Writing Discover Your Creative Ecosystem
The timeline of my process self publishing Discover Your Creative Ecosystem.
2019 or “The Before Times”
When I am writing a rough draft I absolutely do not make any corrections. This includes spelling, grammar, or rewrites of any kind. As Miss Frizzle would say, “Take chances, make mistakes, GET MESSY!”
I take this approach as a person who can spend hours rewriting a single email. If I let myself start editing I’ll never finish a draft.
So in 2019 I started making notes and doing research for the book I wished I had to read. Davy was less than a year old and I was struggling to connect with Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way which felt absolutely inaccessible to me at the time. (I love Julia Cameron, but it did not work for me during my postpartum life.)
This was a book about creativity and motherhood and I was trying to make space for all of the varied human experiences within parenting.
I wrote a chapter about “creative ecosystems” that kept getting longer and longer.
At some point I realized this was its own “thing” but I wasn’t sure what that “thing” was. I pulled it out of my creative motherhood draft and set it to the side.
Then the pandemic happened.
2020 or “The Long Break”
When new motherhood collided with the pandemic I collapsed.
During the early adrenaline infused weeks I pushed out a single draft of the creative motherhood book. At this point we all thought the situation was somehow “temporary”, but when it didn’t let up I hit overwhelm pretty quickly.
I had almost a whole year between drafts. The time away from writing actually did more to inform the book that follows than any amount of “bum on seat hands on keyboard” ever could.
I learned that time and space between drafts is actually essential to my creative ecosystem and makes my writing better. I’ve found this to be true for both nonfiction books and novels that I am drafting.
There are two benefits to time between drafts:
1. Actual life experience you can bring to the book.
2. Time for your subconscious to unravel some of the book’s problems.
3. Distance from the material.
Coming back to a draft I found that the person I had become had new things to add to the book.
I find that the time I’ve spent thinking about my book or the themes of my book adds more depth to the writing. And that time away from my writing gives me the space I need to make ruthless edits. I feel less precious about it and also have more clarity on what I want to say.
March to June of 2021
When I came back to my draft I thought I could adapt it into a group coaching program. I asked a friend if they were interested in being a beta reader for a virtual creative retreat. I edited and emailed one chapter a week believing I was creating a group coaching program.
(Full transparency: I definitely missed several weeks in there because we were sick most of the time my son was enrolled in school. For school giveth time and school taketh time away. My beta reader was understanding and encouraging and I kept at it.)
I knew by now I wanted to write a book about creative ecosystems, but thought it should be longer and more complex than what I was working on.
September to November of 2021
I made some further edits and ran a Creative Ecosystem group coaching program in autumn of 2021. Hearing feedback from the creative kindreds in the group really helped me see the value in what I’d already written and realize that the simplicity was actually a strength.
Setting aside the idea of writing a 100,000 word thesis on creative ecosystems I decided to restructure the weekly emails as a book and self publish.
I downloaded a 6×9” book template and started formatting the book as I redrafted. I adjusted the language with a book reader in mind, but tried to keep the conversational tone I had established in the email versions. I also added additional images and prompts.
January 2022
I ordered the first proof for Discover Your Creative Ecosystem in January of 2022. This began the lengthy process of formatting and copy edits which took most of the year. There was quite a delay between ordering proofs and receiving them. And again, we were sick for much of the spring semester.
February 2022
My original plan was to create a printable workbook as a newsletter magnet that I would mention throughout the book. But I got carried away designing the workbook with full color illustrations and it turned out to be more than the average home computer could handle. So I decided to order a paperback copy and see how it turned out.
March 2022
I wasn’t happy with the paperback proof of the workbook so I added some pages and ordered a proof in hardcover. I was much happier with the quality and decided to offer it as a bundle.
April 2022
I recorded the audiobook. I did this before finalizing the final proof based on Austin Kleon’s suggestion that you always find mistakes when recording the audiobook. And I did.
When the penultimate proof came in I did a photoshoot and launched Indiegogo preorders. I wanted to complete the crowdfunding campaign before people went out of town for their summer vacations.
By this point I had a draft I was mostly happy with, but also a list of changes I wanted to make to tweak images and formatting.
October 2022
A lot happened in October. My final proof arrived and I made one last round of edits. I decided against one further proof copy (even though my heart wanted one) because I really wanted to get my books out before the holiday shipping rush.
So I ordered my books and received them just before Halloween.
November 2022
When the books arrived I scouted out an autumnal spot to photograph them and to sign all of the preorders. The ground was carpeted in red maple leaves so I tucked one into each book. I took some photos and videos for Instagram.
I took my time packaging up the books so I could personalize the library pockets and wrap them each with tissue. It took several different sessions while someone else was watching Davy to get this done.
Finally they all went out in the mail! Once the books started hitting doorsteps I sent out the PDF ebook. I wanted people who preordered physical books to have a chance to hold that in their hands first.
December 2022
Two weeks into December I finally had the two days it took to finish editing the audiobook and set up all of the meta data correctly.
I sent that out today and sat down to turn my self publishing experience into creative compost. So writing the “rough rough draft” of whatever this project will be while Davy builds DUPLO blocks at my feet. (I can’t believe he is letting me work on my laptop. This changes everything!)
So that’s it!
Around three years from start to finish with a one year pandemic gap. The self publishing part of the process itself took about one year. I’d originally hoped to get the books out sooner, but would definitely allow myself more time in the future.
This isn’t a template to follow. I’m just pulling back the curtain on what exactly I did and how long this process took for me.
