Book Progress Report: October 2021

Hello everyone! I’ve come back briefly to talk about the progress of my book. It’s going to be hard to talk about some aspects of progress since I’m not ready to reveal the topic of my book. It’s so annoying to write vaguely about the process of writing, but I’ll try my best. First observation, transitioning from writing a book back to writing a short form meta blog post is really hard. So apologies if this doesn’t come across as my most coherent writing.

As I’m writing this, the word count is over 46,000 words and I’m only on section 2. This time last month, my word count was about 37,000 words. I am currently stuck on one really long chapter that involves about 60 years of music history (sorry to be vague). It’s a very important chapter that requires a lot of research so I’ve read a bunch of books and watched a bunch of documentaries related to the topic of the chapter and at this point, I think I know this topic pretty well by heart and can easily sum it up. I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this chapter, but I’m going to have to go back to section 1 and write one more chapter. One thing I find a lot when I’m researching about classic rock is I’ll think that I have covered everything and I’ve written pretty much everything, but there’s always more and a lot to learn and this angle I’m looking at of classic rock, there’s always something new to learn and I found out about this story on Twitter of all places. Never underestimate the power of social media! I love that I am learning more, but on the other hand that means more to write. Let me tell you this, I’m making sure this book is worth every single penny and will be a great read.

Time management is always a struggle. Writing can’t be 100% my life and I have other things keeping me busy. One thing that I’m doing a lot is going to the gym. About 2 years ago I was at my heaviest and I was like look, gotta nip this in the bud so I’m going to get back on track with my eating, add a bit of exercise and I’m back to looking how I did before the weight gain, so I’m really proud of myself. All I know is that after writing this book, I’m going to need a well-deserved break. One thing I’m doing right now is putting a lot of other blog stuff on the back burner, which sucks because I love working on the blog, but this book needs my attention and I don’t want to be pulled in so many directions and look like this, oh wait I already feel like this as it is: #adulting

Another thing I’m finding is I’m not posting so much on social media, so I’m not only silent here, I’m also silent on social media. Social media is a cesspit sometimes and not the best for my mental health. Comparisons galore! Gotta keep up with the joneses. Bad news here and there. Does anyone actually feel good when they finish scrolling through social media? Anyway, I still struggle with anxiety and depression and I think being less active on social media generally has been a good idea. It’s certainly not hurting.

Also on my mind besides writing and exercising is my citizenship application. I’ve been living in Ireland for close to 5 years now and it’s about time I get citizenship. And the other nice thing is having an EU passport so I can travel across Europe more easily. What a nice perk! Hopefully soon I’ll get to travel again. I love classic rock, but what I really live for is travelling. Unlike a lot of other people I know who write about music, I don’t miss concerts. I miss travelling even more. Concerts tend to give me anxiety, as much as I love music. All I want right now is a relaxing trip where I can look at some nice scenery and eat good food. Once I get my passport back, I’m making up for lost time. Alexa play “This Time Tomorrow”!

One thing I observed while writing a book is that it’s really hard to feel accomplished and like I’m doing a lot because blog posts are shorter chunks and are published a lot quicker for me in that “first draft only draft” (but still paying close attention to details and doing good research) way. It kind of reminds me of cleaning your room after you haven’t cleaned it in a while. It’s a daunting task, but when you break it up into little chunks it’s not so bad. As my dad always tells me, one step at a time. Maybe my approach should be take this book chapter by chapter and I’ve completed 11 chapters, with most of chapter 12 written! That’s nothing to sneeze at.

Anyway, I gotta get back to writing! Perhaps there might be some nice blog content soon. We’ll see! Until next time!