I survived the holiday weekend.  I took off the 4th, didn’t even really think about the book, but Friday, Sunday, and Monday, I exceeded my daily page goal, so I’m making good progress.  Chapter six is coming along pretty nicely, and I like the direction everything is going.  I finish my summer school class tonight and turn in grades tomorrow, so my plan is to spend the next month really busting my butt to get up to chapter eight and maybe even nine before school starts back.  I’ll have to slow way down in the fall because of my teaching schedule, but if I can get up to eight or nine by then, I can still finish the rough draft by January.

Then comes the real work, the polishing and editing.  For this book, I plan to spend a good five to six months editing each chapter, each scene, and each sentence.  I want this book to be the best so far, and what separates mediocre writing from good and good from great is the willingness to polish and rewrite, so for this book I plan to work with a couple of editors and spend as much time as it takes to get it right.

I know several of you want it done as soon as possible, but I’d rather take my time and get it right, than rush it and disappoint.

www.thirdaxe.com

I write at night and always have.  My creative window stretches from about 11:00 PM until around 4:00 AM.  I’ve tried writing at other times, but I just never feel comfortable, and the writing doesn’t flow very well.  Over the years, I’ve trained myself to work within this window and still function fairly well in my day-to-day life.  If I have to work early the next morning, I start as early as possible and lose an hour or two of sleep that night.  If I don’t have to work, I might stay up until four or five in the morning, and on those nights, I’ll sleep until noon.  That might sound strange to some, but it works for me.

My ex-wife never understood this.  She complained all the time that I should write in the day and sleep a normal schedule.  My parents don’t understand it, either.  They’re from that generation that believes people should rise with the sun.  Anyone who sleeps late must be lazy and good for nothing.  They don’t seem to understand that I’m very productive on that schedule.  When I’m working on a book, I will write five to six nights a weeks, and when I’m writing, I don’t sit around staring off into space.  I’m deeply engaged in concentration, and it’s exhausting.

If I can ever get to the point where I’m writing full-time, my creative window won’t matter very often because I won’t have to get up for a day job.  Until I get to that point, I’ll keep plugging away and losing a little sleep every now and then.  As long as the end result is a good book, it doesn’t really matter.

www.thirdaxe.com