I recently finished one of my first writing projects, a book actually but sadly it wasn't the novel I've been wanting to finish for a couple years now. I just finished writing a handbook for the job I do at my work and let me tell you I never realized everything that had to go into one of these books. I've been working at Ace Hardware for just over six years now, mostly as a cashier but now as a floor person but I still do some cashiering and I help train any new cashiers that we hire. With all this being said, I pretty much know the ins and outs to the register system we use and the daily duties that a cashier is required to know how to do, so what did I do? Well I wrote a cashier's handbook for the cashiers to reference if they were not comfortable doing something. I spent countless hours on this handbook and many different thoughts came to my mind during the process.
1. "I don't even know where to start, this is all common sense stuff"
2. "Alright, is this something we really need? Are we going to use it?"
3. "Who am I kidding, yes, we need this thing. Do you really want to get a phone call on your day off to explain something to a cashier? Didn't think so."
4. "Just sit down and start writing, think back to your training. What was the first thing they taught you?"
5. "I know that was six years ago but you have to remember your first couple of weeks, what were things that you were concerned about or didn't know how to do?"
6. "Start with a list, what are things that you know get encountered everyday?"
7. "See that wasn't so bad, now you have something to go off of."
8. "I think I'm going to need a bigger notebook than the one I bought, and another pen this one is running out of ink."
9. "Why did I decide to hand write this thing out, what the hell was I thinking?"
10. "I love opening a new word document to start writing something, even if its just this handbook for work."
11. "Yes, typing was a way better option than hand writing this thing."
12. "I never realized how many steps there actually were to checking a customer out."
13. "Do I really need to put in here all of this stuff?"
14. "Well apparently I do, some people don't have the common sense you thought they did."
15. "Oh my God, I'm already 10 pages into this thing and I've only talked about like three major topics."
16. "I wonder if I should double space this document?"
17. "Abort, abort that thought. No one is going to read a 100 page handbook on how to run a register."
18. "Alright, alright, you've gotten 15 pages done so now you can take a break."
19. "No really you need to take a break otherwise you will go crazy thinking and dreaming about this damn book."
20. "Maybe I should go back and change somethings that I've finished already."
21. "Wait, why would you think that? Are you nuts? Leave good enough alone and move forward or do you still want to be writing this thing after you've quit and moved on to another job?"
22. "Fine, but I know that as soon as I show anyone they are going to have their own input and want things changed."
23. "Dang it, now I really do have to go back and change things. Why couldn't I keep my big mouth shut."
24. "Okay, those changes weren't that bad."
25. "I think I might be close to being done with this thing."
26. "Crap, I forgot to put in what my boss just told me to put in."
27. "At least I'm getting good at formatting word documents, I guess this was the perfect test for it."
28. "Alright, I'm done, finally. All I have to do is print it and it will be complete."
29. "Why did I ever volunteer to do this thing in the first place, it only gave me a headache to whole time I was writing it."
30. "That's all in the past now. You've finally finish your first book and although it may not be the book you wanted to finish first, it is a finished book none the least."
After going through this process for the weeks that I did, I can definitely say that I will not volunteer my time to write a how-to book anytime soon. This one was more than enough and I'm still making changes to it after its been done for a few weeks now, I guess the process will never end.
