The idea of enough | #103
Plus: Book recommendations
Hello, this is Celeste. I have been writing poems since 2017 and fiction since 2022. Letters for Creatives is the place where I share my thoughts on creativity, share resources for creatives and interview creators and authors.
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ICYMI:
Thanksgiving has passed. But I have to say this, thank you for reading my words. I am very thankful for those of you who read every single one of these letter and somehow go further to support my work financially.
Thank you for being here. Without the readership, I may have quitted at some point. But I am not. I love doing this and the interview series. If you have anyone in mind for the series, hit reply.
The idea of enough
talked about prioritizing the one thing as she decided to focus on her debut book when she is juggling that with her PhD and newsletter. Still, the book comes first.What means the most to me right now?
The book I’ve been revising for the past year and a half, over and over again. The one I have been very slowly working on all semester. So slowly, in fact, that I am now behind on my revisions. The one that needs to be as perfect as I can get it.
My first book. The one that’s supposed to come out Spring 2025.
I agree that writing an essay is much easier than writing a book. An essay at most requires thousands of words. It mostly requires you to research, summarise and edit. Writing a book requires at least 30k-100k words. The book-writing process needs your skills in researching, storytelling, summarising, making sure that the plot is perfect without any plot hole.
My fiction draft I have been working on certainly would be around 50-65k words, which is quite a lot. I have been questioning my decision to write the book at least once every week.
Why would someone choose to write a book when there are thousands of hobbies out there?
It is the most fun I have ever had so far as an adult. I have tried other hobbies, such as obsessing over k-pop idols, puzzles and a lot more that I have forgotten. Nothing fulfills me like storytelling does.
I am obsessed when an idea pops in my head when I see a father pushing a baby trolley (that was what inspired my fiction) or interesting things happening.
Selby also mentioned she would give herself a gift if she could finish the book by a certain date. She would buy the cheapest ticket to a European city for a week. (If you are like me, who is based in Asia, get the cheapest one in Asia. Taiwan would be lovely!)
And I will celebrate my accomplishment (because I never celebrate my accomplishments). When I forget to celebrate my accomplishments, both big and small, I forget about the progress I’ve made, both personally and professionally.
I will celebrate myself. I will eat delicious food and sit in coffee shops and walk and walk and walk and remember who I am outside of the context of my PhD program and the United States and the English language.
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Tim Ferriss talked about his way of deoptimising his life in certain areas to be world-class in one or two things in one of his podcast episodes.
Hey Tim, you mentioned in an interview that you allowed yourself to live your life unoptimised. Are you still living an unoptimised life?
I would say that there is optimising and deoptimising happening simultaneously that there are certain things that I am optimising. But they go hand in hand. I don’t think you can really optimise any facet of your life without strategically deoptimizing or neglecting other aspects. It becomes a questions of trade-offs, picking and choosing.
How have you been working on your good enough muscle?
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The good enough muscle is actually relatively easy to exercise if you recognize you cannot optimise all things and that is a question of trade-offs. Some friends have said, you should be, or strive to be, world-class in one or two things. And for the vast majority of other things, accept that good enough is plenty of good enough.
I would say that I am trying to make faster decisions, if those decisions are reversible or very low cost, and then you can sort out the details often later. So rather than waiting or hoping or searching for an additional 20% of information, let’s just say you are at 60% and you think you could make a better decision at 80%, if it is very low-cost or reversible or both, making a fast decision and approaching it in more of a ready, fire, aim sequence makes a lot of sense. That is part of how I am approaching things.
Ferriss touches on the same topic in an episode with Derek Sivers. Sivers told a story. He went to London with his son. They didn’t know if it would rain that day, so they planned to go to museum if it would or the zoo if it wouldn’t.
But Sivers’ son wanted to wander around London. They ended up having the best time where they met kids from Croatia, stumbled upon a cardboard box and walked in to see the show Wicked.
How many other things in our life are we okay to just not optimise?
Book recommendations
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - Greg McKeown
Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most - Greg McKeown
Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day - Jake Knapp
Stillness Is the Key - Ryan Holiday
The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results - Gary Keller
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NaNoWriMo updates
I have written more words in the first half of November in my entire life. And then I sort of stopped for the remaining days, which I got 1k words in all days combined. But still, I have written around 5k words in November for my novel. Now it is at 12,697 words. So I am taking it!
This week challenge:
Challenge #17:
Find the thing that you want to be world-class in. Neglect or push everything else to the back burner for the time being.
Take care,
Celeste
I’m new here, but incredibly inspired by your content. I’d love to connect sometime, I’m thankful to connect another creator who has a love for fiction and writing! :)
Happy New Year!