My Writing Process

Hello friends -

I am currently working on my new book, Healthy Soils - A Primer for Diagnosing Culture.  

I have always found the seed for my next book in my last book. Even Urbanmonks first appeared as a tab on a website I had in 2003 called Urbanbikes, which focused primarily on some city planning work I was into at the time.  But that Urbanmonks seed had life, so I fed it and let it grow. 

The Weather of the Mind book came out of a piece of the same name in an earlier book, Prayers and Knives. In this way, I feel that my writing path is very organic. 

This current book is an expansion of an allegory about Farmer Walt that explains the mission of the Urbanmonks Thinktank. 

While I enjoy this propagation of ideas and books - taking clippings, putting them in water, letting them grow their own roots, replanting - I also love to unify the finish products.   I am happy to pull my books into a larger container, The Urbanmonks Wisdom Curriculum. 

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How I build a non-fiction book:  it is indeed a construction project.  It begins with weeks of walks and coffee shop visits where I just sketch by hand.  I sketch outlines of thoughts.  I map ideas. I draw key images.  I feel a spark and write down a few paragraphs of text.  I am finding my tone. I am finding the form. 

This stage can be the most intimidating.  It is the blank canvas stage.  Anything is possible.  A notion that is both liberating and imprisoning, depending on your mood. 

But at this point,  I have worked out the general form.  I have a sense of what I want to say and the order I want to present it.  I have written some sections out in detail, finding my voice, my tone for this new piece. 

Stay tuned.

Douglas

PS  New cart being built soon, fundraising campaign on the way.  Taking suggestions for color choice for the new street cart.  Drop me a note!