A Reflection on Writing

And how I'm doing on the manuscript that's due in November

August has been a bit of a tough month to keep the writing up. I’ve debated back and forth about whether I should put the Substack (this one, and my career advice one “After Hours”) on hold while I write the book. But it kind of feels like not doing a weekly 5K just because I’m training for a marathon. It’s all additive, right? It’s all building the same muscle.

So I persist.

As you can see, I was making pretty good progress when last week — it stalled at around 70 pages, and then actually — if you can believe it — went backwards. Oh my god. See, when I’m writing I always keep a “leftover” pile of words at the end of the document. I’ve been hesitant to delete it. I was attached to the vanity of the word count. The words weren’t right, but I kept them there, like a safety blanket.