Sometimes, the most thorough way to learn something is by first learning every way not to do it. I have written several books, two of which can still be found here and here. But before my first book was finished, I was writing books for more than two decades. That’s right, more than 20 years to just finish a book. The time was not all in the first book I finished; of course, it was in all the books I never finished writing. So, today, I shall share my expertise on ways to not write a book.

1. Slow Writing the Near Future—My first method for not writing a book was to choose to write a science-fiction novel set in the near future. I was employed in a consulting job that took a lot of time, and I didn’t have much time for hobby writing. Before I had 50 pages written, I had to move the book back 12 years, because the near future had caught up with me. Even after moving it back 12 years, it would have been set in 2012, and I still haven’t finished it. Later, I just incorporated many of the ideas, themes, and plot elements into a totally different book.

2. Scope Creep—Say that you want to write a non-fiction book, and title it 101 Ways to Do Something. It doesn’t matter what the something is. But you start researching the something. Soon, you find that you have 102 ways to do whatever it is. So, you decide to go for 151 ways. You know there are more out there. You know you can get 151, and you have this idea for a cute thing on the cover where you have the 101 and cross it out and put 151 above it. It will work, right? Until, of course, you stop and count and find you now have 168 ways. Well, what kind of number is 168? So, you have to go for 201, right? Perhaps you see where this is leading.