Write A Book

Here’s what I do. I determine that I’m going to tackle a big project. I mean this one is simply huge for me. It’s something that’s been in the works, I think, for a long time, just sort of percolating away, but the idea of doing this is daunting.

Write another book.

This one will be on how to channel. It’s obviously for a very small audience, but I think it has a place in the arena of books out there already. Plus, I’m funny. Well, sort of. One of the guides just said, “Huh?”

Oh, I have to tell you at the grocery store this evening the line was just inching along and I had time to look at the magazines on display. I zeroed in on this one with lots of stuff to look at. I can’t tell you the name of it; it was just there and caught my eye. So, I took it off the rack and flipped it open and happened upon an article of how to look pretty. I spent about a nano second on this article. My first impression was that these were all very young ladies and all of them were already very pretty. My next impression was of one of the tips that had to do with applying makeup. I don’t wear it. Anyway, with a sigh I knew that particular article was certainly not for me. No hope here. Old, fat, ugly and do not wear makeup. No hope. Not that it bums me out or anything. It used to when I was younger, (and a site prettier than now), but I’m pretty much okay with being ugly. Anyway, as I reached to return the magazine to the rack one of the guides said, “The quickest way to be pretty is with a smile.”

Sometimes my heart stops with the stuff they say.

Anyway, back to writing the book. What I tend to do with the larger projects is to whittle away at them from afar. Like I'm doing everything but work on the book right now. I've farted around on the Internet for awhile. I did spend my lunch time yesterday writing some notes out about it. I know there's already a lot of material on the subject at several of my sites, but I want to pull it all together and I want to start fresh with the writing.

I guess I could think about it here for a few minutes. Sort of muttering aloud on the blog.

Okay....so, I suppose I should think about size of book. I'd like to be able to hold it in one hand. I'd also like there to be enough room for somebody to write comments in the margins. I guess a 6 x 9 inch or so book would be okay. That's not too big. Not too small either.

Okay, so how thick? Okay...forget that. I just turned around and looked for a book the size I can envision for what I want to do. I hauled, "A Traveller's History of Scotland" off of the bookshelf behind me. It's 5 inches wide, 7 and 3/4 inch high and a little more than half an inch thick. The print in it is too small though. Okay, on average about 12 words to the line. I remember that number from another time I was figuring how long to make a book. And, 36 lines to the page for an average of 432 words per page. For rough count lets call it 425 words a page. Okay, so there are 239 pages in this particular book. Just because I feel like it I'm going to move with 222 pages because that's my special number. Okay...that is 94,350 words. My first novel was 75,000 words and that took me 3 years to write. But, I can't really base any of this on the labor involved with that because it was the first time I'd ever done anything like this and I also didn't know what I was doing. Not that I know now, but I know a little bit more. Also, this isn't a work of fiction but will be a how to book. That should be easier. Especially since I already know how to do it.

Okay, so a book of 94,000 words. Figure I write 1,000 words a day and it will take me 94 days or 3 months to complete. Right. Like I'm going to write 1,000 words every day. I could try though. I could try.

The guides were the ones who suggested I do it. They said I could aim for my birthday to have it done. That's September 1st. That's 4 months from now. I suppose I could do it.

Okay, so 94,000 words. How to break it up?

If I had 15 chapters about how many words per chapter...about 6,200. I'm talking rough here. Don't have to count words...count pages. Okay, so I know when I'm writing in Word I get about 600 words to the page that would be 10 pages per chapter. I'd have to do a few to see if it works.

I suppose I ought to be thinking about content about now. I'm really not sure that I can talk enough to fill this book up.

For this I need my special crayons. New ones. Fresh out of the box and a big old piece of paper. I'll take a picture of it when I'm done.

What I do is draw a big circle. In the middle of the circle I put the main thrust of the book. Then, the ideas begin to radiate out from the center. I'll do it tomorrow and post it to the blog.

And, I will sweep my desk off so I can be really clear about this. I think this might be fun. God knows I need some fun right now.