The New Book

I handed in the first draft of my new book to my editor at Scribner yesterday, after a three-month stretch of writing almost every day. So I'm feeling pretty good about things, albeit a little guilty for neglecting the blog over this past month. I've written this one in a slightly new way: charging through the chapters without doing a lot of re-reading and editing in mid-stream. When I finished a chapter, I wouldn't go back to re-read it -- I'd just load up the next one and plunge in. In the end, this enabled me to read the book with relatively fresh eyes when I finally printed the whole thing out this past weekend. Normally, you've read everything so many times by that point that it all seems either 1) incredibly dull and obvious, or 2) absolutely perfect, every word in the right place. Neither observation is helpful at that stage.

One of the great things about writing books is that the process spits out all these fun milestones, particularly at this stage: first print-out, submission of the manuscript, the index preparation, first galleys, publication, reviews, etc. I've had a tremendous amount of fun in my engagements with magazine journalism, web publishing, blogs, etc -- but I'm definitely at my happiest putting a book together. There's nothing quite like it.

With the first draft in, I'm now able to think about how the book should intersect with this site. There's still another month or two at least of serious editing and additions, so I'm very much looking for feedback at this stage. But publishing an entire draft here seems like overkill, and not really what blogs are for. (Plus I suspect my publishers wouldn't be so happy about it either.) What do you think? I'm open to suggestions. One thought I had was to say that I'd be happy to send a PDF version to folks who were really keen to read it, if they promised to give me some comments, and to buy a few copies for their friends when it came out...

As I've hinted a few times here, the book is about what brain science can teach you about yourself as an individual -- in other words, not how the brain evolved, or how the brain works in the abstract, but how your brain works. In some ways it's similar in tone to Emergence: popular science writing, with interesting little anecdotes on almost every page, and conversations with some fascinating researchers. But it's also a bit more first-person than Emergence. I personally take a number of tests, and scan my head with a number of different technologies, from neurofeedback to fMRI. I also talk a little about the way understanding something about the brain's inner reality has changed the way I approached various events in my life. The general idea is that modern brain science can be understood as an extension of what the great chroniclers of mental life -- novelists like James, or Woolf, or Joyce -- did in a literary form: helping you see your faculties of mind with a newfound clarity. Hopefully, the end result will be entertainingly self-reflective, and not annoyingly self-obsessed, but you can be the judge of that!

Comments

[JimmyT]

It would be a pleasure and honor to read and comment! In parts or in whole. Love to. And sign me up for an copy no matter what you do. Gonna buy it anyway :-)

[BillSeitz]

Sign me up for a preview!

One possible online model:
* set up a wiki
* start with 1 page per chapter
* list some references for topics, add some sort of summary, intro/conclusion, etc.
* get people talking about each area, branching out into new wiki pages for new ideas...

[BillSeitz]

Does your *wife* think you have new levels of clarity of self-perception now?

[Zack Lynch]

On the wiki concept...

Check out www.socialtext.com, I'm on their board of advisors and have been working with them on setting up a wiki for brain waves. Should be available soon, or you can use their public space for a starter...

[Alex Steffen]

Sounds fascinating. Can't wait to read it!

[Liz Lawley]

Oooo...oooo! [insert Horshack image here]

Would *love* to see the draft. Would happily provide feedback--and possibly an entire class worth of buyers--in return. :-)

[DebC]

...echoing Liz. Me too! I'd be very interested in reading it and providing feedback and it sounds like something I'd definitely buy.

One of my great ongoing interests is very much how the brain works. Not only in everyday life and in the ways people interact with technology and each other, but I'm a dog trainer too and one of the ultimate fascinations for me is figuring out how different dogs learn and what they know and how they interact with the world.

The language that we use to communicate with dogs is one we have to figure out as we go and it's a puzzle that gets solved more or less by continually reshaping old bits of information, building new bits from scratch and guessing alot.

[Dan Whatley]

Would also be happy to lend a hand as a Radiologic Technologist (see fMri), and as an enthusiast of early 20th C modernists. I'm excited to see someone making connections between the novelists mentioned and ways of "seeing how we see" our faculties of mind.

[Rikard Linde]

Man you sure know how to tease your fans. It sounds, from your words in this post, like the book will explore neuroscience as well as thinking.
Getting feedback. You could have "early readers" who promise to write about the book in their blog/site in return for getting an early draft. I know it sounds like a cheap way to get publicity (and I guess it is) but the advantage is that it gives people incentive to write something interesting. I think it might increase the quality of the feedback.

[Zack Lynch]

Steve,

Congratulations....I can sense your dopamine levels sky rocketing all the way out here in San Francisco, even through all the rain....Given my penchant for brain science, re: my brainwaves column on Corante and the book I am writing on the societal implications of neurotechnology, I know I'd enjoy providing you feedback and ideas for how you might intersect the books concepts with your blog. In fact, I have some pretty interesting blog/web visualization technologies that I've been thinking about using myself, but I've still got a bit more work to do on my book. Let me know.

Regards,
Zack Lynch

[Stanoje Zupunski]

Congratulations on finishing your first draft!

If it's as good as your previous efforts, we're in for a good read.

[qB]

I would love to read your draft, as one whose brain doesn't work properly and who is seeking solutions to this problem. You may not get the most coherent critique but it might be a different perspective. And I should certainly learn something! But I don't know what a wiki is. Rest assured that I shall buy it anyway and proselytise too.

[David Weisman]

How about publishing PET scans of your brain while reading your proofs? Publishers can't object to that.

Or is that one of the ones you use only for serious medical stuff because you gotta drink radioactive fluid? Maybe I mean fMRI.

[May]

Yes I would be really interested in reading a draft of your book and offering comments!

[dweinberger]

Woohoo! Congratulations! I can't wait to read it.

[Alan Bachers PhD]

Congratulations! As a 10 year neurofeedback practitioner, I'd love to see those sections of your manuscript. The field labors to establish its scientific credibility through the disease model, but those results will become trivial as far more compelling results emerge in all areas of maximizing human capacities.

[Rick]

I'm new to your blog, but very much enjoyed 'Emergence.' Your next book sounds especially compelling to me, since I grapple daily with reconciling issues of mind and brain. I'd like to read your draft and make comment.

[Elizabeth Perry]

Count me in! I'd love to read a draft in PDF. I'm not a brain specialist but I did write my dissertation on Woolf - so I'd be coming at consciousness from another angle...

(And I'd be willing to blog/not blog my response as you + your publishers saw fit.)

[marrije]

I would love to read a draft of the book and provide you with comments. If your publishers are OK with it I would also write a bit about it on my weblog when I'm done. Can't offer many friends who would buy the book I'm afraid.

[Scott Wilkinson]

I've thoroughly enjoyed your recent articles in Discover magazine on the brain and emerging technologies and would really like to take a look at the manuscript for the new book.

[Nick]

I suppose being a fan of your work, you'd be less than inclined to belive I'd be much of a critic. That being said, I am trying to get a PhD in Mass Comm studying complexity (if such a thing is possible)... and I'd really enjoy reading and commenting on your book.

[pk]

Sign me up. I've been doing somewhat related research on memory processes and the personal. Would enjoy reading the manuscript and offering any feedback I can.

[Alex]

Just curious, I see some weird layout when loading this blog using Mac OSX. Maybe it is only my problem.

[ric]

register your blog in my directory

[Osoyoos]

Food for thought! Greetings from Osoyoos - B.C. - Canada.Osoyoos