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On Sunday, September 1st at 3:01 p.m. Central Daylight Time, I typed my 35,907th to complete my latest book.
It is finished!
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Well, not really. But the moment required something dramatic, don’t you think? And I’m a writer—so what did you expect?
Anyway, I’ve got that first shitty draft done, thanks to my old pal JC (see above), and we are only getting started.
If you’re just tuning in, I recently gave myself a personal challenge to write the first draft of my next book in twenty-five days. The goal was a short, punchy book on the craft of writing, something to sort of break the seven-year spell of not writing anything. My intended word count was a meager 25,000 words.
I thought of it sort of as my version of The War of Art.
Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
How It All Went Down
At first, the writing went slow. I’d type a few hundred words, delete a few hundred, and basically end up at the same place as where I started, albeit with a handful of slightly better-sounding words.
By Day 3, I realized I was getting nowhere doing this and had to take a different approach. So one night after a meeting, I stayed out, grabbed myself a beer and a slice of pizza at Whole Foods, and just started writing.
First, I shared a brief story, then another, and another—and then yet another. Out came about 8000 words in an hour or so. Suddenly, I was headed somewhere.
The next day, I didn’t write much, just barely touched the manuscript. The day after, I wrote another 5000 words. It was most definitely on at this point.
And so it went, for another couple weeks, with me writing every few days, doing a deep dive into the material, and watching this thing change shape before my eyes (and before the eyes of many subscribers who were reading along).
Every few days, I’d sit down with my wife, the professional editor, and read a couple of pieces to her to see if I was on the right track. She told me I was, and I believed her. Then there were the comments and emails from readers, nodding along, nudging me ahead. And of course, there was the intuitive sense that this was just right.
So I kept going, rearranging the material every few days to clean up my frenzied mess, trying to tune into the book itself and figure out what, exactly, it wanted to be. By the end of the challenge, my best laid plans for this project had evolved into something else entirely, something far more organic and alive. I was just trying to keep up with it.
This past holiday weekend, I wrapped up the first draft (along with another ghostwriting project I’d been working on), ran a quick spell-check, and called it “finished”—for now.
And Now… Editing
Don’t get me wrong. This is still very much a shitty first draft, and I’m not even sure it’s a book yet. But something came out of this writing sprint, and I guess only time will tell if it’s publishable. It needs some editing, of course—like, a lot.
Not proofreading, per se—it’s too early for that—but high-level, developmental editing, the kind that tells you if you’re on the right track and/or what you need to do to turn all these words into something people want to read.
So, how about another challenge? Sounds fun, right? That’s what I thought.
For the rest of this month—twenty-seven days, if I’m doing my math right, and I’m probably not—I will be editing this book. And I am going to do this in a few ways:
asking early readers (ahem, that’s you) to read the book and tell me what worked, what didn’t, and what you wanted more of;
sharing the manuscript with my wife, the editor, who will read it and share detailed notes on how to revise the manuscript;
using the feedback above to revise the book and decide what it’s going to be.
It’s going to be another live experiment in how a book comes together, what rewrites look like, and the hard decisions every author has to sometimes make.
Again, who knows what we’ll find. But it should be fun. Hopefully, we’ll all learn a thing or two.
This Is Where You Come In (Again)
All current paid Substack subscribers will get early access to the manuscript and can read it. But if you’d like to be an editor, here’s what you need to do:
Become a paid subscriber (costs only $5 per month). See link below.
Leave a comment below that says “I’m in!”
Check my upcoming post later this week with instructions on how to access the manuscript, what kind of feedback to offer, and more.
Read the book in the next ten days and send me your feedback via email.
After that, I will then begin my edits on the morning of September 14, documenting the process, sharing updates with early readers, and answering questions along the way. I may have a question or two for you, as well.
At the end of this month, I’ll do a live Q&A with our team of early readers, answering questions, sharing thoughts, and celebrating with a glass of something bubbly. And when the book is published, I’ll include the name of every early reader who offered feedback in the Acknowledgments.
I know it’s not a small request, but hopefully the process of getting early access to the manuscript, seeing the editing process happen live, and being able to ask me questions throughout is interesting enough for those curious about writing their own books.
To not miss a thing, get early access to my manuscript, and join our team of early readers, make sure you’re subscribed by clicking the link below:
Then, just leave a comment, letting me know you’re in. I’ll follow up with instructions on how to access the manuscript and what, specifically, I am looking for from you. For now, just make sure you’re subscribed and have left a comment.
P.S. More updates to come, including a live call for everyone who participated in the previous challenge. I’m just catching up here and trying to not burn daylight. See you at the (next) finish line!
Thank you for reading The Ghost. This post is public so feel free to share it.
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