The story of how my note got published as a book after I stopped updating it daily

This is just my personal theory, but

to grow as a noter,

I think "hypothesis and verification" is everything.

You know, I used to force myself to update every day.
View counts?
They were like "9 people" every time.

A shocking single digit. No, honestly, it's impressive.
If anyone has ever written a note that stayed in the single digits for views, I'd want you to tell me in the comments. I'm sure there's absolutely no one.

Look, it's not that updating every day is a bad thing.
But the writing style of daily updates just didn't suit me.

Because even if I updated every day,

I had fallen into a hellish spiral that no one could stop.

The first note I wrote after escaping that spiral was this one.

The view count exploded to hundreds of thousands.

I won an Excellence Award in the "note Creative Awards."

I was approached by multiple publishers, and it even got turned into a book.

The reason such a dream-like event happened is entirely because I was able to escape the hellish spiral of daily updates.
The event that triggered my escape from that spiral was a certain live concert.

I went to the Kansai region to see a concert by my favorite singer.
Then, before the singer I was there to see performed, a so-called "opening act" band performed some songs.

After performing about three songs, the lead singer said this.

That’s what he said. And then he continued.

Watching that, I thought,

“Ah, he’s just like me.”

The note I used to write daily was filled with posts written from exactly that kind of “self-centered” perspective.

It was all about me, me, me, me.

I wanted people to know about me.
I wanted people to read my writing.
There was absolutely no desire to “entertain the reader.”

Of course, the attitude of the singer I just mentioned is very important.
The short time left at the end of the opening act.

Using this precious time to properly promote themselves.
This is absolutely necessary and something that must be done.
However, it would be a waste if it ended with “only” that.

Because, there isn’t anyone who is dying to hear “advertisements,” right?

I think television is an easy example to understand.
If you turn on the TV and there’s no program at all, just

commercials playing the whole time,

no one would watch it, right?

It's just like that.
People watch TV because there is 'content that entertains others' called programs.
And in between that 'fun content,' there are advertisements called commercials.
That's why people watch the commercials.

So, if you want to promote yourself with the desire to 'have people know you' or 'have people become your fans,'

'Having the other person enjoy it'

is an attitude that I think is extremely important.

Look at this. The titles of the notes I used to write a long time ago.

No way!! (Daisuke Miyagawa)

For example, take that note titled '10 books I read this month that were good' that we just saw.

If someone asked me that, I wouldn't be able to answer.
Because there isn't one. A benefit, that is.

Conversely, a 'note that gets read' is a 'note that has a benefit for the reader' (even though that's too obvious).

So, if it were me now, I would decide on a theme like 'there is this benefit if you read it,' and I think I would create content along that theme.

For example, if I were to improve that terrible note '10 books I read this month that were good,' I think I would improve it like this.

If you break this down into content, it looks like this.
(A capture from when I actually tweeted it on my Twitter the other day).

If it's like this, I think I can call it "content worth reading" (sorry if I can't).

Because if it's like this,

They will think that.
The reader will feel the benefit of reading it.

So, I thought.
If I'm posting daily but no one is reading it,

“Who can my note reach, and what kind of benefit can it provide?”

If I think about that carefully, I might be able to get a lot of people to read it all at once.

Because once you decide on that benefit, you'll make any effort to deliver that benefit to the reader, right?
A note born that way becomes a valuable note that readers will appreciate, right?
Then, such a note will be read by many people, right?
That's why I think thinking about the benefit is super important.

But, this is difficult, isn't it?

People who write notes as a hobby.
People who write as someone behind the scenes for an "official university note" or "company PR note." I'm sure they struggle with this a lot.

In my case, after thinking about "who can my note reach, and what kind of benefit can it provide?", I arrived at this conclusion.

That is, for people who read my note

“Wow~~~!!!!

I want to write~~~!!!”

To let that desire to write explode.

This is

after all.

That’s why when I get a notification saying, “I wrote a note quoting Hana-san’s note!”, I’m so happy I could prostrate myself in gratitude.
To everyone who quotes and writes about my work, thank you always.

When you think about “who you can deliver what kind of benefit to with your own note” like this, it suddenly becomes much easier to write.

