Sivers says he wrote 16 hours/day for the last 4 years to compile a first draft of the book that was 1300+ pages. Then he spent 2 years editing the book down to 8% of its original size—only 112 pages
He took the quote "If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter" a bit too literally-LOL.
"The number of different people credited with this comment is so numerous that an explanatory appendix would have been required, and the letter was already too long. Here is a partial list of attributions I have seen: Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Voltaire, Blaise Pascal, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Winston Churchill, Pliny the Younger, Cato, Cicero, Bill Clinton, and Benjamin Franklin. Did anybody in this group really say it?" ~ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/
But in his defence (Derek Sivers), It is a really great book, and very interesting way to write.
I cannot fathom doing something like this. I self-edit, sometimes painstakingly, to find my excesses, or for clarity. I nitpick as much as anybody.
But to write 1300 pages. roughly 325,000 words, then to whittle it down to 125 pages? What did he do in writing? Fall asleep on his keyboard?
Sheesh.
He took the quote "If I Had More Time, I Would Have Written a Shorter Letter" a bit too literally-LOL.
"The number of different people credited with this comment is so numerous that an explanatory appendix would have been required, and the letter was already too long. Here is a partial list of attributions I have seen: Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Voltaire, Blaise Pascal, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Winston Churchill, Pliny the Younger, Cato, Cicero, Bill Clinton, and Benjamin Franklin. Did anybody in this group really say it?" ~ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/
But in his defence (Derek Sivers), It is a really great book, and very interesting way to write.
Thanks for sharing!