I came home from work yesterday to find several packages at my front door. I was thrilled to open then and find my book, Career Sparks! in there. After dancing around joyously for a bit, taking a few selfies, posting to social media, etc. I became a bit reflective about the whole book writing process. Honestly, there were hundreds of things I learned as I did this, many of the lessons were probably much more important than the five I list below. But here are five nonetheless. Frankly, my attention wanders when people write a top ten list, so I figured five would still keep MY attention, so why not yours? Here we go:
5. I had to write about something I was absolutely passionate about. And I did. If you stood me in front of a classroom, and told me I had to give an hour talk about career development, I probably could. I love so many of the aspects that go into the topic. I enjoyed the research, the statistical facts I found, the immense amount of directions the topic goes through, how it relates to many other topics. I was fascinated, and never felt as though I had enough time to research.
4. I had to narrow the focus of my book. I wanted to include so much more. But realized not everyone else is such a career development geek. Ah well, maybe those will be future books.
3. Books are not written in a vacuum. So many people contributed, supported, helped out. I used information and theory from other researchers, who generously allowed me to use it in my book. I had a graduate assistant who helped out, even our student worker helped pick out pictures. It was a team effort. I’m humbled to say this book is a product of so many, yet they allowed me to put my name on it.
2. That being said, the old adage of, “writing a book is like a pregnancy” is so true. It doesn’t happen overnight, there are ups and downs, somethings happen really quick, and somethings take a really long time to develop. And I felt as though it was a really LONG labor!
1. If writing the book is like a pregnancy, editing the book is like back labor. And if you’ve never had back labor, I really can’t explain it. Trying to pass kidney stones would come close, perhaps being kicked by a horse. Hell on earth, that would be the basic explanation. I’m no editor. And unfortunately I have found a few of my mistakes in the final copies. But I would rather be kicked by a horse than edit another book right now.
So there it is, my non-inclusive list of things I’ve learned. It was quite a ride. Perhaps I’ll do it again sometime. But for now, I’m just going to enjoy this book for a little while. Career Sparks! by Sheila Kronberg
Career Geek 