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03/27/2004 Archived Entry: "Nearly finished with the new book"

WHEW. I'm about a day, maybe day-and-a-half, from being finished with the &^%$#! book I've been working on since October. My deadline's this Wednesday, and until a couple of days ago, I didn't think I was going to make it on time. Until just two or three weeks ago, I thought I might not be able to deliver at all.

Not sure why this book was such a struggle, since all the publisher asked for (and all I'm delivering, essentially) is a replacement for 101 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution and Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet) with updated items and some new material. I spent a long time trying to Get Real Clever, but in the end I left the various false paths I'd started down and settled on simplicity.

Both 101 and Don't Shoot contained 101 numbered action items or thought bits. This book is also organized into "bits." I didn't count them as I worked and figured I had maybe 110, 115. Only yesterday afternoon did I number each item header and discover ... 183. (Well, that explains part of the reason the ^%$#@! thing felt like so much work!)

The book still has no title & I somehow think 183 Things to Do 'Til the Revolution just won't do.

A tad bit of cutting, some polishing ... and off it goes to the publisher on Wednesday.

During the final days of the work, TC sent this Winston Churchill quote from a Higher Plane:

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.

Yep. That says it.

This will almost certainly be my last "political" book. I still enjoy being political on the blog and the forums. But no more total immersion.

Posted by Claire @ 08:50 AM CST
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