the gunslingers guide to starting - tom morkestommorkes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/the... · if...

Contents

Showdown .................................................................. 1

The Violence and Chaos of Creating ................ 2

Success vs. Originality ........................................... 3

The Gunslinger ......................................................... 4

Gunslinging and the Art of Instigating ........... 5

Getting Started ......................................................... 6

Ready, Draw, Shoot ................................................ 8

The Gunslinger Method ...................................... 10

Ready .......................................................................... 12

Draw ........................................................................... 15

Shoot .......................................................................... 16

Thrashing ................................................................. 17

Examples of Un-Thrashed Ideas ..................... 21

Ongoing Thrashing ............................................... 22

Chunking .................................................................. 23

Examples of Chunking ......................................... 24

A Few Notes on Chunking ................................. 26

Gunning ..................................................................... 27

Gunning Techniques ............................................ 28

You Will Ship .......................................................... 31

By: TOMMORKES The Gunslingers Guide to Writing | 1

Showdown

On a dusty Wednesday afternoon in 1881, four outlaws and four lawmen – all gunslingers - met in Tombstone, Arizona to settle a vendetta.

The two sides approached on a narrow side street. Standing just meters away, Virgil Earp, one of the lawman, ordered the outlaws to give up their guns.

The outlaws drew.

What followed was a fierce, fast and unforgiving gunfight; bullets flew and bodies fell.

When the dust settled, the lawmen stood victorious.

The better gunslingers won the day.


The Violence and Chaos of Creating

Gunfights like the one at the O.K. Corral didn’t happen often, but when they did, they were violent and chaotic.

Those who showed up to a gunfight understood only two possible outcomes: live or die.

Like a gunfight, creating anything from scratch is violent and chaotic:

When you start a project, there are only two possible outcomes: success or failure.

When you put pen to paper, you’re going to war with your inner creative enemy – and the enemy hates it when you try to create something worthwhile.

The artist, entrepreneur and writer understand this and take a stand regardless.

Creating is often bleak, desperate, and confusing, but with the right structure and approach, it becomes manageable and simple (note: I never said easy).

By approaching your work with purpose and structure (taking specific action in a specific order) you increase your chances of success.

This guide (and corresponding workbook) will help you do just that by giving you a series of steps that will lead you to success.

http://tommorkes.com/how-to-beat-negative-self-talk-propaganda-before-it-beats-you/


Success vs. Originality

Something worth noting: nothing here is original.

Every piece of information comes from someone with experience being in the trenches – writing, producing, and building every day to produce something worthwhile.

I’ve simply assembled, refined and distilled this information into a short, powerful and actionable guide and workbook so you can spend less time studying and more time doing what you need to do – creating.

I hope it helps.

Good luck.


The Gunslinger

A Gunslinger is a grizzled, quick-thinking, faster-moving, executer of intention.

The Gunslinger doesn’t come to showboat, only to produce results.

There’s nothing pretty about the Gunslinger, but there is something beautiful in his execution.

The Gunslinger experiences fear every time he stands across from his challenger, but the fear doesn’t stop him from doing his work.

When we create, we become the Gunslinger.

We don’t come to talk a big game, but to produce something epic.

We don’t care about looking pretty; we care about the beautiful execution of our prose, our design, or our sales pitch.

Every time we sit in front of a blank page, we experience a fear known only to the few bold enough to create, but we don’t let this fear stop us.

The creative entrepreneur always does his work, no matter what.

http://tommorkes.com/fear/


Gunslinging and the Art of Instigating

There is another reason you, as a creative entrepreneur, must be a Gunslinger:

You must be willing to put your work out there fast and imperfectly.

If you wait to make your project perfect, you’ll never publish. If you never publish, you never actually enter the arena, and if you don’t enter the arena, you’ll never find out if you have what it takes.

But if you put your work out there, even in its imperfect form, you begin a process of trial and error, creation and refinement, consistent and steady improvement.

Start – finish – ship.

That is the Art of Instigating, and it’s exactly what you need to do as a creative entrepreneur.

