And Another ONE!

Greetings!

It is great having you here to read.  I hope all is well with you.  I’m doing the best that I can.  I apologize for not posting this blog yesterday.

The Musical selection for October 28, 2011 was Common’s They Say loop.  Yes, it was one of those days!

On October 27, 2011 I ended at 117 pages.  I stayed up after 12 AM (28OCT11) and managed to write 4 more pages to connect various parts of the story together. 

Sleep.

I broke out the drawing pad to take some notes.  Then I reread twenty pages to make sure I wrote the last paragraph/pages to finish the book.  I put the headphones on and played the They Say loop.  The “Writin’ for my life ‘cause I’m scared of a day job/God’ll never give me nothing I can’t handle” lyrics kept repeating in my ear as I got closer to the finish line.

I found the right place to add another paragraph or two to the book and things were finished.

FINISHED

I started this book on October 3, 2011.  I had 7 pages from years ago and 2 pages from the last book that I finished on October 2, 2011.  I took those nine pages and ended up writing another 112.
WOOT!

It’s hard to express how this experience has been for me.  I am so happy I started this blog to document the process and progress I made over the last 25 days.  25 days.  I can write a book in 25 days!  I feel blessed.  I feel like I am living out my true calling. I feel empowered, and I also think I could still shave a few days off if I didn’t procrastinate by reading a few other books and taking days off from writing. 

I’m guessing I could write one book in 18 days.  But, I like my process.  I like the flexibility of it. I enjoy the thinking aspect of writing. I need to have some breaks to allow me to walk away from the book for a few hours or a day.  I need to have certain conversations with people that can be random and silly and odd and...

Now I keep wondering what I will do next.  I have a great idea for the next book, but I have things that are going to require more of my attention.  Maybe I’ll just plot it out in my drawing book so I have some goals in case I find some random time to write.  Maybe I’ll start connecting those Common Core standards to the books I’ve written.   

Before I close this post, I want to thank all of you that checked in during this journey.  I really wanted people to watch and witness this project take shape.  I want to thank you for keeping me going on days when I felt like I could just relax and take some time off.  I realized that someone might be coming to see what I was able to create.  I’d also like to thank the classrooms that invited me to join their learning communities and talk about writing.  Lastly, I want to thank those that I was able to talk about life and writing with over the course of the last month.  Having people to bounce thoughts off of and share laughs with is an important part of my process. 

I’ve mentioned that this was the hardest book I’ve ever written.  It is great to know that I can tackle these issues and continue to push forward.

Thanks.

STEADY!