Because you instantly understand who you should be writing for and what you should be writing about.
That’s why it becomes so much easier to write.

However, there is one problem.

Just because a piece of writing is easy to write doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a piece of writing that will be read.

Have you ever thought that, only for it not to be read at all?

I have.

Actually, more than anyone else.
If there were a “Championship for the Number of Times Your Work Wasn’t Read,” I’d be at a level where I could compete not just in Japan, but globally.

I definitely won’t lose.

I will absolutely, under no circumstances, lose to anyone.

So then, what should you do

to write pieces that get read?

Honestly, I believe there is only one way to do this.

It is to have someone read what you have written and receive feedback from that person.

That is how you feel, right? I get it.

If you are already writing on note, you have probably heard this a million times.

That is how you feel, right?
I understand. I know that everyone already knows that.

But, feedback is so important that you end up saying, "I already know that."
It is that important—so important that everyone can say they "already know it."

However, when it comes to actually getting someone to give you feedback, various problems stand in your way.

I was the same way.

For starters, I was just writing on note as a hobby.
Even if it were something I wrote for work, I felt a bit of resistance to having a professional look at something I wrote as a hobby.

But even so, I really wanted to write a "note that gets read."
So, what did I do?

I treated my friend to beer.

The place was Ebisu.

There is a museum in Ebisu called the Yebisu Beer Memorial Museum, and you can drink freshly made, superb beer there.
If you are ever in the area, you should go. It is seriously delicious.

I treated my friend to beer at this Yebisu Beer Memorial Museum.
While drinking the best beer you could never taste from a can or bottle,

I decided to have my friend listen to them out loud.

I have to say, this was incredibly effective.

Since I wasn't showing her the actual text, it wasn't embarrassing.
From her perspective,

so it was very easy for her to agree, and very easy for me to ask.

And you know, there are moments when her face clouds over while she's listening to my ideas.
That's how I know.

Oh, this topic is boring.

That's it.

Conversely, there were some stories that made people laugh out loud or tear up with emotion.
Those stories where the listener gave a reaction have value.
So, I only turn the stories that elicited such reactions into notes.

This was a really great method.

I have written many notes until now.

These are all stories that 'survived' after I told them to friends at an izakaya, which I then turned into writing.

There is a saying,

“Good writers are raised by good readers.”

That is exactly true.
Having good readers is the shortest path to becoming a good writer.

So, anyone close to you is fine.

Friends or family.
If you are a working professional, colleagues or seniors at work.
If you are a university student, friends from your seminar or seniors from your club.

Anything is fine, so you should try

talking about your note ideas out loud.

This is the shortest way (I think) to write notes that get read.

However,

I think there are people who feel that way.

For those people, it’s a good idea to look for someone on note who says, “I will provide feedback on your note.”
If you search for “feedback service” or “writer consultant,” they will come up.
The price is usually around a few thousand yen.

I also had someone give me feedback on my note last year.

Who I asked is a secret♡

The reason is that while they were the “best consultant for me,” they might not necessarily be the best for the person reading this note right now.

“Wow, I really love the notes this person writes.”

Because it’s always best to ask someone you feel that way about.

By the way.

If I were to provide feedback on someone’s note,

I think I would make it a three-step process.

Actually, I've quit my company, gone independent, and am currently doing 'educational training for writers and new editors,' and I am doing exactly this.

For people who feel that way, I'd like to first show you what step ①, 'praising them a lot in the feedback,' actually looks like.

The feedback I gave when I previously showered someone's note with praise was something like this.

The actual torrent of feedback

…And so on, something like that.

Wait, why am I praising it so much?

I'm sure some people thought that.
That's because I believe you can't tell for yourself 'what is attractive' about your own writing.

Isn't everyone like that?
Don't you ever look at your own note that got a lot of 'likes' and think, 'Huh, what was good about that?' I do.

People who write interesting notes are all thoroughly polishing their 'strengths' above all else.

There isn't a single person struggling to do that.

I think this strategy is really good. I like it.
Because turning weaknesses into strengths takes an enormous amount of cost, time, and effort.
It's a bit of a waste to spend resources on that.

