Writing a book

“It then became one of those be careful what you wish for situations. I now I had an agreement with a publisher for the book and a deadline to get them the first draft, which is called a manuscript in the book biz. It was four months. That seemed like an eternity given I had written a sample chapter of the course of what was really a day. Turns out the sample chapter I wrote was one I had thought the most about and that is why I choose to use it as the sample chapter. That also meant the words flowed more easily for the sample chapter than for other, subsequent chapters. Then things came to a grinding halt. About three weeks in I started to have some imposter syndrome [...] and negative self-talk. I started down the paths of well I’m not a writer and this is way harder than I expected it to be. I thought about emailing the publisher and telling them the deal was off and I wasn’t going to write the book after all.”

“The problem was that because I knew I was heading towards another book, it wasn’t going to be the same process. I wasn’t going to be able to write a book without even trying. Because I was trying to write a book. I set a deadline for myself but as it approached, I knew for various reasons that I was never going to make it. Life, work and other pieces of writing were getting in the way. Instead of giving up, I told myself that the deadline wasn’t important. I was the only person who knew it and I was the only person who would know it was going to pass by unmet. The important thing was that I eventually finished writing the book, regardless of whenever that time came.”

“Getting to 35,000 words was a real challenge. Hitting that number was a major milestone for me. It meant that I was actually going to write 70,000 words. I sincerely doubted I could pull together enough material for that number, but it became a reality after a week. Day after day, the words kept coming. Once I had 70,000 words in my Google Doc, I slowed down, did some editing, rested a few days, then got back to writing as much as I saw fit.”