Changes upon changes

'Writer' is a far different book than I planned, but the essence is exactly what I wanted

Editor’s note: This is the sixth in a series of updates on the development of a how-to book about writing I began last December.

After changes upon changes
We are more or less the same
After changes we are
More or less the same
— From “The Boxer,” by Paul Simon

MY BROTHER-IN-LAW and I hiked 17 sections to complete the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. Each required an intricate plan: What day would we leave? How many days would we hike? How would we get to and from the trailheads? What springs, creeks or lakes would be available for water? If we were picking up mailed food supplies at lake resorts, grocery stores and the like, where and when would that happen?

You get the idea. We planned, planned, planned.

Now, know this: The plan seldom worked as expected. Fires broke out. A family member died back home. Snow slowed us down. I went down with near-hypothermia in a rainstorm. Heat exhaustion leveled my brother-in-law Glenn. The best-laid plans could blow up in the time it took to roll an ankle.

Same with my soon-to-be book, Writer, whose journey I welcomed you to join me on six months ago. Since breaking ground on Dec. 6, 2024, nearly every major aspect of the book is different from what I originally planned, sometimes far different. And yet after 504 hours of work — see breakdown toward bottom of column — the sum total of the many changes is a book that very much mirrors the essence I had in mind. I like it!

The book is about 80 percent complete. Yesterday, I passed bound copies of the book, created by Amazon KDP and referred to as a “proof,” to four sub-editors who will review it for mistakes. They will, I’m sure, find more than I’d like them to find; that’s the nature of the beast, experience has taught me. I’ll fix them. Then, while I’m off hiking the High Sierra in early August, my editor Jeff Wright will take his second, and last, editing spin. (He read a “quarterfinal” draft in May.) The book should be out when I hoped it would be: mid-September.

For now, I thought you might find it interesting what I changed and why:

— Title. For years, I’d assumed I’d call the book Metaphors Be with You, which was the slogan of our Beachside Writers Workshop in Yachats. But once I began work on the book, Metaphors became like a pair of shoes that I kept telling myself fit, but felt as if they did not. The Star Wars reference is funny, but would-be buyers could construe the meaning to think it’s a book on only metaphors. Plus, the title cried out for a graphic that seemed consistent with the Star Wars theme. And I didn’t like the space-themed look. A lot of book creation is feel, instinct, gut reaction. When I saw the cover with that title on it, I cringed. I toyed with naming it The Writer’s Journey, which was accurate, but I kept coming back to simply Writer, in the same way Cheryl Strayed must have kept coming back to Wild and Laura Hillenbrand to Unbroken. Simple. Focused. Unambiguous. And rolls off the tongue well.

— Cover. Originally, I imagined an artist-drawn depiction of a female writer. (Six in 10 book buyers, and 8 in 10 people who attend my workshops, are women.) But even after I had begun working with an artist on that idea, I realized I didn’t just love this approach. And when you’re self-publishing, you should love every decision you make, right? The concept — all mine, not the artist’s — was complex; I’d need to work with the artist on every aspect of the drawing, which would take lots of time. And I realized what I wanted was simple. No distractions. Understated. When I found the image of the candle and the “writing hand” you see on the Writer cover below, it seemed perfect. (I found it on Shutterstock, a photo and graphics service I subscribe to.) It was simple, subtle, moody, perhaps even a bit mysterious. But before I said yes, I needed a blessing from my graphics pope. And so in half an hour, I created the Writer cover that’s basically what you see below and sent it to my friend Tom Penix, a national award-winning graphic designer and instructor at Bushnell University. He liked it a lot. I knew then I had my cover.

— Number of chapters. In December 2024, in a HH&H post, I said I was shooting for 15. I wound up with 40. As I began planning the book, I was reminded that the mental side of writing is as important as actually putting fingers to the keyboard. To gloss over the mental side to get to the “fun part” — the actual writing — was to do a disservice to readers. Was to coach a basketball team without first teaching the players to pass. So I became like Coach Norman Dale (played by Gene Hackman) in Hoosiers. I would insist on building a foundation of fundamentals before moving on to the more advanced concepts of similes and metaphors, and on showing rather than telling. But I promised readers in my Author’s Note that even the passing drills would be a fun read. Having been through the book three times now, I think it is. If, as an author, you’re not enjoying reading your work aloud, a reader certainly won’t. And I found myself eagerly jumping from chapter to chapter on Writer.