Tuesday, April 28, 2009

managed to get in a few words before bed

Another day without much chance to write until night, but I managed to sit with the computer and write 280 words before giving in to the lure of my bed.

Monday, April 27, 2009

yet another slow day

maybe 400 words today...but still plugging.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Another slow day

I didn't get a chance to start writing until 10:00pm, but have managed to punch out 600 words. Still feeling OK about the basic structure, though, also feeling a little more uncertain about where I'm going. Which is not good--hopefully I will be able to make this stick together as I get deeper in.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Saturday in the park

There was an Earth Day celebration in the park today, and I didn't get much work done, but I did just come in and write a couple of sentences (82 words) for my book, and maybe I'll write a few more tonight. But even if I don't, at least I got to it.

yesterday

yesterday, I didn't make a record of what I accomplished writing--but I did manage to write about 300 words--not the most productive of days, but I got something done.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

progress: minimal writing; work on structure

I did some writing in the morning, but struggled to get words on the page and to keep from reworking what I did yesterday.

I managed to add a little beyond what I had so far--about 400 words.

Not much, but at least I feel like I still am in the right direction--this seems like a good place to start.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

today's progress

My title may become a common one as I use the blog to report on my day's progress.

I revised my overall structure--found some refinements that will help me reuse old material.

I looked through old material--there's definitely useful stuff.

I wrote about 1000 words on the beginning of hte new structure (the beginnings get written and rewritten more than any other thing I work on.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

since last I wrote

I wrote about 1500 words, and had a major crisis over structure and am working through alternative structures that might support what I've written better than the structure I have now.

I'm not afraid of writing more, but if I keep changing the structure, I'll never finish...

Where I am now

The current version that I have been working on this last week or so is about 7,000 words right now. I have an old version that is about 27,000 words but is based on some ideas about presentation and writing that are no longer being used (I have changed ideas about what audience I want to reach).

I don't feel very happy with my current version, either--I don't have a strong sense of structure for the ideas I want to express.

Nonetheless, I press on, because that is the only way that it will get any better. For now, I just need to stay with the project long enough to shape a complete draft of the appropriate size that is consistent and coherent within its own chosen purview.

So, really, my touchstone is the 7,000-word draft that I have right now.

A new phase

I haven't been writing here much.
Mostly I've been trying to take the ideas that I was sharing here and cast them into a book. Partly it was because I felt like I was repeating myself--I only had a few hundred posts worth of good material...this would be the place to type "lol," I think.

It's not that I don't want to continue to share my ideas, but the book project itself takes away the time I could spend writing the blog.

But I have been erratic with the book project--I started working on it almost a year ago, but have kept letting long gaps of time come between efforts, and then what I have written no longer seems useful, or at least needs rewriting.
Of course, the flip side of this is that I have written multiple drafts.

Anyway, my current plan is to push for a complete 50,000-word draft that I can then use as the basis for a proposal for a publisher.
To that end, I'm going to keep tabs on my progress.