Writing a book will almost kill you.
Pick Your Tools and Organize before you dive in
Books are complicated things.
For me, this was pretty easy because I didn’t really have that much time to work with.
I gave myself chapter-specific deadline for each week.
Whether you have an external deadline or not, I suggest sticking with a similar plan.
This is especially the case at the beginning before you get into the flow of writing.
In my case, this was mostly about formatting.
Until you get the hang of it, everything will take twice as long as it should.
I had to redo my schedule completely to accommodate this.
This is a special case, but the same problem comes up with other aspects of writing.
Researching always takes a little longer than you’d think, as does basic brainstorming sometimes.
Give yourself the leeway to make those mistakes and give yourself plenty of buffer time for those moments.
It’s about deleting sentences or words you love for the greater good of your work.
But it’s bigger than that.
And that’s just your own editingyour editor will cut even more.
Your editor will help you fix that.
Take their word for it.
This is especially the case when you’re working the hours I was.
I’m not saying you should go and ask everyone you know to make you dinner.
Like a good roller coaster, the second you get off you want to hop back on.
There’s a good chance they’ll disappear forever if you don’t.
Photos byMayrum,OpenClips,Nic McPhee,atl10trader
