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AMA: I'm Frank Chimero—a designer, writer, speaker, and picturemaker person. I just started a design studio named Another. Etc etc etc.

over 9 years ago from Frank Chimero, Designer

  • Jonathan CutrellJonathan Cutrell, over 9 years ago

    Frank!

    Your work and thought leadership has inspired us at Whiteboard greatly!

    I'm writing a book now myself. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about two things:

    1. How do you deal with "impostor" syndrome as it relates to writing a book?

    2. What did the ideation, production, and editing process look like for you while writing?

    0 points
    • Frank ChimeroFrank Chimero, over 9 years ago

      Thought leadership! I am fancy!

      1) Oh god, you suffer through it. That is all you can do. Maybe some kind of Stuart Smalley routine?

      2) Each of the chapters is meant to be able to stand (mostly) on its own, while contributing to a larger point. So, I sat and wrote each chapter, and finished it before moving on to the next. I know that's asinine, but that's how I had to do it. I wrote about 14 chapters, we cut several, realized the shape the book needed to take, then I wrote a couple other ones to smooth out the narrative curve. That whole process was really tough for me, but I was lucky to work with a great editor like Mandy Brown. Metaphorical and theoretical books are tough to write, because you have to turn your bullshit radar onto yourself. It helped to have someone else sanity check my ideas and offer insight into how to best frame them.

      2 points