Time to start my second draft.
Book Update #1
This spring, I set out to do the impossible and started to write a book about my journey over the last year. The book tells the story of how I quit my job working for the government in D.C., moved to San Francisco without a job, and embarked on a career that’s meaningful to me. It’s a handbook for twenty- and thirty-somethings who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
A big thanks to my awesome readers for your support! Here’s a progress update:
1) My book has a title! It’s called The Quarter-Life Breakthrough. On a recent Tuesday night, I was volunteering with The Beat Within, a nonprofit that provides writing workshops for incarcerated youth in the San Francisco juvenile hall, and a young girl was sharing a poem with me she had written about her boyfriend. Her poem talked about how her relationship was a moment of hope and of possibility during a particularly rough time in her life. She called this moment a “breakthrough.” I had been struggling with what to call the time period in my late twenties when I scared to leave my job but knew I needed to make a change. Breakthrough seemed like the perfect word, flipping the paradigm of the quarter-life crisis on its head, a crisis instead becoming a moment of empowerment and opportunity.
2) I recently completed the 100-page, far-from-perfect, first draft and submitted the draft to my amazing editor, Caroline Kessler. I’m excited to begin writing the second draft. I published a piece in Thought Catalog about my writing process, which offers tips for how you can embrace the creative writing process (or any creative process) and share your story with the world.
3) I’m hard at work preparing to launch the Kickstarter campaign for the book on June 27. The Kickstarter will help pay for production costs including editing, cover art and design, marketing and publicity, and the first print edition. This week, I’m shooting the Kickstarter promo video for the book with my talented videographer, Kara Brodgesell. It’s been a blast to write the script for the video and shotlist with Kara. I’d love if you could support the Kickstarter campaign when we launch in a few weeks, whether you’re able to donate or share it with friends and on social media.
4) I’ll be sharing a beautiful cover and website with you soon. I’m lucky to have Bernat Fortet, an award-winning designer from Barcelona, working on the cover design for the book.
In order to continue to receive updates on The Quarter-Life Breakthrough, please sign-up for the email list, like the Facebook page, and follow @whatsupsmiley on Twitter (#QuarterLifeBreakthrough).
Thank you for your continued support, and for refusing to settle for mediocrity. It’s going to be a summer full of breakthroughs.
-Smiley Poswolsky
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Tags: Bernat Fortet, Caroline Kessler, Kara Brodgesell, Kickstarter, quarter-life crisis, Smiley Poswolsky, The Quarter-Life Breakthrough, twenty-something, twentysomethings, writing a book
