It has become exceedingly clear that the only way I will ever make progress in turning my 500-plus pages of Positivity Quest blog into a book is to do it everyday, just like I wrote the blog. It must be like a new resolution that at least five days a week, something is adjusted to fit into the new manuscript.
Unfortunately, when you are looking at a mountain of paper it is hard to know where to begin. It is kind of like when you tell your kid to clean his ridiculously messy room, and you come in an hour later to a child sitting in the middle of a mess. Cleaning up and organizing requires a structure. Otherwise, you have no way to gauge where the beginning is.
For the book, the only outline that makes sense given the chronology that it was written in is to break down the book into seasons of the quest. Rather than one year, this book will transpire over two, or maybe even three by the time of its completion. The challenge for me about working with a manuscript is that it prevents you from writing new material. It also demands that you pay attention to details.
Still, I am intent on getting my new book, which at least has a title: Life that Works: A Guide to Positive Living. What do you think? Any comments or suggestions from those readers who have been watching the positivity quest for so long? Actually, one thing that could make this writing easier is to get some reader involvement. So as I post ideas, all of you out there in my virtual community should take some time and tell me if I am on the right track or barking up the wrong tree. In turn, my posts will become more regular again and we will get to revisit all of the original content with more positive eyes.
The most challenging aspect of getting this blog into a book is going to be filling in the stories that I have left out over the years. Transparency is a noble goal; not always easy to manage in the blogosphere, but those are the stories that change us and stay with us. The ones that we know are true, that speak to our heart.