If your work never reaches the reader, you’re not instigating. If you’re not instigating, you’re not making an impact. If you’re not making an impact, you’re not a creative entrepreneur.

So get to work (and go to work every day).

http://tommorkes.com/into-the-arena/

http://tommorkes.com/art-of-instigating/


Getting Started

com·mit·ment: /kəˈmitmənt/

“A pledge or promise; obligation.”

When you begin your journey, commitment is key.

This means committing not only to a certain project with a certain publish date, but committing to the style and purpose of your project.

When we commit to a specific goal, we obligate ourselves to its realization.

This is essential.

Nothing worthwhile is built with half-hearted intention.

How many incomplete drafts of your book do you have on your hard drive? How many times have you scrapped a project before completion? How many finished products have you failed to ship to market because you didn’t think they would work?

All of these are the result of dabbling.

http://tommorkes.com/why-keeping-your-options-open-could-destroy-your-project/


Dabbling is playing around with an idea, but never with the primary intention to share and sell your work.

The hobbyist dabbles…

The

Gunslinger Commits


Ready, Draw, Shoot

In all recorded duels, the gunslinger followed a process.

Ready – draw – shoot.

The gunslinger readies his weapon when the challenge is accepted, he draws his weapon as quickly and efficiently as possible, and he shoots to finish what he started.

If the gunslinger tries to shoot before he draws, or attempts to ready after he shoots, he fails before he even begins.

There is an order to the gunslinger’s actions, and this order, this process, is purposeful.

Pretty simple, sure, but it’s worth thinking about in relation to creative entrepreneurship.

For the creative entrepreneur, the same process applies.

You can’t ship before you finish your project; you won’t finish on time without discipline and structure; and none of it matters unless you accept the challenge of creating something in the first place.

Writing your manuscript comes before reaping the rewards for your effort.


The hustle and grind of creating a startup comes before the pay day of the buy-out.

Here’s the point: the rewards, the profit, the results of anything you do are not present at the outset – and you won’t see any of these unless you follow a process.


The Gunslinger Method

So now you’re sitting at your desk, ready to get to work…and you face a blank screen.

You have no idea where to begin.

At least that’s what you think.

But the truth is this: you have plenty of ideas, plenty of things to say, and a brilliant, vast, and unique wealth of knowledge to draw upon.

The purpose of this guide is to help you deconstruct, analyze, and refine your ideas – the ideas you have, whether you realize it or not.

Once we’ve done all of the above, we can begin putting them back together in the most coherent and efficient way possible.

This process takes time; it’s iterative; it never happens all at once.

This is creating.

This guide and corresponding workbook will help you do all of the above.


The Gunslinger Method is a very simple 3 part framework with 3 corresponding techniques designed to help you:

Create, deconstruct, and reconstruct your idea. Analyze, evaluate, edit and compile every aspect of your project. Analyze and manipulate your working conditions in order to maximize and optimize

your efforts. Organize, build, and ship something remarkable.

The beauty of this framework: it’s fast, flexible, and will get the job done.

The 3 parts of the Gunslinger Method framework are: READY, DRAW, and SHOOT.

This framework is executed using three primary techniques: THRASHING, CHUNKING, and GUNNING.

We will dissect each one, and, with the help of the workbook, you can begin methodically planning and building your idea into something tangible, cohesive, and compelling.

And in 30 days you should have your completed and shipped product.


Ready

The “Ready” is all about decision and intention.

The Gunslinger only “Readies” when the gauntlet is thrown and the challenge is accepted. At this point, the Gunslinger intends to do what needs to be done and to see it through to the end.

He doesn’t make this decision lightly.

Neither should you.

You need to decide what you want and become very clear on your OBJECTIVE.

Whether your objective is to write a book, create a successful business, or produce some other piece of worthwhile content, your job is to define the desired end-state of your project.

If your goal is to write a novel, the end-state might be the hardcover book in the hands of a hungry and expectant reader.

