I used to take communication for granted. I talk, you talk, we talk. We’re both speaking English, so naturally we’re understanding each other all the time. You get me, I get you, we communicate.

It was only when I learned about effective communication that I really understood how very poor my communication skills had previously been!

We may be speaking the same general language, but I’m speaking Kyeli and you’re speaking You. My definitions for words might be similar or vastly different from yours. My style of communication may be similar or vastly different. My perceptions of your style of communication may be spot on or way off.

And that’s not the end of it! There are so many places where communication can fall apart, it’s a miracle we ever get our points across at all!

Now that I’ve spent years studying communication and learning about it, sometimes I figure I’ve got it all down. It’s usually about that time when I make some huge mistake and hurt Pace’s feelings or trample on one of her landmines and we start miscommunicating. It’s fun to be an expert, because now we can usually recognize what’s happening and start repairing before much damage is done.

I hope to teach everyone what we’ve learned, so we can fill the world with communication experts!

Pace and I spent the entire day, from 11:30a til 9:30p, in hard wooden chairs at Austin Java. We’ve edited half of the book!! We were really in the zone.

We learned that having a single task in large chunks of uninterrupted time really hones your focus. We got through half of the book in one go, and even though it was a very long go, it was really awesome work and we were amazingly productive.

Late in the day, I choked up. I realized that this book will change the world, no doubt about it. It’s well-written, clear, and told in several voices so as to reach more listeners. It’s funny, whimsical, serious, smart, witty, clever, and caring. It’s fucking amazing.

We agreed that it is our ethical imperative to do everything we can to get this book to as many readers as we can; the more people we reach, the better our world will become. It is our ethical imperative to succeed wildly; anything else is shorting the world a change so many of us crave with all our being – the change of connection.

We’re bringing it on.

Today, after nearly two months of work, we finished the second draft of the Usual Error book!! I’m so incredibly happy and excited!!

On Friday, we’ll print out two copies and go to Austin Java with our laptops, our manuscripts, and a set of colored markers, and spend the entire day editing and reviewing the book. Then, we’ll send it out to all our friends and family who’ve asked to be editors and proofers! After we make any changes they recommend, we’ll hire a professional editor, fix it up, and then it’s not too long til we publish!!

I’m so proud and happy!

Also, last night we bought out the third author of the book, so now the book is entirely ours!! The entire Usual Error Project is entirely ours!!

We’re so full of glee we couldn’t stop giggling all day. What amazing progress. As Pace said, we’re really in the river, because everything is coming along perfectly!