A Day with Award-Winning Author, John Hedtke

By Bo Vandenberg, STC Member

John Hedtke came to speak to our Southwestern Ontario STC chapter on Saturday, October 5th, and over the course of a full day, he gave us a series of presentations on writing, estimating, and publishing.

When you're just getting started in the field of technical communication, it's really inspiring to hear from someone who has already climbed the mountain -- In this case, the great book-writing mountain!

How many finished books have you seen someone complete in your life?

How many people do you know who want to write a book but never do?

Have you ever thought about writing a book yourself but felt too intimidated to try?

I believe we internalize some very negative expectations from the incomplete projects in our lives. Incomplete work never goes away and can take up too much brain space.

Listening to John talk about his work, with tremendous honesty, helped me see the big picture again.

John presented us with great advice, links to his website, and something I found really important - a conviction that writing a book is far from impossible. After all, he has written 26 of them.

He led us through an actual book proposal, presenting both sides of the book writing business. I really appreciated the length of time we spent inside his writing process. Many speakers don't have the experience or commitment to speak all day as he did.

John also offered us a very frank and useful presentation on estimating the time requirements on writing a book. Did you know that 70% of all books are late? I really appreciated hearing the entire end-to-end work flow straight from the writer's mouth!

I left the day with a vicarious perspective on John's work process. I really want to thank the STC and John Hedtke for such an inspiring view of confident success.