How it all unfolded
Writing a book has been a very rewarding and interesting process. We’re not far away from what we wanted to write initially, but the ideas defintely developed along the journey.
There was lots of this:
It can be frustrating. Redrafting and restructuring were definitely part of the deal. Whilst we are close enough to what we originally envisaged for it to do the job we wanted it to, we learned a lot along the way – as we hope you will by reading it.
We certainly did not set out with a plan to create underlying principles, but as we wrote, they emerged as observations about behavours, trends, systems and yes – a lot of assumptions – that serve to create the problems we seek to solve.
Fortunately, we did not struggle alone. As the ideas developed and we realised we might have something that could work beyond self-publishing, we contacted 4 publishers and quickly heard back from Pearson.
We developed the pedagogical ideas, developed the tools and framework and worked togther on the structure. For this, Pearson was the perfect partner. Their position as “the world’s leading education provider” gave us the support we needed from turning an idea developed to open doors into one that should open minds.
After their process conculded we agreed a contract last year and are delighted to say the book is out in May : )
Pearson are also famously “where learning comes to life” and we certainly hope we’ve lived up to that. We’ve tried to use stories whose origin, even if not all the detail will be familar to you. Stories from history, myth and popular culture. We hope the metaphors work and that the stories help to make the lessons stick.
By the way don’t worry – it wasn’t all painful. We did manage to write some of it outdoors!
We’ll write more on another occasion about how the writing process evolves. Suffice it to say for now that it’s enjoyable and frustrating, rewarding and time consuming and at times, all consuming.
For my part, I just want to say thanks to Pedro (and to Jason!) for pulling me into this project. It took longer than it should have done, but after waiting what seems like a long time since basically having a finished book, the refinements and additions have made for a better overall product. Thanks to Pedro, thanks to Eloise, our Editor and the team at Pearson and now, well soon, it’s over to you.
Let’s hope that people enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed the process of writing.