[Helpers] Book writing - notes

Sun Apr 24 22:54:51 PDT 2005

At 03:12 PM 4/23/2005, you wrote:
>Whew, I think I'm getting to the end of my FST intensive today... =)

    Amazing work!
   Lucky you, I am still trying to catch up with your FST intensive!  I may 
have to interrupt this post to go to bed!

>--- Mystress Angelique Serpent <Mystress at fire-serpent.com> wrote:
> >    RE: book from Kundalini teacher: I could manage the files ok,
>[snip]
> > Right now I'm working with just the table of contents, trying to
> > sort chapters. Getting lost in that too, a bit... does grounding
>
>Good idea to start with an outline...

    I did, sorta, but that is not what I meant...

  Hillary provided me with a Kundalini book outline, some years ago that I 
was unable to wrap a book around, but I drew on it, when creating Kundalini 
teacher.

   I'm not starting with an outline, I'm starting with a book I wrote in 
the form of a website, which was partly based on an outline.

   I have never successfully written a book despite many tries, but I seem 
to be quite good at websites... so I went with what I am good at, made a 
website I could convert to a book later,...
    forgot about that for a few years, busy with the site itself...
    and now it is later... time to do it.

     Unfortunately, my ability to comprehend Kundalini teacher as a whole 
when it was a website with a site map, is much better than my ability to 
comprehend it as a whole now that it is a whole, a 280 pg word document.

     I'm using the table of contents to decide how to arrange content that 
is for the most part, already written, writing the pages that were never 
finished on the website, ... and thinking of additional info I want to add, 
and installing headers where it goes, putting content under the headers as 
I am inspired.

>And when I think of a book of your work, I first think of the radical
>stuff - the combinations of topics and 'witness state' style of
>speaking that will really _actually_ be driving the book.

   Hmm, interesting that you noticed that. I've actually been trying to 
make the book a little more personal, with some biographical stories and 
email snippets where I am responding to questions.

>I get the
>sense the "do your homework" stuff like chakras, grounding, etc. can be
>fit in later.

    It is already there...

>At this point - discussing all that can be done with the
>central channel seems ... well, the actual spine of your book.

    ???? Please elaborate what you mean?

>And within, above, below, .... void, womb, death, lingam... have you
>done a free association yet? Here's a fun way I like - it's called the
>100-list. At the top of the list, type a partial sentence like: "The
>topics in my book should be: "... and then number the next line as 1.
>After this, close your eyes (if you're typing), and go for it. Breath,
>tune in, etc., and don't stop! until you've made 100 entries.
>
>Here's the result - in the 1st 1/3 of the list, you'll find all the
>stuff that's running circles in your mind. You know all this. In the
>2nd 3rd, you'll find some repeats of the 1st, and a few new. In the 3rd
>3rd, again repeats in different forms, whatever - and ... the gems.
>There will be, guaranteed, 3-4 "OH MY GODS" that have poured from you.
>They will catch your breath, fill you with joy, understanding,
>wisdom... we all know the drill. *laughing* It is all suddenly
>extremely clear, even for the ADD & overheating brains among us. =)
>
>I've done 100-lists for like "I'm stressed about: ___", and "I like
>food because ____". It's a very versatile and inexpensive!
>couch-quality peek into ones depths.

   Um... actually, that sort of free association is sort of disaster to me. 
If I did that the book would grow to 900 pages and never be published.

    I understand it is good for writers block and engineer brain trying to 
switch gears to be creative, but I have too much creative energy, I am too 
readily distractable into daydreaming, and stuff  I daydream about tends to 
occur.

    I think it is an excellent exercise though, and I'd love for you to 
write it up as a guest essay for the course.

> > I'm slowly adding footnotes where links used to be, and as it is
> > a manual, I want it to have an index...
>
>Indexes are an INTENSE amount of work. Lots of people cop out, and link
>the indexes to wherever a word is simply mentioned. To have an index be
>valuable to anybody, entire phrases and concepts need to be indexed
>(which no software has automated yet). Plus each instance of the word,
>once found by the software, needs to be checked to see if the place
>where it's mentioned actually discusses or is at all relevant to that
>word. *beeuw*... Big job.

    I made a start on the index, already... simply listing K-related words 
and expressions like "Shaktipat"  and "Full awakening, fully awakened." I 
could probably write the concordance from memory...

> > Also, how do I make a groovy text box for tips and stuff, like I
> > see in other manuals?
>
>In a .DOC? I've done it 3 ways. Very manual, slightly manual, and a
>publishing software that breaks up areas on the page (as if it were a
>publication like a magazine, newspaper, journal, etc.)

   What software is that?

