The first two days were great. The excitement of a new project. So many support messages. 

I thought I have all the time in the world to write. 

I didn’t want to give up any of my regular commitments. I wanted to continue to write one article a day. Continue to make a sketch a day. Keep my appointments. Keep watching TV at night. Vacuum clean the house, iron the clothes, cook, and do the dishes. 

I had written more than 10,000 words in two days. I was on the mark, wasn’t I?

I woke up on Day 3 and the panic started setting in. I had been working on the assumption that by writing 5000 words a day I will finish the first draft by the end of Day 4. 

The problem was I had only written three chapters. They, too, were incomplete. Four chapters were absolute blank. 

No problem! I will write two chapters a day and will be done by tomorrow. I told myself. 

When you are in panic mode; your productivity decreases dramatically. 

If I tried to write, I worried about editing. And when I edited, I worried about writing. 

Frustrated, I tried to document all this struggle in the Diary chapter of the book. The Diary is the eighth chapter of the book where I am documenting all the struggles I am going through while writing the book. I hadn’t figured a consistent way to write it and it was all over the place. Two hours later, after almost a complete rewrite, I fixed the Diary chapter.

Cover Design

I had some good feedback on the cover design from Medium readers. Mid-morning I shortlisted three covers based on the feedback and sent them to social media to pick the final winner.

Image by the author

Running to the appointment.

I had an appointment around mid-day, which in my infinite wisdom, I thought I could make it. 

I drove like mad to get there. I made it on time. But the lady at the parlor was running twenty minutes late. 

I don’t have extra twenty minutes, damn it! 

That was then I realize, if I want to keep my commitment, I will have to cancel all the appointments and concentrate only on the project. Completely.

I rescheduled and came back home. Half of the day was already gone. I had two chapters to write and an article for Medium.

I calmed myself somehow and worked on the Outline chapter. While writing the chapter, I did the second level outlining the whole book. That really shaped the book. I finally figured out how to structure the book properly. That also showed me where I need to spend more time and which bits have gone too long.

Recap

The total word count at the end of the day is 13526. I only managed 3000 words today. But one more chapter is done (or partially done).

I am hoping to catch up tomorrow. I am planning to populate all the chapters, even if partially. Then use the last three days for editing.

Photo by Perfecto Capucine on Unsplash

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