If I could do it all over again, how would I arrange my steps? With what I know now, and if I could clone myself to lead me through this endeavor, how would I’ve gone about it?
Category: Looking Back
Finito!
Late Friday afternoon, I finished my book, Shrapnel in the San Fernando Valley. I could say it was nearly a lifetime of work, but I certainly did not work on it full time. However, I will tell you when and how it all began, because I just did a search on how far back the files went and surprised myself.
Eighty-eight Percent
You’re not going to believe it, and I can hardly believe it, but guess what will be done by Friday? I mean it this time. I don’t mean another step will be done in the process of being done. I mean done and submitted to publishers done. I mean, as soon as I get a Query Letter, that is. Right now I’m 88% there.
Footsteps
No, this is not the story about the single set of footsteps of Jesus carrying me on the beach. That’s what I think of whenever I see that something is entitled “Footsteps.”
This is about following over your own footsteps in editing, going over another pass through a chapter, section, or a whole manuscript you’ve been working on time and time again. Polishing, refinishing, and all that. Of course, there does need to be some kind of “scratch track” there first before you can really start going over those initial footsteps.
Can’t or Won’t?
Looking back again, in the spring of 2012, I was contemplating a few different titles. I knew deep in my heart I wanted Shrapnel, but I had “Blast” and “Invisible Ink” as possibilities too. What was most interesting though was that I stated,
Comparison Study
I was just doing a search on Carol’s Bloggie for where I’ve talked about the book and found that I have posted earlier excerpts of rough chapters before. All this time I swore that only one chapter was out there, and now I find that my memory really does suck.
Minimal Worry
Once I gave my manuscript to Lisa, it was a bit difficult to know what I’d be doing with my time, or how I was going to be able to “let go” of the book for a while. I haven’t been ready to go back to painting. And I also felt like I was still on meth.
Milestone #8
First, welcome to my writer’s blog. I’m going to be using this thing specifically for “the writing process,” like a past and present diary, and plan to share what’s on the path as I learn to get better.
Like most people, I have never written a memoir before. It was not an easy task and I have a lot to express about what it took to get here. Not only that, I want to keep track of how far I still have to go. Perhaps that will be of some interest to some.