If you’re goal is to build a startup, the end-state (for this part of the project) might be the first order from a customer.


Your objective matters because it dictates which direction you should take your project, it helps you get unstuck when things get confusing, and, most importantly, it gives you a framework for decision making.

If your objective is to create a product that reaches hundreds of thousands of customers, you may need to tailor the product to the mass market.

Can you do that without compromise? Or if you need to compromise, are you comfortable with that?

When you define the objective in concrete terms, and identify your boundaries, you

create a very powerful, guiding principle for your work.

And you will need this guiding principle to focus your work and to craft your creative project.

It’s simple but it’s not easy.

***

A Caveat: Focus on what you can control – on the work you can (will) do – not on the result of your work.


If you want to make people happy, that’s great – but whether people react that way is up to them.

Your piece of the puzzle is to create the best product you’re capable of creating (if you can surprise, excite, and enchant yourself, you’re on the right track).


Draw

“Draw” is about commitment and action.

Once you decide your OBJECTIVE, the next part is to understand and accept that nothing will keep you from reaching it, and then taking action to reach it.

Get rid of any out – if you have an escape route, destroy it. Move all your creative eggs into one basket.

You’re a creative entrepreneur now – no more fallback plans for your creative work.

Your job is to finish and ship your project, no matter what.

No more options – you’ve already made your decision. No more second guessing – you’ve made your choice. No more half-hearted intention – this is it.

When you draw, you’re all in – no more negotiating, no more playing around.

Draw.

Commit to this one OBJECTIVE, remove any possibility of escape, and take action.


Shoot

We “shoot” to finish (and ship) what we’ve started.

Now it’s time to dive straight into your work.

Every day, from here on out, make a practice out of writing, building, and creating.

Whether you hope to hit two or 2,000 words a day, the point is to sit down every day and do the work.

Daily action creates habit; habit creates momentum; and momentum will make or break us.

If you’re still not sure what you’re doing or where you’re going, don’t worry:

Daily action gives us the feedback to determine what to do next and how we must

improve.

Movement creates clarity.

Begin your practice of writing, producing and creating, even if you’re not sure what to do.

http://tommorkes.com/small-actions/


Thrashing

Thrashing is all about developing the ideas for your project – or realizing there are too many holes in your project and discarding it so you can move onto something else.

To be very clear right from the start: if, after the initial Thrashing, your idea doesn’t work, doesn’t make sense, or doesn’t have the potential you initially thought it did, scrapping the project is the RIGHT choice.

Using the Gunslinger Method means knowing when to discard an idea so you can move onto something else, or recognizing an idea is worth developing so you can then start, finish, and ship as quickly and efficiently as possible.

You need to understand that either one can be the right choice.

Thrashing is the most important part of creating anything worthwhile.

When we thrash, we make our ideas tangible (put them on paper), we expose their strengths and weaknesses, and we do our best to break them.


The goal of Thrashing is to completely dismantle your idea; rearrange, connect, mash, break, and reassemble. Your job is to make sure there are no missing pieces; to see if it can be put back together in a logical way.

When you thrash, you want to beat up your ideas until you cut everything extraneous, trivial or superfluous.

You’re on a quest to find the core message behind your idea; the bells and whistles,

intricacies, and personal touches don’t belong in the initial Thrashing stage.

When we cut away everything but the essential, we have a better understanding of exactly WHAT we want to say, WHY we want to say it, and HOW we want to say it.

Before you ever start writing your first draft or building your first prototype, you must make sure your project has a purpose – an effect you want to create or some sort of emotion or reaction you want to elicit from the customer.

You need to understand the underlying “why” of your project so you know what to go back to when things get confusing (and they always do).


Creating, like a gunfight, gets confusing when you’re in the thick of it; that’s why it’s necessary to understand your purpose to guide you when you hit these points.

Initial Thrashing can take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks (or longer) before you can begin your project.

Don’t begin until the objective and purpose are clear, and not until you’ve identified every step along the path to your final ship date.

