On Writing Non-Fiction - 9

One of the outcomes as you write a first draft manuscript - like my current book project - is that you might find yourself doing some re-writing. That's where I found myself as I settled in for a few hours of writing between Saturday and Sunday of this weekend. Now, my rule of thumb is not to edit when completing a first draft but to focus on just writing - getting your general thoughts, ideas and insights onto paper. That rule still applies. Editing is different from re-writing in that editing is piecemeal fixing of written words, sentences and paragraphs. Re-writing is a wholesale engineering change of a section or sometimes an entire chapter. That's where I found myself this weekend - having completed the tail end of Chapter Two - I started Chapter Three. However, in the mix I had another revelation on a key concept and re-worked it - so I really spent most of the weekend re-writing whole sections of Chapter Two instead of getting a healthy start on Chapter Three. And that's the way it goes with writing. The chapter is now better for the re-write - at least in my opinion anyway - we'll see what my editor things later.

So, from a word count perspective - the introduction is at 2,754 words, chapter one is 4,265 words (and I think there will be a bit more to come in the second draft), and chapter two has 5,607 words after the re-write. So with less than a quarter of the book drafted, we're at 12,626 words with another 5 or so chapters to go.

As for my timeline - 2018 came and went without a first draft completed as planned. I've got to re-work the book schedule around 2019 and hope I get my act together and get this first draft done. Fear not, there are several drafts to go but like making your first million $, the first draft is the toughest.