In that case, rather than putting effort into turning weaknesses into strengths,

I polish my strengths even further

to make them weapons that no one can beat.

That way, no matter what battlefield I'm on, I can keep fighting.
That's what I think.

That is why I offer praise.

I convey that with all my heart.

However, it's not good to just end with praise.
If feedback ends there, the writing of the person receiving it will end up only half-polished.

That's why, after praising them a lot, I

do this.

This is also an important step, isn't it?
Because, for example, in an extreme case, if "artificial intelligence" (jinkou chinou) were written as "population intelligence" (jinkou chinou), the meaning would change.
That's why "correcting to proper Japanese" in feedback is very important.

Let's take a look at how I specifically go about editing a writer's manuscript.

So, I'll use this method instead.

I will post a "fake article"

filled with intentionally incorrect Japanese

here.
And then, I'll try editing that article.

Now, I'll actually post that fake article here.
Whether you're a writer or not,

try to see if you can 'notice the incorrect Japanese'

and enjoy it like a game.

By the way, there are 21 mistakes.
Here you go.

[Interview] A direct hit with a top director at Japan's leading content marketing company

…How is it?

A fake article full of incorrect Japanese.
It took me about 2 hours to make this. I'm seriously tired.

So, here is the answer key. The correct answers look something like this.

Something like this.

Up to this point, I've shown you "the feedback I usually do" with actual examples.

Feedback is something like this, you know.

By receiving feedback in this way, the writing you've done is further polished.

However, when receiving feedback, it's a huge waste if you submit a "note written blindly."

"A note that has successfully had soul poured into it"

It is best to submit only that.

Because, just as you, the writer, are writing your text "seriously."

The person on the feedback side is also providing feedback "seriously."

Feedback is nerve-wracking, isn't it?
Not when you are "receiving" feedback, but...

When you are "giving" feedback.

I have built my career as an editor and editor-in-chief, and now that I am independent, one of my jobs is "training for new editors and new writers."

In addition, I do work like proofreading press releases written by corporate PR staff, proofreading papers written by graduate students (actually, I dropped out of a doctoral program, so I can proofread papers too), and proofreading notes for people who run official notes; in short, I do work that involves "providing feedback on text written by others."

I still get nervous, you know.
At any time, in any situation, I get nervous "when" I give feedback.

Even though I have built a career as an editor for many years now.
Even though I have served as an editor-in-chief for a long time.

I still get nervous.

Just yesterday, I provided feedback on someone else's manuscript.
I looked at two manuscripts.

One was a manuscript written by an employee of a certain content marketing company.
The other was a manuscript written by a new editor at a certain Web media outlet.

Both of these people have jobs that involve writing.
The former is a "job where you receive a request from a client, write an article for the client, and deliver it."
The latter is a "job where you write articles to be posted on your company's owned media."

You see, I have been doing writing work for a long time, so I understand.
Writing is difficult.
Anyone can do it if it's just writing.

But, "text that gets read"

is not something anyone can write.

That is why I think writing is difficult.

The words spun by someone who works as a writer are truly like diamonds, polished through endless calculation.
Because agonizing and agonizing and agonizing to the point of madness is the professional's job.

That is why there are traces of intense struggle and suffering scattered throughout their writing.
Since I work in the same field of writing, I can tell.
I can tell in an instant.

A manuscript that doesn't make you cry isn't a manuscript.

My writing mentor once told me that, and it is exactly true.
It is precisely because there are traces of the creator's intense struggle and suffering everywhere that I find myself crying when I read a manuscript.
It really is true. A manuscript that doesn't make you cry isn't a manuscript.

Honestly, it's hard to tell at first glance.

Because the writing produced by someone who does this for a living is perfect.

Perfect writing is easy to read.
It flows smoothly like a babbling brook.
So, to an outsider, it looks like very simple writing.

I could write something like this too.

It looks like the kind of writing that makes you think that.

But that is what writing that has been polished to the absolute limit becomes.
It looks like writing that anyone could do.

But you know, that is just what perfect writing is.
I think that is fine.
I think it has to be that way.

That kind of perfect writing is born from agonizing and agonizing and agonizing to the point of madness.

