book notes #13: almost

Last night, I finished up the second edit of my book.  Let me just say again how surprised I was at how much I could accomplish doing a little bit every day.  I’ve made more progress in the past two months than I’ve made in the last 5 or 6.  And that’s just because I kept going, didn’t take these week-long or month-long breaks.

Now, the plan is to work (every day) on rewriting the book, including all the changes.  Then get a few people to read it just to tell me if it’s worth being a book and then, depending on how I feel about the possibility of the book being successful and if I can afford it, I might hire a professional editor.  I’ll also need to buy an ISBN if I self-publish or if I decide to go the traditional route, I’ll start sending out query letters.

With this lucky 13th update, I think I’m going to stop writing about writing the book.  I’ve written about it for approximately 4 years now and it’s gotten embarrassing.  I’ve done all this smack talk about it and have built it up to be something grand like it will be this huge, life-changing project when really it’s just a collection of all my whiny OD entries.  If you’ve read one of them, then you’ve already read my book.

I also ran across this quote by author Isaac Marion that I think is appropriate and good timing regarding my decision to stay mum from now on:

I think most people think of writing as a romantic dalliance that is fun to think about and impressive to talk about, but not a tangible reality that can actually be accomplished. Stop talking about it and do it. Don’t waste that coal of desire on idle chatter, passing it around the room for everyone to admire. It will go out. Keep it hidden inside where it can burn and drive you and don’t stop blowing on it until you’ve finished something.

Whew, he called me out on that one, didn’t he?  I guess I have a lot more blowing to do.  I just want to be done!  And done I shall be, hopefully in the next two or three months.

Making progress every day.  And I won’t stop until I have a book in my hands.  Even if I have to self-publish.  Even if everyone hates it.  Because it’s my story and my therapy and I won’t feel totally healed until I’ve totally finished it