I re-read a post I did back in…June. That seems like a lifetime ago that had been flashed away with one of those MIB memory clearer devices. Just when you think you have everything in order, you don’t. This second book has been quite the journey for me. Taken me much longer than I expected (life happens as does procrastination). But I’ve learned a lot along the way that will help me with future projects.
Well…what did I learn?
Writer’s block is bullshit. Procrastination is bullshit (real, but bullshit if you let it be). How do you defeat these seemingly level 99 monsters when you’re a lowly level 5? Find a routine and process that fits you to do the work. It’s that simple and people will ask you for money to tell you that. But when it comes down to it, that’s all it really is. Now, pay up! This second book I’ve learned more about how to approach revisions than ever before. HOST, I kinda ran with it and figured it out as I went. For my second book, I wanted to be a bit more intentional. Funny part was, for all my intentionality I forgot the most important part. NONE of it can be accomplished if I don’t sit down and do the work. To do that I needed a routine and process that worked for me. I love spreadsheets and organized things. So I created a simple spreadsheet to track my effort and time. This is nothing new at all. It’s basically a sheet that tracks when I punched in for work and what I did in the most basic measurement possible: word count per day. I decided 5k words a day for editing. Some days I did 500, some days I did 6k. When I felt I was done I stopped, reviewed what I wanted to get done the next day. Clocked out. Rinse, repeat. It’s so dumb. But having that accountability each day helped. It created momentum and a routine that once I’d done it for two weeks it became second nature. Like I said, this is nothing new. BUT the key is finding the routine and process that works for you. It takes time to find that and fit it in with the rest of life but that’s the only way you can get stuff like this done.
Listen to your editor! For f**k sake, listen to your editor. My editor gave me a little nugget of a suggestion on how to approach my big revision. I had a hard time at first wrapping my brain around it. It wasn’t anything ground breaking but for some reason I was like eh I’ll do it this other way that worked for me the first time (kinda) instead. Which, the first time I had no idea what I was doing so that made sense to do (which it wasn’t). Don’t be a dum dum like me. Halfway through the revision I found myself all over the place and tired. I re-read her notes and said, OK FINE, I’ll try this. Ya, it made more sense, way more sense of an approach to this revision. Grrrr listen to your editor.
Most of all, what I have learned is sometimes it’s okay to take a day and reset. Revision process for novels is a pain in the ass. I love it, I hate it, I love it. I’ve been stuck on a plot issue the last few days, it’s been killing me, driving me nuts and I thought I have no idea how to resolve this. I took a day off. Then sat in a park (it’s actually very very nice out here in Boston in mid September) and started writing some notes down about the issue I needed to resolve. Even writing something as simple as “how” or “why” got this dusty old brain spinning ideas. Sure enough, two hours later of sunshine and brainstorming I have a solution. Something to work with that I can now go back to my routine and crank out. Now, I love it.
Root Access
For my second book I’ve decided to lean in on the self-publishing and create my own publishing imprint. Still working out all the details of operations and how that looks come tax season but I’m very excited about it. Zero Trust will be my first book published through the imprint and I’ll bring HOST over once I figure that out. More to come! Speaking of Zero Trust…
Zero Trust IS coming Spring 2027! I decided to give myself a little more time with this one to make it the best I can. I also want to do a few things I didn’t do with HOST. Pre-orders maybe, merch for both books, and have some extras that go along with the release. I’m excited about all of it, if I can pull it off.
Hockey season is coming! Pulling my beer league team together for a possible three-peat championship run. Looking forward to it and skating again. It’s been two months, so that first game will be fun but exhausting.
That’s it.
