Write Part of My Memoir in November, Day 12: Progress Report
Welcome to Day 12 of my memoir writing challenge, wherein I finally get around to discussing the progress of my memoir.
I bought a plug-in called My Book Progress through Kickstarter to track Getting Naked for Money. So far, trying to install and set up the plug-in did more to impede the progress of my memoir than to spur it. I may or may not have sent everyone subscribing to my blog a progress report. If so, I apologize. I accidentally described myself as being in a research phase. That’s not true.
Anyhoo… I finished a pretty good draft of chapter 12, out of what I plan to be a total of 16 chapters. When I say “pretty good draft,” that means I went over the individual sections maybe 40 times and finally think the chapter coheres. I will probably read it at least two more times until I put it to rest temporarily, to be poked and prodded again when I re-read the entire book.
The goal that I put up on the plug-in is to have a draft of the entire book ready by January 1. I am now thinking that this is crazily ambitious, given the writing habits I’ve just described. I’ve given myself seven weeks to complete four chapters; one is already written, but needs major editing. That’s less than two weeks for each — and 20 more days of blogging about it.
But I like structure, even the panic-inducing kind. Accountability is good.
I’m not sure whether or not the plug-in is going to yell at me if I don’t meet my daily goals. There’s a feature that allows other people to nag me too. I think I’ll pass on that one.
The January 1st deadline will kick your ass but you can do it. You’re so close!