>The slightly
>manual version is to set up a Macro that when used, will convert a
>paragraph of text into a series of table columns and rows, all properly
>spaced. The groovy text-box area is 'plugged' into one or some of these
>cells in this way without interruption to the overall document styling.
>Each special addition like this too, can carry a tag with it, so when
>it comes time to make a Table of Figures pages or whatever, then the
>software is already cued in.
>
>At this point I'm talking Visual Basic programming - it's the engine
>that runs behind all Microsoft Office products.
>
>Do any of these options grab your interest?

    I don't really understand them. Never used a macro.

   The problem is, there are many different types of writing, in the book. 
Short quotes, longer quotes, emails, guest essays, and occasional repeated 
phrases like "Goddess has it handled"   or "Trust to Allah but tie up the 
camels"... I am using the latter, as art breaks.

    I am having a time messing with fonts to get them all distinct and 
recognizable,  without appearing cluttered.  A spiritual book needs to be 
elegant yet playful, even if the title calls it a manual.
   The publisher I have chosen cannot use microsoft fonts like Times or 
Arial... but I have a few hundred fonts on my computer, and a huge 
collection of purchased clip art.

   I would like a special box for reminders or tips, like a reminder to 
check that your feet are still tingling when trying to contact the heart 
voice...  stuff like that which needs to stand out. I'm thinking to have 
some sort of image to mark the beginning and end of an email.

> > Holy cow, you are writing a book for me! Coolness! :) That is a
> > dream come true!
>
>Tell me more. What is your dream?

    You want the short form or the long form? The long form starts at age 
9... I thought I explained the short form already, Heinlien and hot and 
cold running secretaries... ;)

   The short form is, the obvious and overdue next step in my career, is to 
be travelling, seeing the world by invitation as a Tantra teacher, to get 
there, I really need to be published.
   I have started writing too many books, but never been able to complete 
one... most stop around 20-100 pages when I run out of interest in writing 
to myself.

   I am prolific, my email archives could make a dozen books, but I cannot 
edit it.

   Other people have tried too, but
1.) either they were not sensitive to the energy and mashed it flat trying 
to correct my grammar and make my hypnotic meanderings more concise...
or,
2.)  they *were* sensitive to the energy to the point where trying to edit 
it sent them floating off in space, tripping in the Void.

> > amazing even to me. FST is an iceberg, what you see on the web is
> > only a tiny portion of my archives, writing and knowledge.
> > I have archives enough for 10 books, and there are still so many
> > things I want to write about. FST 2&3 is about the dynamics of power,
> > creating abundance, and living your dream. I have a book on empathy,
> > a manual for empaths I started writing, it would be great.
>
>Just wanted to include this here for posterity of intentions. *grin*
>
> > marketing and pacing workshops. He suggested I reframe an attitude.
> > Suggested I am being unkind to humanity by not offering my gifts more
> > widely, making the knowledge more accessible.  I'm kinda... turning
>
>Yes exactly - there is way, I can sense it. With some precise
>earth-shaker shifts that are looking exactly this far out, to what
>feels like a heroic outer reaches of space, this exactly can come to
>pass.

   OK, want to see farther?
   A Kundalini meditation retreat center, fetish ashram  and artists colony 
on the west coast of BC, among the big cedar trees, with meditation rooms 
and film studios both...
   When the old dream calls to me, I go hunting real estate, online... I 
found the location I dreamt when I was 9, a few years ago.... but it was a 
different timeline where the building and environment was much more 
damaged. Let go the past, put the dream away altogether but ... it is 
resurfacing lately, making me shop for real estate.
    My current favorite chunk of dream dirt costs $2.5 mil CDN.
    How many books, CDs and videos do I have to sell, to buy it? How many 
more, to build it? I dunno, but I'd best get started...

    Wanna see?
http://listings.coastrealty.com/details.asp?id=8056
http://www.bcoceanfront.com/saanich_205_acres/saanich_205_acres.html

   Here is another one.. that is smaller but better coastline.
http://listings.coastrealty.com/details2.asp?id=176441
http://listings.coastrealty.com/details.asp?id=176441

> > For my own... energy hygiene and well being I hold the perspective
> > that nobody needs me to do what I do.. I see Goddess in everyone. I
> > recognize that my students and clients experience themselves as
> > being in need, but I cannot take on that projection.
>
>This sounds like a groovy text box, or heck, title of a book.
>"You Don't Need This" Hahahaahaha.... LOL.
>
> > In each dream, there was a moment... when I said or did something
> > that sent such a ripple through the audience the host was nervous
> > and hurried to a commercial break. I get it now.. the ripple was KA,
> > kriyas, etc...
>
>SSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssssssssss....

   Yup.

>Heh... Sandra Dee
>
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