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Following the recent release of v1.0, the 100%-completed version of Northwind Elixir Traders book on modeling databases with Elixir, Ecto and SQLite, I was again a guest on Leanpub’s “Frontmatter” podcast with Len Epp.
This time, we didn’t talk about me so much, but about the writing process of a book as ambitious and massive as Northwind Elixir Traders .
When I first started writing that book, I set out with a clear goal: to create a practical and approachable resource for anyone interested in understanding Elixir and Ecto, by using a pedagogically-popular database to “ground” the learning experience, which should be as exploratory as needed to convey not just the technical chops, but also the understanding of the business context behind such a database (even though it’s a toy database), and the R&D chops required to persevere in the face of not entirely understanding what’s going on, and figure things out through systematic problem-solving.
So, in this episode we talked a lot about my writing process; about the challenges and the breakthroughs. I explained how I structured the book to balance knowledge about Ecto and hands-on coding in Elixir, and why I chose a progressive project-building approach to help the reader build skills instead of getting bogged down in “tutorial hell”, where typicall the “happy path” is presented without any investigation of why things work, and rarely, if ever, of how things don’t work, and what to do whey they inevitably don’t as expected or intuited.
One key theme we explored was how important iteration with Leanpub’s publishing model has been for this book: writing in public, getting feedback early, and refining based on real reader experiences, and my own sometimes-perfectionistic quality aspirations.
Another major part of the conversation focused on the emotional side of writing: dealing with imposter syndrome, staying motivated over months of uneven progress, and finding ways to make the sometimes grueling work (especially for quality assurance close to the end!) enjoyable even when it got hard and even boring.
If you’re interested in a behind-the-scenes look at writing technical books, or if you’re curious about how Northwind Elixir Traders , I think you’ll enjoy the episode. You can watch it here:
We also recorded another short launch video on the occassion of releasing the 100%-completed book:
Thank you again to Leanpub and Len Epp for having me back on the Frontmatter podcast. It was an absolute pleasure to reflect on the journey so far, and I’m excited for what’s ahead!
The journey continues with the decidedly more real-world-focused, kinda-sequel: Phoenix Product Codex .
- The book is available as PDF and ePub on Leanpub
- Join the discussion on elixirforum.com
