Writing for the new Learning Science book has gone well the last few weeks, with new sections published on ‘Metacognition’ and ‘Social Metacognition’. I say ‘well’ not because the writing has got easier, but in some ways because it is harder, but we are more coherent as a group. I think we are learning to write better together, and that ‘better’ is allowing us to tackle more complex ideas.
Don’t get me wrong: our writing is not yet ‘there’, but it may be on the way there. I said to Sae and Geoff last night that i suspect when we finally publish the book, we will look back on this early writing as a turning point, but it will still change significantly before the final manuscript.
In the Community Builder work i talk about the ‘coherence’ of a community, using that term to describe the state where a community becomes more than simply the sum of it’s parts. Sae put it a different way, saying we had found our gestalt, found our way of ‘being’ together.
This coming together is what we seek, and what we may find, if we invest in it. It reminds me of of something i say in Social Leadership: that we lead in the arms of a community. If we invest, and are willing to share our uncertainty, as well as our strength, we may earn this space.
Togetherness - Otherness
I have four books on the go this year, and i’m trying to spend three hours a week gently working on the book on ‘Togetherness - Otherness’. Or more specifically, to decide IF there is a book in there on that subject. Maybe it’s just a thought or an idea, but won’t warrant a full book.
At this stage of writing, i usually try to create some actual prose - just to write a couple of sections - and to capture bullet points of what i may want to talk about later.
Sometimes i find that this activity alone is enough: sometimes it turns out that an idea was just a thought, and it’s exercised by saying it once. There’s no book to be found there. There may be nothing deeper than the first idea. And sometimes there is more.
Which one it is, i am unsure yet, but i have enjoyed the writing and idea: it’s turned out very poetic again, like ‘The Humble Leader’, but more so. In fact, i found myself thinking the whole work may be a poem.
I have overcome my initial unease about the topic - having initially worried that it was too abstract. Partly this is because i’ve rehearsed the conversation a few times in different live sessions, and explored the vocabulary. I think it will stand up, but it’s still early days.
I hope you’ve had a great week, best wishes
Julian
Writing