Newsletters, Dictation, Plans, and Having Fun
Why Sharing Thoughts and Insights Matters
What is a newsletter? Is it a collection of random thoughts, loosely themed, or is it more like bullet points? Or are we inspired by an idea, a thought, or an event, either personal or from life?
Effortless Inspiration
Obviously, I’ve been thinking about what it is to write a newsletter. You know what I mean; life is happening around us daily. Today was a good day, but why? Or, yesterday, we visited such and such. The list of things that may inspire us to write is endless.
For the last two newsletters, I've been getting away from focusing completely on creative writing and using AI tools to support and assist in that endeavor. Now, it's more various thoughts put together, which are, in fact, loosely themed.
This week’s post is a good example; as usual, I woke up at 6 AM and hadn’t the slightest idea about what I would write about today. I took my coffee and myself outside to think. It's February 9th; it's cold and dark, and I'm wandering about on our terrace, dictating. Dictation, there you go, another thought to write about.
Thoughts on Dictation
I was listening to another Kevin J Anderson interview recently. I find his process fascinating, but it’s not rocket science. I used to assume, naive I know, that writers who dictate did it off the top of their heads. You know, just winging it. Their thoughts magically gelled into nearly coherent prose; everything just kinda flowed effortlessly.
But that's not how it works, certainly not for Kevin J Anderson. He works from an outline, and although his outline is not as detailed as a James Patterson outline (if I understand correctly), it's enough that when he goes out on his wilderness walks, he has two or three chapters outlined along with various notes.
He familiarizes himself with them one at a time and dictates the chapter. No doubt, he takes a break when needed and checks his notes for the next chapter. That's how he works; it’s not off the top of his head.
That doesn’t mean there’s no place for random voice notes (and dictated ramblings to form the basis for a newsletter).
Amsterdam Visit Fail
Change of subject, again. My daughter was married mid-December but delayed the honeymoon until after the New Year (work commitments). They went to Thailand and flew back to Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam) yesterday. My wife and I know from experience how unpleasant running to catch the last train can be.
Imagine stepping onto a plane in subtropical warmth and, just a few hours later, stepping off into a Northern European winter. It’s not fun. My wife and I decided to drive up and bring them home instead. We planned to go to Amsterdam, make a nice day of it, and then, in the evening, pick up my daughter and son-in-law from the Airport.
Although we enjoyed our day there, we didn't spend much time in Amsterdam. By the time we got to Amstel ( a suburb where our son has an apartment), it was already one o'clock in the afternoon, and after a short rest, it was already 2 PM. Unfortunately, there is not much time left for a meaningful visit to the city.
Still, it was a relaxing day. A quick change of plan was called for; we watched most of a movie, then took the metro into the city center. Did a bit of shopping for an hour or an hour and a half, maybe, came back to the apartment, made something to eat, and watched the rest of the movie.
We picked them up and drove home. Not a very exciting day, but it was a lot of fun. Nice to get out
Schedule Woes?
This meant that I was again behind schedule with the newsletter. This is why I’m wandering around on my terrace early in the morning, still darkish but starting to lighten up slightly, dictating the bones of this week's post.
As I’ve said, I've been trying to avoid focusing purely on creative writing and AI tools in The Everyday Solopreneur newsletter. Of course, I’ll still talk about them, but as an aside, not as a major theme. The last two posts have been more of a general ‘bullet-pointed’ newsletter—possibly with each part loosely connected to the others, but it’s not really a themed post.
And I find that I enjoy this the most. It's not random thoughts; it's current thoughts. It's everything that's in my mind at that moment and how I'm doing with creative life. What can I say? It's fun.
So, on that side of things, how's it going? Pretty well, actually,
Outlining Rules OK
As you may know, I’ve been struggling with my current book project. I should caveat this; it’s intended to be my first published book, but not my first book. That passion project is still in reserve and will be worked on next. First things first. Learn and improve the craft by writing something completely different.
Anyway, I have the first eight chapters lined up for this project, about 11,000 words, something like that. I knew the ending and a few highlighted points along the way, but I could not fill in the middle. I didn't have any clue how to get there. And I've discovered, pun intended, that I'm not a discovery writer (aka a pantser).
For a newsletter, I do, indeed, pants, but not for long-form projects; my brain doesn't work like that.
So what did I do? Of course, I asked ChatGPT models 4o and o1 to develop an outline. I uploaded what I had and a few other notes about where I intended the story to go and asked it to fill in the blanks. They did a fairly decent job, but 4o was better. So, I went with this outline version, but it was far too short.
After incorporating some points and ideas from the o1 outline, I asked ChatGPT to expand it. I now have a 40-chapter outline, each consisting of around four scenes, with every scene described in a single sentence. I'm at the stage where I'm going through the outline, changing things, moving things around, and inserting my ideas. Often, it’s cutting and pasting, mixed in with pure cutting out and replacing things. I’m having a ball.
Final Thoughts
I had a lot of fun writing today’s post despite starting the day with zero ideas. I haven’t (yet) become a victim of writer’s block. Perhaps I’ll be one of the lucky ones who never has to experience it. I doubt it, though.
Looking back at my calendar, I have no idea how I found the time to achieve everything: real progress with the book, a mostly worked-out format for the second publication (coming real soon, too, promise), my day job, and, of course, this newsletter.
The funny thing about Amsterdam is that most visitors only see the tourist traps. That was all I saw in several visits over many years. We have only targeted the non-tourist areas in the last few years. It’s not a big city, so exploring by foot is simple. So, the next time you visit, take the time to leave the tourist areas behind. You’ll love the atmosphere of the real Amsterdam.
That’s enough for this week’s ramblings. I have things to do and a life to enjoy, with a little bit of work mixed in for balance.
We’ll chat again next week. Until then, I hope you have a fantastic week. See you then.
Mike.