Organizing a non-fiction book is the real challenge to my Small Business Survivalist Manual.

I have all the material in the world. I could probably write a 1000 page book fairly easily.

The only reason I decided to attempt this book was because I figured out a way to do it that didn't require an overly structured framework.

I figured I could just pick a topic and riff on it.

There is quite a bit of crossover in subject matter. Little anecdotes or examples that could be used for more than one subject. So far I'm just letting it flow and trying not to repeat myself. I'm not sure this is going to work out in the end. It may need a little more organization.

Jared asked if he could go through my two foot stack of journals and I declined, because those journals are full of negativity. It's how I handled the stress. I wrote in them rather than talk my wife's ear off, trying to keep from complaining about the same subjects in my store.

But I let myself write anything I wanted, even if I knew at the time I was wrong. I let myself vent.

So there is a lot of anger and bile and frustration and complaining going on in those journals. I wouldn't come across as a very nice guy.

There are also probably nuggets of real insight and aphoristic phrases that could be used.

When I'm done with a first draft, I'll plunge into these notes and see if there is anything that can be extracted.

I've never liked reading my diaries. Most often over the years I've tossed them. But for some reason I held onto these journals. I think I suspected I would want to write a small business book someday. After writing my novels and getting in the habit of daily writing and realizing that it just takes steady persistence, all it took was a little urging from Jared, and I was off and running.

Whether it will make sense to anyone else, I can't be sure. I'm almost certain that not everyone will agree with my conclusions, but that doesn't mean those conclusions can't be useful. Even disagreeing at least gets the reader to examine process.

Hopefully I can get this off my chest once and for all.