If, at any point, you have a blank spot or a big “?” filling in a gap, you haven’t Thrashed hard enough (or you’ve identified a project that should be scrapped immediately).

Nothing should be left to chance, luck, or providence.

You need to have every step along the way mapped out, an understanding of what you control and what requires the help/assistance/permission of others.

I know – it sounds like a crazy amount of work, and it is. But Thrashing SHOULD be the hard part.

The last thing you want is 6-12 months of time, effort and money wasted because you didn’t know what you were getting into (trust me, it’s not fun).


When we understand the path and know what we’re doing (and why), that’s when chance, luck and providence can help us (but they should never act as a substitute).

“Luck, often enough, will save a man – if his courage hold.” [13th Warrior]


Examples of Un-Thrashed Ideas

• I have a vivid idea for a scene in a movie; let’s start filming today… • People would buy from vending machines if they were right next to the fuel pump; let’s

get a loan… • I’ll know it when I see it; just keep coding… • I know exactly what I want to write, how I want to write it, and the outline is all finished; I

just need to get a publisher on board… • Product ‘x’ is really selling right now; let’s import a cheaper version and sell it locally… • ______ is really what I want to get into; I’m going to pay $5,000 to have a website built for

me right now… • This short video we did was awesome; let’s create a website and put up lots of funny

videos on it and make money…? • I hate it when we run out of beer/wine/liquor at a party; let’s start a company that

delivers 24/7!... • If it’s good enough, people will buy… • If it’s good enough, people will read… • If it’s good enough, I won’t have to market… • If it’s good enough, the buyers will find me…


Ongoing Thrashing While Thrashing is done primarily before you start writing/building/creating, you should continue to thrash throughout the process.

It helps to trim the fat and keep your project focused.

The Gunslinger uses Thrashing to develop his project before he starts building – and he continues to Thrash as necessary throughout the creation process.

When you Thrash, you should

+ sketch out your ideas

+ write down things that might not work

+ write down things that might work

+ connect the dots between ideas; no gaps

+ play around with multiple solutions to problems

+ test (and challenge) everything


Chunking

Chunking is all about breaking down your Thrashed idea into actionable objectives and specific ship dates.

Chunking means literally breaking the project down into chunks – small, precise and measurable objectives.

When you complete these chunks, one after another, they will eventually add up to your end-state (the novel in the hands of the expectant reader, the first shipped product, etc.).

Chunking is done in collaboration with Thrashing

Chunking and Thrashing are often simultaneous actions.

The most effective way to Chunk is to backwards-plan everything.

To backwards-plan, start at the end – the final project ship date – and work your way backwards identifying every single milestone/event/action required to ship your project.

The final project ship date is the ‘no s@#%’ finish and distribute date; when someone can download your book, enter the store to purchase your product, or hire you for your services.


Examples of Chunking Below is an example of Chunking done if you’re writing an eBook and using a publisher:

Final Project Ship Date: 1 December 2013.

Chunk down working backwards…

Final Draft to Publisher: 1 October 2013. Final Draft to Editor: 1 September 2013 3rd Draft Revisions: 1 August 2013 3rd Draft to Editor: 1 July 2013

Etc.

You continue to chunk down the project into major milestones, all the way back to where the project presently stands.

Each one of these milestones should include internal milestones where you chunk down further…

For example:

Between the 3rd Draft Revisions and submitting Final Draft to the Editor, you may include:

Final personal review: 29 August 2013


Final edits and compilation: 27 August 2013 Close friend review: 21 August 2013 Edit for length: 20 August 2013 Review for Length: 19 August 2013 Edit for Pace / Tempo: 18 August 2013 Review for Pace / Tempo: 17 August 2013

…

Chunking is all about identifying EVERY – SINGLE – PIECE of the puzzle; every step along the path to the final ship date.

In order to do this effectively, I suggest chunking down 3 to 5 times (so that each individual event takes no more than 1 to 3 hours).

