Prior to the break I took from writing, I was up to 62,000 words in a plan for a single book, which may only have constituted as much as 10% of the finished book; but now on returning to writing, I’ve split the project into 4 books, about half that previous writing was pushed off towards books 2 & 3 ( nothing started on book 4 as yet ), and the other half was kept for book 1, but restructured and rewritten.
So I’ve now just passed the milestone – again – of 62,000 words for book 1 ( but this time of the 4 book series ), and it now constitutes something over the half way point for a first draft.
So I think that’s a fitting end for 2017, I was hoping I’d have the whole thing written by now, but given recent events and challenges, I think I’m doing well. With any luck I’ll have the final draft finished by my birthday, which would make finding an enthusiastic publisher a very good birthday present.
Since a big chunk of book 2 is written, I should be able to get that one finished by mid year, and then the last 2 books hopefully finished by the end of 2018 or shortly after.
To be clear, this first book in the series doesn’t talk much about the vision, it is more about preparing you the reader to not only understand it, but to also understand why, and to have confidence in the veracity of the claims and proposals of the entire project. The reason being that if I do not structure the series in this way, then perfectly valid reasoning can be easily rejected by people who hold beliefs to the contrary, even if such beliefs are inherently wrong – but if on the other hand I explain the science behind it, then it’s going to take a lot more wilful ignorance or belligerence to deny what is being said.
I would imagine that some of my potential audience is already generally on-side, but this strategy is to remove all doubt, and for those whom might read with the intention of criticism, they’ll perhaps think twice and save me the trouble of dealing with whatever stupid things they’d planned to say ( once they realise how easily I could make them look foolish ) … and for others whom may be just genuinely sceptical, I hope it will resolve whatever concerns or reservations they have.
Ideally I would like the book series to both make me some money directly in order to support the ongoing work I wish to do, while also perhaps attracting further direct donations and sponsorships, so that I can accelerate the work even further.