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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.

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