Updates to my book project & other stuff

So when it comes to things that I've done lately, the last I time updated my blog in July, I wrote that my book was finally almost finished. I mentioned that I would only need to do some minor polishing and that otherwise the manuscript was ready to be sent to the publishers.

After all, since I had worked on the second draft for six months, that amount of work 'had' to mean that I had managed to get almost everything sorted out in the story. There's no way that the third draft would take more than a month at most. 

In reality though, once I started working on the third draft, it turned out that I had to spend not one month, but three months to get the draft finished. I had no idea that it would take that much effort to fix the stuff and make the story work.

So when it comes to the reasons that I wasn't finished, the biggest reason was that when I wrote the second draft, I wasn't able to see the 'problems' in the story. I was still inflating the word count and thinking that everything that I wrote made sense.

Indeed, once I started working on the third draft, I noticed that even though I hadn't made any massive mistakes, I had things to do: 1) either trim or completely cut scenes or 2) expand certain scenes that weren't long enough and needed padding. 

Not that surprisingly, this cutting and expanding took a lot of effort. Mistakes like having overdescribed situations, having too many inner thoughts, having too many different topics discussed / visiting too many locations when characters traveled were tough to edit out.

Cutting-wise, especially when it came to certain 'kill your darlings' moments, it wasn't that easy to let go of these parts. I tried everything to spare them, moved them around and gave up on them only when it was obvious that they just didn't fit in.

Fortunately, as I kept diligently going and wrote everyday, even though I wasn't feeling great, I kept progressing steadily. I knew that every change was needed and knew that I would reach the finish line, no matter how long it would take.

 

So thankfully, a week ago I finally managed to reach the last page of the manuscript after spending three months writing at least an hour every day. I managed to get third draft done (103 000 words total), which is an okay accomplishment considering the circumstances.

After all, even though I rarely spent more than ninety minutes per day writing, it wasn't like I didn't have other things going on in my life. These things, like challenging work, practicing piano every day etc. meant that I had to be smart with how I allocated my free time.

In that sense, when it comes to what is going to happen next, I hope that once I'll soon send the manuscript to the publishers, hopefully I'm almost finished with the book. I hope that it wouldn't require that much tweaking anymore. 

After all, when you consider how much time I've spent on this project, I think I've spent almost six hundred days writing the book. That's a lot of time to spend on a project considering that I'm used to writing tv specs that usually take like two or three weeks to write.

Still, considering how much effort my third draft took against my expectations, you never know how things go. It's possible that there's still some things to do, so I'd better not get too confident about how completed the book is in its current form.

I got the second draft of my book finished.

So when it comes to my life, over the last couple of months I (once again) haven't been updating this blog. I've been busy trying to get my ongoing projects completed so that I could feel that I have managed to get real things done. 

The biggest project has been my book that I had worked on for almost eighteen months. I had worked on this 'World War 2' adventure book since early 2022 and had spent considerable amount of time making sure it would be as good as possible.

Other projects that I had included getting a degree (so that I could officially work with kids) and my piano project that I've been working on diligently. My goal is to become a solid pianist (as good as possible), which takes a lot of effort and hard work.

So when it comes to my book project, it can be said that we're very close to sending it to publishers. I finished the second draft of the book a week ago, e-mailed the draft to my 'professional reader' friend and decided to take a small break until he gives me his notes.

Length-wise, during this rewrite the book went from 90000 words (adjusted to English language) to roughly 106000. Especially when it comes to the first chapters, that's where I needed to add stuff so that the story would have a better flow and be consistent style-wise. 

Rewrite-wise, even though I didn't have to make any critical changes to the story, I had to (try to) fix a lot of things. This meant rewriting and rearranging scenes and sentences, coming up with new ideas that worked and getting rid of stuff that wasn't good enough.

Fortunately, even though I haven't completely read the second draft from start to finish, it looks that not that much work is required anymore. Hopefully I mostly have to work on some transitions (where the characters travel) and fix some minor stuff.

School-wise, the good thing is that I managed to get my degree completed so I don't have to spend energy on that once my work resumes next month. It gives me a bit more options and I can also substitute as a teacher in case someone needs my services.

Music-wise, not that surprisingly, I managed to keep my practice routine going by selecting songs that interested me. I learned to play stuff like Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' on piano, which helped improve my overall technique (especially older songs that I practice). 

In that sense, when it comes to things as a whole, it can be said that things have been going rather well lately. Besides those other things, I'm finally getting the book finished, which is probably the most important thing right now (even though those other things matter too). 

Still, there's the question of what is going to happen next with the book and whether it's going to be published. Even though the story in it is rather entertaining and well written, that might not be enough - since I'm not an existing celebrity that the publishers prefer.

In that sense, if things won't eventually go my way, I should look on the bright side of things. I should do that because even though I don't know whether the book will be published, I still worked diligently on it, didn't give up at any point and managed to get it eventually completed.

Updates to my book project & music stuff.

So when it comes to my ongoing projects, during the last few months I haven't been posting any updates on this site. This is mostly because I haven't had that much energy to write about my projects and how well I have managed to make progress with them. 

Indeed, when my five week practical training period started in late January, my daily schedule was genuinely tight. This meant that I had very little free time once I had managed to get my daily things done during the day.

