This is a semi-regular update on my progress to document the history, perspectives, and narratives of the metaverse.

Current book word count: 141,579

Let’s scrap the “weekly”, shall we?

Writing

I am in the process of going through every chapter, unifying the tone and style of the book, and making sure that there is a logical flow from chapter to chapter and section to section. This is my last pass before handing it over to the editors, and so far 31 of 75 chapters are ready for editing. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but remember that it’s not about writing – the content is there – but about polishing. So it should be quick, right? Right?

That’s what I tell myself.

I am also writing the chapter “Guidelines, assumptions and biases“. As I wrote the book, I collected a growing list of formal and informal rules to help guide my writing process. As I now polish the chapters, I look at which of those actually made sense, and if I should disclose them. For example, I made choices which milestones and narratives I included in the book. I also made decisions about which perspectives to discuss in the field notes and how I present them. So, I should clarify how I made these decisions, based on which assumptions, and what biases might have influenced them. If only to avoid the avalanche of messages asking me: “Why didn’t you include my favourite metaverse book / game / movie?!” But more practically to prevent me from writing 20 chapters about some obscure strain of virtual worlds from the 1980s that had this one really interesting feature.

Anyway, 31 / 75. Feels good.

Reading

I don’t read new things as much as I verify the list of references for the book. On one hand that they actually say what I think they say. On the other hand that they are still available. Since I want to back up every statement, opinion, learning, or best practice in the book with a source, there are currently well over 600 endnotes. All URLs to either the content directly, or its canonical source (publishers, authors etc).

Yes, I said endnotes. I am aware that “endnotes vs. footnotes” is a very subjective debate, but this is my book and I don’t like how footnotes break up the flow of pages. However, I am also aware that endnotes are a pain in the butt to use, as they break the flow of reading. My current thinking is to provide a URL that you can simply append the number of the endnote to. Something like endnote [8] being accessible at www.url-for-the-book/8. I think that’s a good compromise. People always read with second screen, right? Right?

That’s what I tell myself.