It is FINISHED!!

I've had a lot of people over the past couple of weeks ask me if I was going to finish the book on time. The answer was that I honestly didn't know. Some days I thought I would make it. Others, I started thinking about how I would let people know that I didn't..... I contemplated sending in the first 16 chapters, as I knew that they were closest to completion.

And then suddenly everything came together!  That happens sometimes. It doesn't always, but I'm grateful when it does. Chapters suddenly click. I put in several really long days this week. And by Wednesday, I knew I would finish by my self-imposed deadline. I worked until 12:45 am on Thursday and was almost there. By Friday morning, I was finishing the final touches, putting together the front matter and table of contents. By Friday afternoon, I was shipping it off to my editor. She was delighted to hear from me (and yes, Deborah, if you are reading this, I'm talking about you!).

I found that I really underestimated the length of the manuscript. The chapters were all separate files, and I hadn't stopped and added them up. I thought it would be around 400 pages. Instead, it weighed in at a whopping 605 pages!! No wonder I've been working like a crazy woman. (The first edition of the book was only about 250 pages. Some of the length of the new edition has to do with how much new research there has been in this field.)

Yes, I'm pleased with final product.....I'm also pleased that I have finally (finally!!) finished it.

So there you have it. How to write a book in (about) 50 days. I leave for Spain on Wednesday morning. And I can do so knowing that I've taken this big to-do off my list.

Thanks for coming along on this journey. It's amazing how effective having the public deadline was for me. And I thought I would keep this blog open as the book moves through production, so you can get an idea what that process is like.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. And thanks again for all your support. It made this process seem a little less lonely.  :-)  I will keep you posted on the final product.

Telling the Story--with Research Findings

The book is coming along nicely. I've been working like a crazy woman over the past week. After finishing the first draft of the first 16 chapters, it was time to print everything out. At this point in the process, you really have to. There are only so many edits that you can make on your screen. For the next round of edits, I worked with mostly "broad strokes." This means that I was trying to make sure all the content was where it needed to be.

Many of the chapters were in pretty decent shape, so I didn't have to do much to them, aside from a few minor edits. I love those.

There were other chapters that required major surgery.  I had content that was in completely the wrong place--sometimes, even the wrong chapter. I had material that was redundant. And I had a few things that just didn't make any sense.  They had to go.

By the time I got to the second the round of edits on hard copy, things were working a lot better. I still found sections that needed to be moved, but there were only a few of them.

Part of the task at this point is making the information I have in the chapters "tell a story." That can be a real challenge when all you have to work with are research findings. But to keep your readers interested, those findings need to be in some type of logical sequence. That means grouping similar studies together. It means using lots of headings and subheadings, and putting in transitions. It also means thinking through how you would "say" this to someone who is interested.

When you remember the basics of storytelling when you write, you increase the chances that someone will read--and understand--what it is you have to say. And frankly, writing this book is WAY too much work to do to have no one read it.

More later. But now it's time for lunch. :-)

So, where was I?

You might have been wondering where I've been. I'm afraid I need to tell you that the real world dragged me off in a big way a little over a week ago. I went a full 9 days without working on the book.

So how did it happen? It just did. At some point, you need to leave your book project, no matter how pressing the deadline, and attend to other commitments. That's what I needed to do. First, I taught a 2-hour webinar and needed about 60 new slides. I had to wade my way through the new American Academy of Pediatric's policy statement, and follow-up technical report, on safe infant sleep. There had been more changes than I initially thought. So that was 3 days right there.

The second issue needing my attention was the next issue of Clinical Lactation. I had to get it shipped off to the publisher. It generally takes me a full week to finish thoroughly editing it and getting it out the door. So......that pretty much accounted for the rest of the time.

The good news is that I am now back on task. I've been able to start copyediting and have edited 6 chapters so far. They were in surprisingly good shape (I'm pleased to report.) I know that it will be different when I hit the chapters that are brand new for this book (for they are "true" first drafts). Those chapters will take some work, I'm sure. But for now, I'm happy to making progress again.

