So when it comes to things that have been happening lately, it can be said that over the last four months or so, I've been busy with my projects (book & piano). Even though I haven't been updating this blog, I've still been working hard on them.
Book-wise, the last time I updated this blog - roughly 100 days ago - that was when I thought I was more or less finished with the project. I thought it was ready to be sent to the publishers and that there wouldn't be that much polishing to be done anymore.
In reality though, once I took another look at the manuscript after I got the third draft done, it didn't take long before I noticed that there was still things left to be fixed. Me having worked on the project for like eighteen months or so still wasn't enough.
Story-wise and structure-wise, there haven't really been any real problems with the overall story. The story in general - there are nine chapters in the book - has been pretty solid ever since I managed to get the first draft finished a year ago.
Rewriting-wise, the real challenge has been with trying to make the reading experience as smooth and as entertaining as possible. Even though I have a good story, smaller things like details, exposition and descriptions take a lot of work and effort to get right.
Indeed, as I kept working on the fourth draft, I tried so hard to make sure that every page in the book would work. I tried to make sure that every sentence would finally be good enough and that there wouldn't be anything in the script that didn't feel right anymore.
Piano-wise (my other ongoing project), it can be said that I've also been very active with getting better at playing the instrument. I've played every day, which has not only been therapeutical but has also helped tremendously to get in the mood to write (I always play piano first).
Song-wise, the last four months or so I've been practicing the theme from 'Oppenheimer'. The piece 'Can you hear the music' has helped me to learn things like musical scales, arpeggios, correct finger positions and playing really fast (like super fast).
Not surprisingly, it has taken a huge amount of practice to be able to play the song properly, but since I've been super patient, I've gotten a lot better in the process. Currently I can play the piece almost as well as professional pianists do.
So based on these things, when it comes to my projects as a whole, I think it can be said that things look pretty good at the moment. Pretty much everything looks good (I've done my very best), even though it hasn't always been easy to keep things going on.
After all, especially when you consider that my primary job has been rather demanding lately (working with violent kids, having had some staffing issues), that's been an issue too. I haven't always had that much energy to get excited about things in my life.
Still, now that my next step in the writing project is to send the book to the publishers, I think I should be at least somewhat proud of myself. I've done my best with the project and hopefully the book is good enough to be published at some point.
