In which I get the flu instead of managing to release the novella I’ve been talking on about.

The “Could Have, But Didn’t”

326 words about creative — 21:58 · 26th Nov 2013

Where’s the book you might be asking yourself?

I suppose I should have seen it coming when we all came down with the flu at roughly the same time. Sometimes things don’t go as planned and this was quite obviously—in hindsight—one of those times. Family should come first.

I could have released my book today. But I decided I wouldn’t. You would have been none the wiser as to its true potential, unaware of what “could have been”. And I would have met my own deadline.

But I didn’t. I’m not going to.

Because—more than anything else—I can. There’s no publisher to please, no shelf date to meet and no pre-order fans to appease. Sure there’s you, but I hope you can wait another week or two. Because even if you would never know what you would have been missing had I released my book today, I would always know. And in the decision between meeting my own deadline—how often do we even get to do that?—and making a book I can look back at with satisfaction, I’m making the second choice.

Is it frustrating? Of course. But I suppose I’ll have to live with that and I’m sure I’ll be able to once it’s finally done.

Consider this my “Behind the scenes” post. For now. Sure it might be a little unorthodox but it’s also more honest. The “other” side of projects is that sometimes things don’t go as planned. Sometimes we focus too much on success—and being perceived as successful—that we forget all about the learning we had to endure to get there. By failing. A lot. Over and over and over again.

In short summary: I’m sorry there wasn’t and won’t be a book today but rest assured it will be better for it.

You’ve just read The “Could Have, But Didn’t”.

In which, 10 years ago, I wrote 326 words about creative and I covered topics, such as: behind the scenes , and a rainy night on drury lane .