I think what the last couple of weeks illustrates is that no matter how much we want to check out from the real world while working on a book, at some point, the real world finds us--and we need to respond. The trick is to get right back to it when your other obligations have been met. And that can be the tricky part for a lot of authors; once they lose that momentum, it's hard to get it back.

But if we want to be productive writers, we really must learn to work through these times and work even we have lost momentum. It can be done! Just don't wait too long.

And speaking of the task at hand, I'd better get back to it. Happy writing!

First Draft Finished! What's Next?

I'm leaving for a doctor's appointment in a few minutes. But I just wanted to let you know that I FINISHED THE FIRST DRAFT!! The official "pile" in my official is actually now two stacks. Both are impressively high, and that's been inspiring. But now they are big and messy enough to start bugging the crap out of me because they are really adding to the clutter in my office. So I may take a breath and put the articles away before I move on to the next step.

So what's next? I have 21 chapters that will now need editing. The next step will involve making sure that all the content is where I want it, so that will involve a considerably amount of moving things around. Right now, I've got about 25 days (give or take) until my deadline. If I can do at least a chapter a day, I'll be in great shape.

After I make sure content is where I want it, I'll start making finer-grained edits, such as adding transitions between paragraphs and sections. I'll be proofreading all along. But it won't be until near the end that I do the final proofreading.

I haven't been working in hard copy yet, but I'll have to soon. Books eat up an enormous amount of paper. I've been trying to hold off so as to save at least a few trees. It's also better for my printer if I do as much as I can electronically. I've also killed two printers working on other books, and my current printer is on life-support. It's still limping along and I hope it survives long enough for me to use up the cartridges I already have. So working electronically is good while you can.

But eventually, you have to print things out. We just got a new case of paper.

Well, I'd better run. The doctor awaits. More details later. :-)

First Draft--Almost there!

Last week, I set a mini-goal of finishing my first draft by today. It was a bold goal, but it was doable. Over the past week, I have worked many hours towards finishing this draft. For this book, that means adding all the new content to the assorted chapters. To give you an idea of how far I've progressed, my "pile" of articles I've finished with is now two piles. I decided to start a second pile after I noticed that the first pile was swaying each time I added something new to the top. It seemed a prudent decision.

So what happened? Fortunately (or unfortunately), I found a whole other stash of articles in my filing cabinet. (Remember that I said I had been saving articles since the first book was published in 2003? That's a LOT of articles.) I then had a decision to make: make the deadline I had set or make the book more complete. I looked through them and decided that most of them needed to be included. So book content won out, and I will miss my mini-deadline by a day or so. But ultimately, the book will be the better for it.

I am planning on working on it most of this week, but I do have a few other things pending--like teaching a webinar next week. So it's time for me to stop chatting and get back to work.

I'll keep you posted! Thanks for reading along with me. :-)

A Mid-Term Goal

I have spent to better part of last week working like a crazy woman on the book. I'm happy to say that I am making progress. The "pile" of articles I've already referenced is growing at a good clip. (It's amazing how motivating that is.) And now I've made enough progress that I think it's time to set a mini-goal: I want to have a complete first draft by January 10th.

Why set this as a goal? The main reason is to keep momentum going. I find that it helps to set smaller goals on my way to a big one.

I'm also finding that as I get further along in adding new material that I am becoming a bit more selective about what I include. At first, I felt like I needed to include "everything" that was new on this subject. But there has been a LOT of new material on this subject. As I worked, I started noticing that the "next" article in the pile wasn't really adding all that much--so why include it?

Overall, I'm pleased at how the new edition is coming together. It's just still SO much work. It's also kind of funny. I'm always shocked at how much work a book is. And you would think, after 21 previous books, that I would finally get it. But, nooooo! I think it's a lot like labor. It the midst of it, you swear that you will never, EVER do this again. And then they hand you this sweet baby and you think, "you know, that really wasn't that bad...." So you decide to have another one. And suddenly, you're in labor again. And you think, "Oh, NO. I remember this....."

So a mini-goal is good. It will get my through my second stage and on to holding my "other" sweet baby (i.e., my manuscript) in my arms.....And then I'll think, "you know, that really wasn't so bad...."

Have a good night.  :-)