I know I’ve missed the last two blog posts and I’m terribly sorry for that. It could have been helped, but I missed one without excuse and then was busy finishing the first draft of Book III on the other! This was one of my major milestones which got me to thinking about them in general.
In the meantime, plenty has happened. The September newsletter went out going into the latest with my publishing journey. Did you get it? If not, sign up on my contact page!
We did a bridal show to keep growing my wife’s business. Then I headed up to Georgia to visit an old friend, spend time with his wonderful family, and see my favorite heavy metal band, Lamb of God. It was an absolute blast! I even carved some time out to update my character profile sheets which felt really good. Even better than that, I finished the Book III first draft which is huge. I’ve moved into the first of many edits and it feels fantastic. We’ll talk about my editing process next week. For now, HOORAY!
After that, I got sick and it knocked me down! No, it wasn’t Covid; we checked. It was just a rough cold. I’m finally feeling mostly normal and now we’ve got a hurricane coming tomorrow! So how do you feel normal amongst so many crazy things going on? You get back to work. That starts with what’s coming out.
Drawing from the Well
Like I said, the first draft is DONE! For the final count, it came in at 246 scenes for 144,268 words. The editing process will likely change both of those numbers a lot. Here’s a glimpse at where and how it finished:
Now, I’ve moved into the editing phase which is just as long as the planning phase. I looked at the calendar and it took me almost a year to draft this book. That’s ENTIRELY too long. I’m going to have to carry that lesson forward into Book IV…when that time comes. For now, I’m reading this book on my ReMarkable and marking it up as I go. As I said above, we’ll talk more about that next week. I don’t even have tracking on this yet, but I’ve worked through about 40 pages. I’ll set that up for next week.
Filling the Well
In the last three weeks, I only finished three books: 10 Leadership Virtues of Disruptive Times and the two most recent Murderbot books. Those were GREAT.
Three books. I know. I told you, it’s been crazy. As I said, things are clearing up, Hurricane Ian aside, so I should be back into audiobooks soon. I’m also working on catching up on my Bible plan which takes a lot. I’ll be back into reading Dreamlander soon too. All that said, almost 3/4 of the way there!
74/100 for #ProjectBookworm2022
It’s been all Ink Master recently. The new season is awesome! The old seasons are fun to rewatch. It’s a good time. Other TV is coming back so we’re getting it in.
I got into the Dragonflight Beta! And with no time to play it. LOL I did use it, however, to bolster my character profile sheets. I NEEDED Dracthyr for one of my key characters. It’s good times. Other than that, I’m playing Mobile Legends: Adventure and started Rush Royale on mobile and am enjoying both. They’re great time-killers.
Well Chat
Milestones are critical for the feeling of completion, achievement, and progress. It’s so easy to lose sight of that when you look at the final finish line of having your book out in the wild. Momentum and motivation are the only things that will push you to actually finish the book. Setting up and crossing milestones do that for me.
I’ve talked about process a lot. My process is built on a series of milestones. For me, they live up to their name. They are figurative stones that mark the emotional miles I have to travel before I’m done. That may seem melodramatic, but when you’re in the drafting cave, it can feel like there’s no end in sight. These mile markers tell me otherwise.
Ideation. Planning. Mapping. Drafting. Editing. Professional edits. Polishing. Packaging. Publishing. They’re all huge milestones. I track the heck out of every inch within each of those phases. Crossing the marker for a phase, though, is invigorating. It is an event to celebrate.
By the time I get to the end of a “mile,” I’m over it. I can’t believe I’m still doing it. So much work has gone into it that it feels like it should be done already. I don’t want to do it anymore. Excitement runs through me to jump ship and start on the next part. Nothing can be left unfinished, though. That’s the path to disaster. So I knuckle down and get it done.
And then I throw a parade. I post on social media. I take a deep breath or a longer break, depending on the phase I completed. I bottle my excitement for the next phase. And there’s one last important piece:
REWARD
Writing a book is an arduous process. You have to reward yourself for it. Granted, completing the process is its own reward, but having something tangible can help with that. For me, it’s typically either a food treat or an experience.
How do you reward yourself for finishing your goals? How do you stoke your motivation to cross milestones and get stuff done?
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG