Skip to main content

Writing is Hard Work


 

I’ve been doing a lot of writing. On the days when I get everything done, I do about 1,800 to 2,000 words. On a really crazy day, I did around 3,500, because I wrote an entire newspaper article in one sitting. That was a lot.

I have written between 60 and 70,000 words for my non-fiction book, generously equivalent to a 200-page book. For all those words, my story is not half written. I have written all of this in the last three months with a couple week-long periods with little writing. I have a lot of work to do before the book is ever published.

They say that once you get 60,000 words into a book, you start to wonder about the project, or have some doubts. This number is definitely a milestone for me.

This is the largest number of words I have ever written in three months. In the year I have spent working for the newspaper, I estimated writing 70,000 words. Over three years of publishing the magazine, my entire writing combined could equal that amount as well. Before I started this book, and before I got Lyme’s, I did not think I was capable of writing this many words, keeping at a project day in and day out.

In my non-fiction book, I am working chronologically from when I was eleven years old. So far, I have written myself until 13 years old. I have some chunks for the years after that, but mostly not. I have now written myself to where I got stuck two months ago, and now I have to push through the barrier, which takes more time that just pounding out the words. I definitely feel the difficulty that comes from a halfway or third-of-the-way point in a book. Keeping up for this long, and reaching this halfway point feels exhilarating. I know I have the hardest part yet to come, but I can do it. I hope to get the first draft of the book done by 2024, which I think is totally possible.

To celebrate, I have two new additions to my desk: a ceramic bluebird in my fern which watches me as I struggle to put words on paper. I also listen to a recorded rain shower as a motivation boost. Writing is work, but writing can be fun. I feel both depending on the day.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Story, Excerpt from My Magazine

  Dear Friends, I find myself in bed again with Lyme’s Disease. I’ve been in bed since October 21 st , and I just spent two weeks in the hospital. We went to the ER to try to get treatment for a migraine that started at the beginning of October. When I initially started having a headache, I went to the chiropractor and got adjusted and a week and a half later, my head still hurt. I went back, but the adjustment only made my headache worse, and I was losing the ability to function normally. I finally went to the doctor and got some medications to try to stop the headache, but they only made it worse. I hit the weekend and I could no longer get the shot for migraines, and the pain was just getting worse. We headed to the ER. Mom requested a test for Lyme Disease, and it came back positive, indicating a new infection of Lyme. We started a course of antibiotics immediately, using IV treatment, and I remained in the hospital to continue to try to pursue causes and remedies for my h...
Post a Comment
Read more

Does it Matter?

I have sixty seconds to live in 8:30 AM. Once the zero becomes a one, the chance to live that minute is forever gone. There will be no October 2, 2023,, at 8:30 AM ever again.  I have sixty minutes to live the hour of three in the afternoon. Three thousand six hundred seconds of time ticking away.  I have 24 hours to live a single day. Seven days in which to live a single week. A month, a year, a decade. These only matter in the face of passing time.  In twenty years, will it matter what I did that afternoon in high school when I read for three hours straight?  In five years will it matter what I ate for breakfast this morning? In one year, will it matter if I was maximally efficient for the minimal amount time I can stay at maximum? In one month will I care if my bed was made every morning of every day? In one week, will it matter if I completed every task on my daily to-do? In one hour, will it matter how I just spent the last? In one minute, will I care ho...
Post a Comment
Read more

Adieu to the Day

  The sunset fades The heavens gray, And shadows turn to black.  Soft birdsong ends,  Sly crickets sing,  And twilight ebbs to night.  I settle in To rest my head And send my thanks to God.  For sun-filled hours, For treasured tears, And His protecting hand.  In peaceful sleep  I pass the night And waken still with God. 
Post a Comment
Read more