Even though it looks easy from the reader's perspective, producing that writing which looks so easy is not easy at all.
Because it is not easy, writing is incredibly difficult.
Difficult, or rather, it is painful, isn't it?

I have said this in other notes before, but.

Writing isn't done with ink, you know.

It is blood. You write with blood.

You write with the intention of using your own blood as ink.

That is why writing is hard. Writing is painful.
It is only natural that it is painful. You are writing with blood.
If you are bleeding, it definitely hurts, right?
So writing is painful and difficult.

I used to worry about 'writing being painful' when I was a beginner, but thinking about it now, it makes no sense at all.
It is like saying 'my headache hurts' or 'falling down from a horse'.

Saying 'writing is painful' makes no sense at all.

It is a tautology that is no longer translatable.
That is redundant.
Because the verb 'to write' already contains the meaning of 'painful'.

But that is what writing is.
It is painful and agonizing.
However, it is the duty of us writers to endure these labor pains in order to give birth to our own children, which we call writing.

That is how a 'writer-mother'

should be.

I believe that writing birthed through such pain will absolutely, absolutely resonate with readers.
After all, I write with enough blood that I feel like I might bleed to death.
I expose myself that much when I write. Of course it will resonate with readers.

Sometimes there are people who spill not just blood but their entire internal organs, and I think it is better to go that far.

Because a manuscript written by exposing everything will definitely be better.
Write by exposing everything, with the feeling of being stark naked.

That is why I get nervous.
Giving feedback on 'the writing of someone who makes a living by writing'.


The other person's writing was written using their own blood, you know?
It is writing birthed through suffering, suffering, and more suffering, you know?
Giving feedback on that means, in other words,

stepping into

the realm of the soul.

How could I not be nervous?
Getting close to professional writing is almost a life-or-death matter.

When I first had to supervise a subordinate,

I want to say this to my past self, who was a rookie editor-in-chief giving feedback so carelessly.

I'll wash your hair with salted cod guts.

People who work in writing are "pros" who weave text.
It doesn't matter if they are a new graduate or a beginner.
The length of their career or the amount of manuscripts they have handled doesn't matter at all.

It doesn't matter.

If you write text and receive a salary from a company for it, you are a pro from that moment on.

Everything in the work a pro does

has meaning.

Intentionally deleting particles, daring to separate adverbs from verbs, deliberately including inconsistent notation, intentionally twisting subjects and predicates to improve the flow, purposefully removing commas after conjunctions, or inserting arbitrary errors as a stylistic choice.

The text they write is supported by incredibly clever structural mechanics.

It's truly impressive.
There isn't a single part that doesn't have an intention behind it.
Every single sentence is filled with intention, carefully, carefully, and carefully.

Honestly, there are times when I don't want to edit it.
But I do it because it's my job.
No matter how nervous I am, I must fulfill that responsibility.

There is an intention behind "everything" in the text a pro writes.

As long as I am providing feedback, I must grasp "all" of those intentions the writer has put into it.

That is the responsibility that the person providing feedback—that is, me—must fulfill.

Why is that a responsibility?

Because if you provide feedback without grasping "all" the intentions the writer put in, it becomes "just off-base criticism."
After all, if you provide feedback in that state, they'll just say, "No, that's there because of this intention."

It ends up just being a waste of communication costs for the other person.
There is no way such a thing is acceptable in a professional setting.

Look, there's a funny story like this, isn't there?
Do you know it? In a certain manuscript,

A funny story like that.
If you don't understand that there is an intention behind "everything" in the text a pro writes, such a major accident will occur.

So really, feedback is a terrifying thing.

Because all of your true ability

is laid bare to the other person.

People in positions to teach subordinates, like "editors-in-chief," "bosses," or "mentors," are coated in glamorous titles.
But when you give feedback, all that coating is stripped away.
That is why it is truly terrifying.

I mean, in the first place, feedback refers to "constructive criticism" intended to further polish "that text" or, by extension, a "work."

Constructive "criticism"

is something you absolutely cannot do unless you become a "perfect understander" of that text.

After all, if you don't have a perfect understanding, the criticism itself becomes nothing more than meaningless babble.

