The last couple of weeks here in Book Land have been fairly uneventful—in a good way. I wrote two more profiles, both of which I had thought would be quick and easy, yet each of which required more nuanced thought and finessing than I had anticipated. Add in three unexpected days away due to our extended power outage from the Big Storm, and I’ve been slightly less productive than I had hoped. But that’s okay. I’ve written over 100 book pages already!
Because I’m so focused on the writing, I sometimes lose track of the big picture, and periodically I like to get out of the weeds and have a strategic planning meeting to regroup and make sure we’re on the right track. Dave and I had one of those meetings this morning, though if anyone overheard it, they might have mistaken it for a good ol’ knock-down-drag-out. But it was all for good end. There’s this one incredible interview we did a few weeks ago, and I keep putting aside the writing and picking other ones to do in the meantime. I finally figured out this morning that we had put this person in the wrong chapter. We didn’t know all the details of her story, and had thought she’d be great on a particular topic, but when we actually did the interview and learned more about her, the fit wasn’t right, and it’s been bothering me. It dawned on me that her story is perfect for another chapter. So we did a little reshuffling (and yelling) and every time we do that, it makes the book even stronger. I’m so happy with these tweaks as the book evolves, and I think that despite his occasional bellowing and eye-rolling, David is too.
We started brainstorming about cover design this weekend with our friend, a brilliant photographer, and we’ve got some cool ideas. We also both started working out because at some point we’re probably going to have to do author photos, and somehow, I don’t think a picture of the back of my head or my lovely pedicure will fly on the back flap. Plus my assssss is so big, I needed 6 s’s just to spell it, and I was getting worried that one day I’d stand up and it would be stuck between the arms of my chair. And then people would point and laugh and call me “Chair Butt,” so I thought a daily visit to the treadmill would be more tolerable.
Caught up with our editor this morning, and she’s intrigued by some of the stuff we told her as far as content. She always says how much people liked reading the disguised case studies in our last book, and this one will be even more appealing, since it features actual people talking about themselves. Also found out we will have discretion over page design and layout, which I thought was simply FONTastic news, of course.
One other thing I’m trying to do is keep a list of people who’ve been particularly supportive of the project (and me!) in one way or another so I can thank them in the Acknowledgements. I figured it was easier to do it along the way than to try to remember (and risk forgetting someone) at the weary end.
And oh yeah. There’s a person we’ve had in mind all along as our long-shot “dream” interview, and today was the Big Ask. I am thrilled to report that this person gave us an instant yes! Guess all you want, kids, my lips are sealed until after our meeting!