As I spent this week reflecting on my book project and my relationship with this Substack, it dawned on me how Seriously I’ve historically taken the newsletter. The decision to open up my book writing process is a move toward making this Substack more pro-social, collaborative, and ~fun~
To that end, I’m enabling the subscriber chat for More Myself in hopes of seeding more connectivity across this community and creating space for us to grapple with the big questions together :)
I’ve been contemplating ways I can better serve this community and get to know you better. As I reconfigure my publishing schedule for my latest projects (Human AIgency and book writing), my first questions for y’all are:
How does Substack fit into your lives?
When do you typically read Substack essays? Weekdays? Weekends? Randomly?
After announcing last week that I’d be sharing the process of writing my first book, I received a few questions on what my book is about.
I've intentionally been vague about the contents of the book because so much of the evolution of this book is unfolding before me, still to be shaped. This journey of writing the book itself will undoubtedly play a role in dictating what final words go to print.
What I can share is that this book will likely be a collection of essays and stories — experiences that I’ve processed, but haven’t yet had the courage to share more broadly. Much of my inner work has allowed me to arrive at a place where I often find myself grappling with the joy of mourning the life that could have been.
This work has involved healing my resentment toward my cultural identity, repairing my relationship with my parents, learning to love unconditionally, grappling with existential crises, and becoming more myself along the way.
It’s been helpful to think about this project non-linearly. All good books have a linearity and coherence to them — thoughtful timelines and storylines delicately weaved together. But that’s not how books are created and certainly not how this book will be created.
It’s too early for coherence. My main job in this phase is to write my first messy draft and channel as many stories that speak to me as possible. Once I have a first draft of each story, I’ll start making sense of the sequencing.
None of the inner work I’ve done over the past three years has been linear and given that this book is inspired and made possible by my journey inward, it feels only right to embrace the non-linearity of this project.
The beauty of this process is that as I visit old stories and start to weave a narrative around them, new insights emerge. Given that I’ve processed many of these experiences over and over, I hadn’t expected to continue to be met by deeper revelations, but it appears there are new lessons eager to materialize as I sit down to make them legible to an outside audience.
Week 2 Update
Much of this week was about getting organized and finding my rhythm.
My main intention was to figure out a process for how I wanted to manage my writing block each day (a mix of strategizing and writing? all writing?) and whether it was worth trying to book write every day or dedicate a few mornings to other essays I’m writing.
I ended up having three productive blocks and two not so productive ones. I closed the week writing 2.5 first draft essays (~2500 words). Not bad for the first official week of writing (although it did not feel very good mid-way through my second uninspired writing session).
Reflections from the week
Stay connected with my enablers and conscious of my blockers. The two most important questions I’ve been asking myself this week are:
What’s keeping me writing this book?
An accountability buddy (I cannot overstate how important it’s been for me venturing into the unknown to have a trusted friend by my side)
A deadline to work toward (our March book retreat)
A structured digital workspace (Google Docs to write, Lightpage to capture fleeting thoughts through writing & voice memos, Notion to project manage)
What’s keeping me from writing this book?
