Session 74 — September 2023

Frederic says he sought feedback on his writing because his audience is tiny - two books over ten years with about one buyer, one subscriber, one reader per article.

A professional editor said the writing is good but the structure and context are the problem, suggesting he either expand the pieces into full stories with detail or make them shorter, and that his point is often unclear - which Frederic acknowledges, since he is not making a point.

The Wonders reply that he went to the wrong person: professional editors are used to large books with beginnings, middles, ends, chapters, plots and subplots, whereas he needs someone interested in poetry or short stories.

They characterize his work as musings of the mind and suggest he could simply collect them under a title such as 'Musings of a Mind', joking he might double his readership from one to two.

The core advice is not to write in order to sell - it is not his passion and never will be, and any money made would surprise everyone.

He should write for himself, whether a word, a sentence, a paragraph or a page, because what matters is that he writes; over time he will accumulate an encyclopedia of material that can be combined into a bigger story or a book of musings, and its value does not depend on whether one person or a thousand see it.

Frederic agrees he has no wish to do the marketing; the Wonders observe that his favourite pastime is sitting on a mountaintop navel gazing, and that climbing down to persuade people to buy his book is something he will almost certainly never do - hiring an agent would just mean paying someone, no better than paying a student ten dollars to read it.

The deeper reason to write, they say, is that what stays in his mind clutters it: putting it on paper lets him forget it and frees room for new thoughts, ideas, constructs and creativity.

Later he could find a commonality in the accumulated material and make it into a manuscript that helps others, at which point he should find an editor who understands it as musings meant to help others on their journeys - not as a commercial success.

They also identify a psychology at work: writing is an anathema to him because his father did it and he does not want to be like him, so if he writes he feels he must then be successful.

On his idea of needing something else when he is too old for office work, they point out he is already effectively retired - sitting in a company doing very little, remotely, for eight hours' pay, which is passive income and the epitome of retirement - and that if he stopped walking and exercising he would be too old to sit.

With his sharp mind he will always be at the forefront of technology and telling people what to do.

The repeated message is to stop imagining himself in everyone else's formula and create his own life.

Frederic loses a question he was about to ask.

The Wonders call this a good thing: questions that disappear have in some way been answered.

He observes that once something is dealt with it no longer enters consciousness at all, which is why it is hard to explain to others how one resolved it.

The Wonders agree, mocking the demand to list the ten steps taken from A to Z when in fact one simply took a single step without knowing how.

Frederic notes that from the exercise it appeared his likely readers would be aged 65 and over, so the work is not for children.

The Wonders reply it could be made for children, and point out that he chose an editor guaranteed to put his ideas down and limit him - he wanted that reinforcement that he was wasting his time and should not proceed, and he got it, rather than finding someone excited by his work.

At this stage it is not about target audience: some of what is in his mind will be childlike, some adult, some whimsical, some logical and pragmatic.

It does not matter; the purpose is to get it out so there is room for more.

Frederic remarks that although he tells people at work what to do, they do not listen - and he no longer cares.

The Wonders point out that they still pay him, comparing it to the people who trudge up the mountain to ask Muhammad what to do, are told to choose, and never do; the difference is that Frederic's petitioners pay him in food or coin as thanks for his perspectives, and whether they use them is up to them.

They call him the epitome of a consultant: someone who gives advice that is never followed yet is paid handsomely for it.

Frederic recalls a project manager saying the best project is the cancelled one, since nobody can blame you and you were paid anyway.

He mentions reposting an old French text and that he is locked out of the account used to publish his books, which even Amazon cannot restore - which he decides simply to forget.

The Wonders say he is still trying to be like everybody else, feeling he must make money at what he does while being amazed that he makes money doing nothing; instead he should stop measuring himself against others and enjoy that the universe gives him abundance without effort.

They tell a story of a man at a crossroads who sits down to ponder which way to go; passersby, seeing him, give him food, an umbrella, clothing, and he realizes the more he ponders the more he receives.

Decades later someone asks why he still has not chosen; he answers that he has food, clothing and comfort.

Told he at least needs a razor, another traveler immediately hands him one - whereupon the questioner says 'move over, I'm going to ponder with you'.

The Wonders say this is him: sitting at a crossroads, receiving abundance, being paid, and unlike others, not worrying about it.

Asked whether they know where this is heading, they say they see probabilities within probabilities, and that it does not matter what he chooses - only that he chooses.