June 23, 2009
Making book
Here’s how to write a nonfiction book. First, you gather your materials.
A bookcase full of author biographies and collections of anecdotes.
Two drawers of file folders containing material gathered over last ten years.A hard drive stuffed with nearly 2,000 files: notes from books, snippets from other sources, articles downloaded off the Internet.
Out of this has to be boiled down to a 60,000-word manuscript, due by November 15. OK. Deep breath. Don’t panic. Take it one day at a time. Or as Annie Lamont says, “Bird by Bird.” I can do this. I’ve got an office under the basement stairs, a computer with cable Internet, and iTunes packed with music.
Let’s rock.
For the next five months, I’ll describe the process of writing “Writers Gone Wild.” It’ll probably be rough and unpleasant, but it might shed some light on the creative process, messy and disjointed as it is, its highs and lows.
This series of posts will focus almost entirely on my side of the desk. My editor and agent will remain anonymous, and will be rarely mentioned. I don’t wish to make them uncomfortable, wondering if anything they say or write to me will appear online. So I’m drawing a bright line: they will not appear.
So here’s what’s happening today, June 23:
At this point, the manuscript is at about 13,000 words, nearly 25 percent. I’m behind for the week and it’s only Tuesday. Wrote two brief essays for the web site yesterday and gathered notes from O’Hara biography because the book had to go back to the library (interliberary loans can only be checked out once; sudden inspiration, I can check it out in my wife’s name. We both have separate cards!). Must remember.
In addition to this week’s essays, there are other tasks to be performed. The book will need a bibliography, so I need to build it as I’m writing. There are a ton of sources: books, newspaper articles, online material. All to be carefully delineated: title, author, publisher, copyright date, link. Possibly 600+ sources, easily.
In addition, there are corrections and comments from the Editor to be reviewed and integrated into the manuscript. To keep ahead of the curve, I’m sending in sections of the manuscript as they are finished. This lets me get early feedback to follow while writing later sections of the book.
One slight problem: Publisher uses previous edition of Word; I use Word 2007. We also need to keep track of the changes. So I’ll have the Master Manuscript, and the section I’m working on. I’ve never worked with Word before, so I’m feeling uncomfortable about this. Fortunately, I have a great reference, “Using Microsoft Office Word 2007,” and I have people to ask for help should I need it.
I’m probably worrying too much, but there’s plenty to be worried about. I need to keep up the pace, keep up the quality, keep track of everything and get it done on time. And I know that that’s what depressive personalities do: worry.
Then there’s real life. Today, I must finish up early, so we can take the kids to Hersheypark this afternoon. Fortunately, I’m off tomorrow from work, and go in late on Thursday and Friday. Plenty of time to catch up. That’s another good thing about depressives: when I’m confident about something, I’m really confident!
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