If the dates don’t make sense or you don’t have enough time, you have two choices:

1. Push back the ship date (this should be identified before setting a hard date – that’s the purpose of Thrashing)

2. Identify/settle for ‘Good Enough’ and scrap ‘Perfect’

There’s no right answer; it’s up to you.

But you need to be able to make these choices – preferably before you’ve started.


A Few Notes on Chunking

Don’t leave anything out.

If you’re self-publishing, for example, you’re responsible for writing, editing, designing, etc., so you need to be even more vigilant at defining your execution timeline, Chunking as much as possible, and giving yourself the time to hit those benchmarks.

Chunking is useless if you overestimate your own abilities and can’t ship by the specified dates.

The purpose of Chunking is to ship on time.

You should always be able to hit your timeline (you created it after all).

Chunking reinforces the goal, which is to ship, even if you’re not producing perfect work.

Better imperfect work that connects with someone than perfect work that never intersects with the market.


Gunning

The final pillar of the Gunslinger Method is ‘Gunning.’

Before we get to Gunning – a quick review:

When we Thrashed, we worked out all the kinks in our ideas; we found all the holes in our project, and, if we did it right, we filled in all those holes.

We have a real idea that we can actually execute.

When we Chunked, we took our Thrashed idea and put it into a timeline. We worked backwards to identify every step along the path to shipping. We left nothing out.

We now have a checklist with specific, executable actions (and internal ship dates) along the way to our final ship date.

The deeper and more thoroughly we Chunk, the more likely we ship our project on time.

Once we’ve Thrashed and Chunked, all that remains is Gunning.

Gunning is executing the checklist and timeline, one event/actionable item at a time.


Gunning Techniques

The truth is, when it comes to Gunning, everyone has a preferred method of completing daily tasks. Below I’ve listed some of the most useful techniques used by the some of the most impactful people throughout history. If it worked for them, it might work for you:

1. Identify one sacred time during the day for your project; keep it sacred.

Whether it’s early in the morning, your hour lunch break, or in the evening before you go to sleep – set a specific time during the day you WILL work on your project, no matter what. This time is sacred – treat it as such.

2. Prioritize your project

You know what really separates the people who accomplish big things and those who merely think about big things?

Successful people prioritize their work.

They prioritize their work for the weekdays and weekends – sometimes months in advance. If that means missing a party, so be it.


3. Identify ONE accountability partner

You should have ONE person you absolutely trust act as accountability partner (and possible sounding board).

One trusted person is the key. Having a group of people for accountability defeats the purpose – no one truly cares because everyone thinks someone else will pick up the accountability slack. An accountability group will let you slip.

But if you have one person willing to listen to you, make sure you hit your deadlines, and tell you when your ideas don’t make sense; this person will make sure you succeed.

Note: you can have different individuals for different projects – often, it’s better this way, as certain people can help you better with certain projects.

4. Focus until complete

If this project makes it through the initial Thrashing and Chunking phase without falling apart, it means there is something to your project. The simplest thing you need to do is see it all the way through.

Of course, the simple things are always the hardest.

Executing with laser-like focus is hard.


It means we care enough to see our project succeed (or fail), and we take our work seriously enough to expose our work and ourselves to the world.

When you focus on creating a worthwhile project – seriously and fully - setbacks, disappointment, and failure are almost

certainties.

We can’t have it any other way; these are the stakes when we enter the arena.

On Multitasking: This doesn’t mean you can’t work multiple projects.

The truth is, working 4 separate Thrashed and Chunked projects is easier than one mismanaged, unfocused project.

http://tommorkes.com/why-most-startups-enter-the-arena-and-fail/


You Will Ship

If you follow this guide and use the workbook, you will have:

A fully fleshed out idea; the loose ends are gone, the holes are filled in, and everything required to make your project shippable (and sellable) is clearly identified.

A timeline and checklist of actionable steps; your final ship date sits on your desk in bold letters.

A sacred time during the day to work. A prioritized project for the next 30 days. ONE accountability partner, whom you trust, to make sure you hit your deadline. Complete focus on your project and ship date.

All you need to do is follow through and…

You will ship.

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