By that I mean is that once I came back from work at 5.30 pm, I had roughly five hours time to make dinner, play piano, rewrite the book and exercise before I had to be in bed. This didn't seem easy at first and required a lot of discipline from me. 

Thankfully, even though I had my doubts, during this period I managed to keep all my projects going. I managed to rewrite my book and play piano pretty much every day, even though I was super exhausted at the end of the work week.

Progress-wise, considering that I wrote every day, you might assume that I finally managed to rewrite the book from start to finish and have sent the manuscript to the publishers. Certainly one would think that three more months was enough to get the job done. 

In reality though, even though I've written more or less every day during these last three months, I haven't completed the rewrite. I still have one and half chapters to go - out of nine - before the book is going to be in a 'good enough' shape.  '

Rewrite-wise, during the latter half of the book I was surprised how much rewriting many of the scenes required. Even though I had the right idea about how the scenes were supposed to be written, they still required a lot of polishing. 

Indeed, individual scenes had a lot of pacing issues that really hurt the flow of the story. I had to get rid of a lot of sentences or paragraphs that didn't work (dialogue or description) and fix them in a way that would keep the reader immersed in the story. 

Fortunately, considering my patience and the hard work I've done with the book, it looks like these setbacks haven't been to severe. My estimation is that the book is going to be finished before my summer vacation starts, which is less than six weeks away. 

Music-wise, I've managed to keep my routine going too and have managed to learn three new songs. These are 'The Last of Us' theme, Tom Chaplin's 'Somewhere only we know' and the super popular 'As it was' by Harry Styles. 

The good thing about practicing advanced versions of these songs is that they've once again helped to improve my basic technique. Even though the progress is almost unbelievably slow at this point, I still get better as long as I patiently practice playing these songs. 

In that sense, when you consider all the things that I've done lately, I think it can be said that I've been pretty active with my projects. I shouldn't be too hard on myself just because writing the book has taken more effort than I had thought at first.

After all, even though I'm most definitely getting tired of the whole thing and that I'm also tired of getting my school work done, I need to keep pushing. I need to keep working diligently because I'm not that far from getting things finished.

In that sense, whatever is going to happen once I'm done with the book and have received my degree, I can worry about that stuff later. I can worry later about whether the book is going to be published and what I'm going to do next semester with my new degree. 

Things that I've been doing lately.

So when it comes to all those things that I've been doing during the last couple of months, it has to be said that I've been pretty busy with my projects. I've tried my best to keep my routines going so that I could get things done and accomplish my goals. 

Indeed, since I have had all kinds of 'artistic' projects going in addition to me studying and working part time, that hasn't been an easy equation to solve. I've needed to keep myself in a good shape both physically and mentally so that positive things could happen.

In any case, when it comes to me studying and working, last week I started doing morning shifts at school as a teacher's assistant (requirement for my degree). This, I thought (lasts 5 weeks) would be very tough and something that might cause me some problems. 

After all, considering that I would now do 9 hour shifts (4 hours at school, 5 hours at the afternoon club), it would be difficult to get everything done during the day. I wasn't confident that I would have the energy to do stuff like write or play piano after work.

Fortunately, the morning shifts have been easier than I had expected. Unlike in the afternoon club that can be a nightmare, here the kids (no special needs kids in my class) are much nicer and the teacher (very good) is the one who is primarily in charge of things.

So when it comes to those other things I've been doing, piano-wise, I've been actively practicing every single day. I've added some new songs to my 'catalogue' (video killed the radio star) and have tried to relearn some of the older melodies that I had already managed to forget.

Instrument-wise, it has to be mentioned that a couple of days ago I bought myself a new piano. This electric piano (Roland fp 60x) is a solid instrument that not only sounds good but has weighed keys that feel authentic and help improve my overall technique.

Writing-wise, I've also been really busy lately (hence no updates here) and have been rewriting my WW2-based adventure book that I've been writing for over a year now. I finished the first draft in early December and have been rewriting the book ever since. 

Not surprisingly, the rewriting part hasn't been that much fun. At least in my case, I get tired really fast, and considering that I initially wrote the first two chapters as a 50% novel / 50% story-based game, I had more than enough stuff to rewrite.

Fortunately, even though I have had to add content to the first half (word count up by 10%) and I've had some things that I've had to fix (pacing), it hasn't been that impossible to do. I have just needed to take things one day at a time and not worry about the project too much.

In that sense, when it comes to things as a whole and how my projects + life are going at the moment, I guess it can be said that things are going relatively well. I have stuff to do that I find to be interesting and that keep my mind busy during the day. 

After all, it cannot be overstated how much meaning and purpose these projects keep giving me. It's genuinely great that every day I know that as long as I keep my routines going and don't give up, I'm going to get better and even get to finish something potentially solid stuff.

Still, once I'll eventually get this rewrite finished (likely one more month to go) and am ready to send the manuscript to the publishers, I hope that something good is going to happen. I hope that all the hard work is going to pay off somehow.

After all, even though it's hard to predict how things are going to go, I think I have created something solid here. The book is rather entertaining and since it has aspects in it that others usually find interesting, it should have a chance of becoming a success.