Weekly Accountability Post

For Monday, February 16, 2026

This is the weekly post where we show up with the work we got done in the week. It keeps everybody productive and accountable. Please share your week’s progress in the comments.

New Novel

I didn’t have time for it, but my Second Civil War novel started coming out of me this week, and I couldn’t stop it. I was thinking about it too much. Three and a half of my first rough chapters are copied below.

The chapters aren’t nearly as rough as I would normally write, especially for a “vomit draft.” Somehow, this book is writing itself.

One of the many things I’ll go back and improve is the telling vs. showing. It’s one of the things I can never balance right on a first pass. I’m too in the weeds. Only when I step back later will I see all the mistakes I’m making—some things will be way too obvious, other things will be way too subtle.

For now, I’m doing the hardest work of writing a novel, which is resisting the urge to go back and edit chapters I’ve already written. I’m just pounding them out, one at a time, forgetting about them, and then moving onto the next one. I hope to post 4 or 5 more chapters next week.

For context, my rough outline of this novel is here. Another break from my normal practice on this book is that I’m largely pantsing it. Normally I wouldn’t start with such a loose outline—no more than a bunch of napkin thoughts. But I understand this book, and how I want it to go, so I’ll just see where it takes me if I just follow the characters and let them write the book.

FunnyCon

I did a lot of planning for the Feb. 18 FunnyCon pre-event in Chicago. Here’s the flier, and here’s the invite. If you’re in Chicago, come by. If you know someone in Chicago, share these links and tell them to come by. We’ll have free food, drinks, and lots of fun.

I secured two new workshops this week. One will be with Bob Mankoff, long-time cartoon editor of The New Yorker, another with Diane Reyna, a spectacular speech coach and frequent commenter on No Dikkering Around. I’m excited for both!

I remade some slides for the FunnyCon brochure, adding our host for the Funny Awards. Some of you may know this hilarious comedian from the weekly Writers Room, if you’ve ever attended. That slide is below.

I also attended a lot of meetings and responded to a fire hose of emails, coordinating with show producers at the FunnyCon venue, The Lincoln Lodge

And I had a very promising meeting with a potential video-streaming company. If you can’t attend FunnyCon, I recommend you at least get a streaming ticket, here. You’ll get the whole event on multiple stages plus unlimited replays.

Other Projects

I put in more work on my Comedy Mastermind app and my many nonfiction books, a little bit every day, which is challenging for me because it prevents me from getting into deep focus. But I’m making progress. This was mostly boring coding on the former, arranging and editing on the latter.