3. EXPECT TO BE CONFUSED Writing a book is inherently confusing. It is not easy to properly position and structure a book, not to mention the actual writing. On top of that, I will tell you to do things you’ve probably never heard before, or give advice that seems counterintuitive. But what you’ll find as you work the Scribe Method is that while some of the things we recommend might seem unusual, they actu- ally WORK really well—which is ultimately what matters the most. If you approach the instructions like Daniel did in The Karate Kid, you’ll be great. If you didn’t see the movie, in The Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi had Daniel do a bunch of isolated tasks that seemed to have nothing to do with karate: painting fences, waxing cars, etc. Daniel got frustrated and annoyed. But then, when he started doing karate, he realized that those seemingly unconnected movements formed the basis for karate. This book will be similar. The exercises I put you through might seem disjointed at first, but no effort is wasted. The exercises are designed to build your book efficiently from the ground up, the first time—as long as you have the discipline to walk through them and do them right, it’ll work. 4. EXPECT TO FEEL OVERWHELMED AT TIMES There is a lot coming. It will be like drinking from a firehose. You WILL feel overwhelmed at times. But understand this: overwhelm is NOT KNOWING WHAT TO DO NEXT—which is exactly why you are reading this book. We solve this for you. If you follow along and do what we say, you will ALWAYS know what to do next. We’ve made this process so that there are no surprises. ThE PrOPEr ExPECTATiONS fOr WriTiNg yOUr BOOk · 23