To become this "perfect understander,"

you need real ability.

Without real ability, the feedback you send to someone else just becomes "a mere impression."
It's just an impression that failed to become advice.

There is a saying that

"amateur impressions and professional advice have value."

That is what it says.

Conversely, this means that "amateur advice and professional impressions have no value."

I think that is exactly right.

When I was working at a company, I was paid by the company to provide feedback to my subordinate editors.

Now that I have left the company and gone independent, I am paid by clients to provide feedback to the employees who work at their companies.

As long as I am being paid to do the job of providing feedback, I am, of course, a professional.

It doesn't matter whether I am a company employee or an independent business owner.
Since I am being paid to provide feedback, I am a "professional" in either capacity.

It is absolutely unacceptable for a professional to send mere impressions instead of advice.
What is required of a professional is advice, andthere is no value in "mere impressions" that failed to become advice.

When providing feedback on someone's manuscript, I try to do it verbally as much as possible.
Because if the feedback is returned in writing, the nuances might not be conveyed.

A professional thinks, thinks, and thinks again about the reader when writing.

People who can think through things for the reader like that are, without a single exception, highly sensitive.

However, being highly sensitive also means that their vulnerability is actually very high.

Writers, editors, and others who "get paid to write" are often very "delicate" (though I don't really like that word) people, aren't they?
Whether that's good or bad is a completely different matter.

Actually, because they are "delicate," they can write high-quality prose, so I think being "delicate" is a very important trait.

This is a trait that all writers should possess.

But that is precisely why giving off-target feedback can end up breaking their spirit.
Because they are "delicate," their pens can easily snap from off-target feedback.

I am supposed to be providing feedback to help their pens move smoothly and become better pens, butI could end up breaking the pen itself.

There are certainly people who say, "My pen broke, so now I have two! I can write even more now, yahoo!" but most people don't think that positively.

That is why I try to use the medium of "voice," which conveys nuances most effectively, to ensure that doesn't happen.
That way, I can wrap the gift of feedback in the soft, gentle cotton of a "voice."

But you know, when I'm giving feedback, I might look like I'm smiling and speaking gently on the surface.

But in reality, I'm drenched in sweat.

I'm as nervous as I could possibly be.

That's only natural.
Because I am stepping into the realm of the other person's soul.

But I think that by having someone step into that "realm of the soul" and mess up the manuscript (though there must be love there), one can learn to write a good manuscript.
That is why I think feedback is incredibly valuable for people who work in "writing."

That is precisely why.

I want the writer to feel that the feedback was valuable.

And I want the readers who read the articles written by those writers to feel glad they read them.

Today, tomorrow, and beyond, I want to continue providing high-quality feedback.
To that end, I want to absorb and learn from everything, no matter how small, like a sponge.

This is what I want to learn this year.

No, that's not right.

To be precise,

it is what I want to 'continue learning this year as well'.

This learning will never end in my lifetime.
Because the moment you stop learning, your phase shifts from 'growth' to 'maintaining the status quo'.

Maintaining the status quo is just falling behind.
You must always keep evolving your career.

I believe this is the same for any profession.
Whether you are an editor, a writer, a university professor, a hairdresser, a photographer, a taxi driver, or a company executive, it makes no difference.
It is the same for every profession.

Providing high-quality feedback on text written by someone else.
I want to learn how to do that again this year.
I want to keep learning in order to remain a professional.

And in doing so, I want to be a help to those who create 'good content'.
I want them to receive my feedback and say, 'I want to write more,' 'Writing is so much fun,' or 'I can't stop writing.'

I want them to say, 'I want to keep writing.'

As an artist, I have come close to giving up many, many times.
Continuing to be an artist has been a tireless battle against resignation, despair, and loss of spirit.
That is why I know how precious it is to 'continue'.

That is exactly why I love the 'mission' of note.
Do you know what the mission of note is?

'To enable everyone to start creating,

and to keep going'.

Just like that.

Isn't that amazing?
It doesn't end with starting; it includes 'enabling them to keep going'.
I think it is a wonderful mission that places great importance on continuing.

