This site is a work in progress.
This site is, by design, a radical exercise in Writing In Public. Most of what you read here at Go You Fitness will be included in one or more of my upcoming books — books meant to encourage, educate, and empower anyone new to fitness. I am writing it all “live.”
How does Writing In Public work?
As an author I have two options for writing and releasing my work:
- The Traditional Way: Write in secrecy, not sharing until my book is finished.
- Writing In Public: Immediately release each piece as it’s ready.
As a fitness coach I encourage people to do something now, rather than holding off until that elusive “someday,” when they can finally put together the perfect workout, the right circumstances, the right clothes, enough time, … That’s perfectionism, and it keeps us from making progress.
So I’m following my own advice and taking the latter approach: Writing In Public. You can benefit from reading right away, and I can benefit from your feedback, making the books even more useful to future readers.
So, what happens now?
The usual way of creating a website is to keep the whole thing in “staging” — like preparing a set on the stage for a show, before the curtains open — until it is complete, and ready to “go live.” But here I’m leaving the curtain open, and continually testing and improving the content and messaging so the end result will best serve readers.
You can expect to see things changing. New articles will appear, and existing ones will be edited or expanded. New features will be added to the site, and page layouts will be adjusted.
The structure of the site will become the structure of the book:
- The website Categories will become book sections.
- Each article or post, or maybe a few related articles, will become a book chapter.
- There will be other bits and pieces, too: introductory material, appendices, etc.
- Some will remain online-only as auxiliary content — topics that support the goals of the book, but don’t need to be in the book.
What can I read today?
Start with Articles and Posts. The Table of Contents is being completely reworked, and will soon present a listing of all planned book content, grouped by book section. You’ll see proposed topics as well as completed ones, and you’ll be able to click through and read the completed articles.
As with software development projects there are ongoing Release Notes here, showing what’s been added or changed with each significant update.
Why not do things in the usual way?
Doing things in the usual way would mean leaving my outdated, useless site up, and keeping the new site hidden for months while I write dozens of articles, getting everything set up just so before sharing any of it.
That would limit which topics I can explore first. I would have to start with the most general, high-level subjects in each category. Meanwhile, readers and friends are requesting information on particular topics — topics that will eventually go into the book — and I’ve had to hold off on writing those because they aren’t the topics I need to complete before launching the site.
It would be a little like doing a jigsaw puzzle strictly from top to bottom. Finish the first row first, and only then move on to the second row, even though you can see groups of other pieces that fit together. Better to put together those pieces you see right in front of you, and trust that the whole puzzle will come together organically.