Last week I took my third and final week “off” from work to make more serious progress on my book.  I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped, but I did get some work done. It was also nice to have a week where I could focus on the book instead of just working on it when I came home at the end of the day. It meant that I had time for hobbies after “work” and I was reminded of the importance of balance. It was a nice week all the way around.

The book is a really big project. & I like big projects. I think it’s nice to work on something that is large in scale and I like the learning that comes along with the process.  So far, here is what I’ve learned (and you can add a parenthetical “for me” after each of them:

1. 50,000 words really isn’t all that many. After National Novel Writing Month, at least.
   
2. Editing is far harder than writing. Getting the word count was way easier than I thought it would be and editing is far harder.
3. Editing content and grammar should come in two phases. Editing such a large project has to be done in multiple passes.
4. A nonfiction book is really a series of short essays. The essays should flow together, but really a book can be thought of as a collection of 20-30 essays.
   
5. A book is definitely a project to be chipped away at over a period of time, rather than written in fits and bursts. I’m having a hard time remembering why I put a place holder somewhere, or a specific story in another place. The weeks off were nice, but ended up causing more stress later on. Maybe it would have been better to work, say, an hour a day each Tuesday-Saturday every week rather than every day of some weeks, and some weeks not at all.
6. There are low periods and high periods throughout the process. The low periods have been the times when I questioned the wisdom of adding a project of this scope to my plate. The high periods came when I first had a complete printed draft and when I make final passes through editing. These times are the ones when I realize the project will be complete in the near future.

I still have some editing to do, but this is where I am today. I’m sure there will be more lessons, but wanted to go ahead and document the project at this point in time.