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It’s weird what comes up in memories, isn’t it? With the book now out in the wild, I have been surprised at a few things, two things in particular. One is how connected people feel to the “cost” section of the book, the middle section that is by far the most vulnerable and honest and raw. When I recorded those chapters for the audiobook, I remember thinking how messy it still felt - like I hadn’t quite finished the sentences enough or developed the paragraphs fully - like the mess and trauma of those chapters were still there. (If you got the audiobook, you’ll probably hear the emotion and hurry and mess in my reading). The other chapters seemed like they flowed naturally, with a story arc and hopefully some jokes in there. But these middle chapters seemed to lack any type of arc and resembled more of a storm. At least that’s how it felt when I read them out loud again.
When I finished recording the audio portion of those chapters, the very kind sound engineer let me sit for a minute. Then he said over the speaker from the other room, “Let’s take a minute”. I think he knew what I needed because he just heard me read those chapters - and, have to start again several times. Then he just let me sit. And cry all over again. It was really quiet in that room except for me. After the other chapters were finished we would make a joke like “Nailed it!” or “Chapter one billion done”. It was fun and light and comical and comfortable. We would laugh at how many words I said wrong or how many times we had to start a section over. But these chapters were different. And, even the skilled engineer knew it.
“Let’s take a minute”.
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