FOUR MORE TO GO!

Okay... I'm trying to contain myself, but knowing I only have four more chapters to write in this book until I'm finished has me standing up and jumping off my desk chair. Four chapters! Can you believe it? This morning I did the edits on the chapter I wrote yesterday and this afternoon, I start Chapter Thirty-Six!!!!!! Yahooooo!

Of course, if you're a writer, you're probably snickering at me. Yeah, I've only got four more chapters to write, but then I'll have about forty to edit, and then when a publisher gets their hands on it, I'll probably have to practically rewrite the whole thing, recheck my facts, and get my photos in order and then edit some more, so you're thinking, don't jump too high on that chair, baby!

Yeah, yeah. I know. But, please let me bask in the fact that I almost have a forty chapter book actually written. Words committed to a page. Chapters actually completed, and with a point. Historical facts corralled and put to good use. A good man's life chronicled on paper. Thousands and thousands of keystrokes that went somewhere. And, finally, I'm on the home stretch. The words are out of me and are on the page.

Four more to go!

Have you ever written on a long project? If so, why don't share your technique from interviewing, to plotting, to organizing notes, to research, to writing. How do you do it? A couple of years ago, I went to the writer's conference at Mount Hermon, CA. A wonderful conference that I high recommend. Anyway, while there I took a class by writer, Jim Denny. He is a collaborative non-fiction author who writes all of Pat William's books. He's also collaborated with Reggie White on his story and several others. During the course of the week, Jim taught me how to organize my project in a way that made it manageable. So, right now on my office wall are six columns of Post-It notes plastered on it. Each column represents a section of the book, and each section has from five to ten sticky notes in a column, each representing a chapter. On the notes is a brief description of what that chapter is about. As I'm writing the book, it has been great to look up at my 'writing wall' to see at a glance where I'm at. At times, I've had to rearrange them, when I've decided to switch a chapter to another section, but that was easily done...since they're only Post-It notes and not stuck on the wall with something like Gorilla Glue--- you know what I'm saying?

Anyway, that's one of my tricks? Care to share one of yours? I'd love to hear from you. Happy writing, friends... and repeat after me...FOUR MORE TO GO! FOUR MORE TO GO!