Me from the Past
I used to say that the worst developer I ever met was "me from the past." I'd look at code I wrote two years, two months... or, okay, two days prior, and think: who wrote this trash??
Seeing where I could have done better is good news. It means I've learned something new.
So, good news! I reread an older blog post, and it fails a newer check on my writing checklist. That means I'm learning!
I've been writing for a long time, and I've developed a checklist of tests for my writing... well, a mental checklist, anyway... hmm. Sounds like material for my blog.
Here's what I reread, originally written in 2022: Boredom is an interesting thing.
The new check that it doesn't meet is the dinner test.
Storyworthy, by Matthew Dicks—one of three good books on storytelling I read recently—introduced me to the dinner test: Is this how you'd tell the story at the dinner table?
I was sure my writing would pass easily. After all, I write in a casual, conversational way. I write like I talk.
And yet, Boredom is an interesting thing is casual, conversational, and in my voice... and it fails the dinner test.
Yay! I learned something new!
I don't believe the dinner test is, or should be, a rule. For me, it's like checking for the passive voice. My writing will sometimes fail the dinner test, and my writing will (definitely!) use the passive voice. And that's okay.
My checklists are tools, not rules, and I appreciate tools to help me make my writing stronger. When something fails a test, I can rewrite it and see if I like it better. Usually, I do, but if not, hey, it's my writing, I write how I want.
I've heard people say "you don't enjoy learning, you enjoy having learned something," because the process of learning itself can be pretty uncomfortable. I'm not sure that's true for me. I definitely enjoy having learned something, but I'm actually pretty keen on the learning process itself, uncomfortable though it may be.
Book Proposal Power Program
I'm taking a Book Proposal Power Program course from Luvvie Ajayi Jones, and it has indeed been helpful. We've been tackling one section of the book proposal every week, and we're almost done, so by the end of the summer I'll have at least a draft of my full book proposal.
The course features recorded advice from Luvvie, and live coaching sessions with two of the wonderful coaches on the Book Academy team. It's been useful also to see what my classmates are thinking about or working on.
One classmate today described her approach to her book, and she said "because that's just what I do."
I wrote that down. That's exactly what I want. I say that about myself sometimes - organizing information, for example, is just what I do. It's second nature to me.
I want the book to embody the things that are "just what I do."
Blog posts
I'm going to stop sending out separate notices about blog posts. If I've published something new since the last newsletter, I'll let you know at the end of the newsletter. For example, twin posts today:
Developer’s checklists As a developer, I maintained a checklist of troubleshooting tips. I would have conversations like this... Read more
Writer’s checklists Some of the best writing tips I learned were from a summer class I took as a teenager. I’m still adding to my writer’s checklists, decades later… Read more
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