Bradbury Paid A Dime Every Half Hour To Finish A Book

You know something cold and the PDF has been almost done since spring, and The Simple-Fix PDF Engine is the short method for finishing it and charging for it.

Building An Idea Engine is a small daily system that hands you something to make before you sit down, so the blank page loses its job.

THE TIP. Ray Bradbury wrote a book on a typewriter that cost him a dime every half hour.

It was the typing room at UCLA’s Powell Library. Nine days, about 25,000 words. Then he went back to the same room and doubled it in another nine.

A dime comes due every thirty minutes. Stare out the window for an hour and the window bills you for it, and nobody rewrites page one nine times at those rates. You type until the coins run out. Then you pay up or go home with whatever you’ve got.

I used to call that discipline and get smug about it, right up until I noticed the room billed by the half hour, which means the room was doing the disciplining and Bradbury was just paying for it.

Most of us got the opposite deal. Unlimited drafts and a project that’s been “almost done” since spring. Bullshit. Almost done since spring is a hobby with good PR.

So rig yourself a meter. Give somebody the date, and make it somebody mean enough to text you the morning after it slides.

What’s the cheapest deadline that ever worked on you? Hit reply and tell me. ~ J.D.