch.
A few thoughts:
- I've been stuck in my own conflict here for a while: publish my work to the internet (in order to get feedback) vs. don't publish my work to the internet (in order to avoid spending time getting the chapters "right" before publishing them – i.e. I could produce more chapters but of lower quality).
- What this means is that I've been spending more time than an author is recommended to do on the "drafts", just so that I can release stuff that isn't really, really aweful into the big wide world.
- This has the consequence that at times I feel bad because it takes me a long time ... and even then, the drafts are still drafts and need the work of a good editor.
I resolved this conflict, to my satisfaction, when I realised that the time I spend now getting each chapter as good as I can is a great investment in the quality of the book and by realising that I'm not in a race to finish this thing. I was quite reassured when I reread the published chapters recetnly and I found myself wondering “what's going to happen next?”. I even found myself thinking, every so often,"wow that's interesting - I didn't realise that!" (which sounds daft given that I wrote it, but it's true).
BTW:
- Did you know that it’s and its are different? I do, but I can’t remember which one is right. I could look it up but it’s too difficult.
- Did you know that eithor is either spelt either or eithor, but I can’t recall which. And, to be honest, I don’t care either, even though I know it drives some people crazy!
I'd love to hear any comments. I may not act on them immediately, but I truely do appreciate them. It’s a lonely old world this writing.
Thanks
Clarke
