By Leo Babauta

Recently I decided to write my next book in public — it’s called the Zen of Doing, and you can find it on my new Substack. Subscribe to get new chapters and follow along as I create!

I decided to create it in public for a few reasons:

1. I’m hoping to get good feedback — so if you subscribe, please do the exercises and comment to let me know how it goes. This will make the book better as I write it, as opposed to writing in private.

2. It puts me outside of my comfort zone, as I write something new and am not sure how it’ll be received. I might look like an idiot! Of course, that’s the fear of any creator, but here I get to work with that fear on a regular basis.

3. I want to model what it looks like to not know what you’re doing, to be afraid you’re bad at it, to be in the unknown. I’d like you to see me feeling shaky, stumbling sometimes, but also having fun not knowing how to do what I’m trying to do. Like someone learning to dance — awkwardly, and thrillingly!

It’s also simply more fun (and scary) than if I were to write privately. And making this commitment is likely to have me show up with commitment!

So follow me, and watch me in the unknown. I hope you get something out of my process.