That is why I, too, as a professional editor,
want to provide feedback that makes people think, 'I want to write.'
I want to provide feedback that makes people think, 'I want to keep writing.'

I want to keep learning this year, next year, and forever, so that I can provide such feedback.

Therefore, learning will never end for me, not in this lifetime.
If there is ever an end, it will be when my own life ends.

The actress Eartha Kitt once said:

That's right. Learning is something that lasts a lifetime. It is something you keep doing.

So I will learn again this year. I will keep learning.
In order to keep 'evolving' as a professional writer.

(End)

Afterword

A salted rice ball, sooooo good.

I wrote this note late at night in my room while eating a salted rice ball from 7-Eleven.
The quality of convenience store rice balls these days is really high, isn't it?
This is delicious.

I wrote this particular note as an essay.

The word 'essay' translates to 'zuihitsu' in Japanese.

The character 'zui' apparently means 'to let things take their course'.

In other words, a zuihitsu is 'writing where the pen follows its own path, letting the pen do as it pleases'.

That is why this note started with 'To you who don't want to write notes anymore,' flowed into the topic of 'feedback is really great,' and finally landed on 'what I want to learn as a professional editor'.


I truly let the pen follow its own path.
That is why it turned into such a fluid piece of writing.

This style of writing was inspired by Ryu Murakami's novel 'Topaz.' I wonder if anyone knows this novel.

I think I read it when I was a university student.

It's a novel told in the first person by a sex worker living in 1980s Tokyo.
When I read it, I thought, 'What is this writing!?'
It was a truly strange piece of writing.

In what way was it strange?

I'll quote the first two lines, so take a look.

Here we go.

……Doesn't it feel a bit strange?

It's only two lines, but it's incredibly long, isn't it?
Yet, strangely, it's easy to read right through.

If it were an ordinary person like me, I would surely write the beginning of this novel, "Topaz," like this.

Putting only one meaning into one sentence is the "basic rule of writing" as it should be.

When one meaning is finished, you add a period to end the sentence.
Therefore, if you follow this basic rule, it becomes seven lines (even though it was only two lines in the original text).

But don't you think the original two lines have much more allure?

I don't mean it has allure in the sense that it's a novel about a sex worker, of course.
It's not that; it's that the writing itself feels glossy.
To bring out this gloss, I think you should ignore all the basics of writing and just write it smoothly in "two lines."

This style is truly an "essay" written by "letting the pen follow its own course."
That's how it looked to me.

So, I thought, "Wow, I want to try writing like this," and so I did it this time.

Ah, it was super fun.

This might actually be a pretty good method.
I like solidifying a structure before I write, but writing like this, letting the pen flow, is also quite fun.
This is a true essay. A real piece of writing.

By finding and trying out many ways to "write enjoyably" like this, I intend to "continue" writing.
If there were only one "way to write enjoyably," I wouldn't be able to write anymore if I couldn't use that method.

Diversify your risks.
That's why it's better to have many "ways to write enjoyably" so you can keep on writing.

So that my future self won't have to give up writing.

Now, from here on out,

I'd like to share some relevant links. I really want you to read my paid note, a complete manual written by me as a professional editor, titled "What you need to do to achieve book publication for your note".

I myself was a beginner noter who achieved book publication even though I only had 30 note followers and 1 post.

I've included all the actual publishing proposals and sample manuscripts I wrote at that time in this note. I also listed a collection of publishers that accept pitches, so this is an excellent resource where you can learn everything you need to do to get published just by reading it.

The reviews are really great, too.

Also, Satoru here wrote a very long review for me! (crying)

Since you can't see the rest of the tweet above without clicking it, I'll excerpt the rest for you!

▼Continued

Satoru-san, thank you so much for the wonderful review!

Besides this, there were actually people who wrote reviews on note as well!

▼Quoted from the main text

▼Excerpt from a review

Everyone, thank you so much for your happy reviews!

As shown above, in the reviews,

I received such truly happy words. Thank you so, so much!!

I can state with certainty that if you just read this paid note, you will learn 'everything' you need to do to get published.

▼If you are seriously aiming for publication, please, seriously give it a read. I won't let you regret it.