Apologies for the ongoing delays in completing book one, but this latest round of drafts is a little like starting from scratch with a whole new central focus to bring it all into context. The general subject of the book is the same, but the style is entirely different ( having gotten some things off my chest in the first few rounds of drafts, which I can now throw in the trash where they belong ).
The first few chapters of part one have been quite difficult to establish, as they’re the basis for everything that follows, and so I need to get them exactly right, or as near to that as possible, and I’ve been carrying around multiple prior drafts with notes scribbled all over them, plus additional notes written on other pieces of paper — gradually sorting, editing, and incorporating all these things into the new draft.
So anyway, it is very slow going still, but I am more confidently progressing through and past the first chapters now, and I’m expecting things to speed up slightly as I whittle down the remaining material that needs to be included.
Another difficulty has been finding people to read and provide feedback, and the speed with which they actually get around to doing it — which leaves me wondering whether I’m on the right track with my presentation and explanations.
If you’ve been in Melbourne or aware of the weather here, a few weeks of quite hot temperatures from the mid-30s into the high 40s leaves my room upstairs extremely ( and in fact unbearably ) hot, such that I need the air-conditioning running 24/7 to make it bearable, and I’m going cabin crazy from being stuck indoors, which doesn’t help my motivation to write, even when I have enforced opportunity — ie: nothing else I can do.
A great deal of the effort involved in these first few chapters, is in carefully defining and arranging a bunch of related terminology, which sets the foundations on which all else rests, so its vital to get it exactly right.
Where my audience is unknown to me, and could range from the extremely well educated academic, with firmly reasoned but potentially partially contrary views — at one end of the spectrum — through to the layperson, with potentially no relevant academic background at all, and perhaps even contrary, but irrational, not well reasoned, but equally firmly held beliefs — at the other end — THEREFORE I’m trying to simultaneously educate the uninitiated reader, while reframing the perspective of the well educated, and keeping both ends of the spectrum entertained.
I know the above would be a lot easier if I just focused on one audience, but I don’t want to assume any background of the most important readers, and while I’ve never expected this was going to be a huge money spinner ( I’ll be pleasantly surprised if it is ), focusing on only one audience isn’t going to help sales, and I do need the money.
So anyway, that’s the update for now, at a guess I’d say I will have this draft of book one part one finished in the next month or two, which puts me on track to having the whole book completed by year’s end — hopefully book two will be written a lot faster with the availability of new resources from sales of book one.