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Monday, October 21, 2024

Book Progress Report: Five new chapters and a home for the very first

A little over two years ago I wrote the first chapter of what was going to be the book I had always intended to write.  It's not one that the reader is supposed to find early on in the tome.  It's actually a chapter that comes in quite late into the book.

For various reasons I needed to write that one first.  It more or less establishes the tone of the work still to come.

As of a few days ago that first chapter written now has its place in the manuscript as a whole.  I didn't have to change a thing to it.  It just slid right into place without any mess at all.

It joins five chapters that I've been able to finish the first drafts of since a week ago today.

So far, it's gone well. I've consistently been composing chapters, around five a week. There have been three significant events in my life that I've been able to reach down deep and write about. I dare not say I'm feeling proud of myself but there is a sense of some accomplishment.

But this, all of this, is still just tip-toeing across the minefield.
 
There is something massive that I haven't come close to beginning to address, in this book. It's about the very worst place that I found myself in because of manic depression. All the grief and pain and worst, that *I* was causing even more horrible things to the people I cared most about.
 
I feel like a coward. How I've been able to work on a little of everything else so far. Except for that.
 
For the past few months I've been doing the best work on this project that I've been able to have since Dad first told me he wanted me to write a book. I'm grateful to have found myself in such a groove. After a very long period of being stuck, there has been a LOT of movement forward.
 
But really, so far I've been doing nothing but pulling rabbits out of my hat.
 
Now it's well past time that I be able to pull out an alligator.
 
 

2 comments:

Grundy said...

Almost there. Almost THERE!!!

So glad you're so committed to this. How many words have you written so far?

Chris Knight said...

As of this evening?

71,441 words.

And I just finished another chapter. This one has a brief appearance by Lee and Richard Petty, make of that what you will.