All About the Book

Over the last two weeks it seems like every obstacles has been presented to keep me from working on my book. My laptop died, our back-up laptop died, Alex needed his computer all day to finish up a project, Ryan wanted attention, I had writer's bloc...But somehow I persevered. I have written a sizable chunk of my background story and I have found a writing process that has been helpful in the organization of the book as a whole. When I am stuck, I go back to The Tipping Point and continue to deconstruct it in hopes of finding my own construction. Getting more organized has helped me stay on task. The best part was putting all of my notes and free writes into one document and seeing how much I had accomplished without really knowing it.

It is now the beginning of September and I only have three months before my new baby arrives. My goal for this month is to have a detailed outline of my book completed. That is, all chapter headings, subheadings, theories, subtheories, flow of book, examples, summaries, approximate number of pages, etc. laid out in such a way that it is clear to any potential agent what the end result will be. In October I want to have my final pitch package complete so that I can begin shopping my book to agents in order to secure a book deal that will allow me the time and resources to make the final product what I know it can be.

I am very excited about getting to this point in the process. I never imagined myself being a published author, though I have been a writer my whole life. I always thought of writing as a means to end; I wrote speeches to win oral contests, I wrote essays and reports to pass courses, I wrote personal statements to get admitted to universities, I wrote theses to gain a degree or distinction, I wrote briefs to get a paycheck, I wrote press releases to get media attention. Now I know that all the success that came from those writings was because the writing was good and that I do not have to be afraid of being a writer.

I've been told that my subject matter is ambitious, but that has never stopped me before. I believe that my life and career has unfolded in such a way that I am destined to write this book at this very moment and that I am the only person in my way. I am looking at my pages and pages of writing almost too thick to staple as well as my six page breakdown of The Tipping Point and I am so encouraged. I have The Secret as my bathroom book (TMI, sorry) and the feeling of wanting to write everyday. On top of that, I had the best dream of my entire life the other day that felt so real that I hold on to that feeling of success and know that it is not just an illusion.

Everyday I wake up to the 7 battles that define Muse v. Fear and I puff my chest out knowing that I am one step closer to winning this war. Now back to work...