Finishing the Book Is Within Sight and It's Scary
Last month, the book was taking shape strongly enough that I decided I had to engage with my own project management advice and set a deadline. Without one, it keeps slipping and the scope keeps creeping. The start of the Two Birds, One Egg blog gave me an idea, and after a quick fact check, I decided to launch the book at the time the Emperor penguin's egg is due to hatch — so that's the end of July. It also gave this planned first edition a name: "The Hatchling Edition." Now the stress and fear can really kick in.
This writing and publishing is all done in my spare time, when I am not working or having a life. My capacity for reading and writing diminishes as I get tired and my dyslexia kicks in, so after a full day at work it is hard to do the writing and polishing that's needed. Early summer mornings help, and there's time at the weekends I can protect, but the number of slots left is putting the pressure on. Typical project, nothing really new. When I feel I cannot write well — if I can at any point — I can progress other tasks needed around the publishing instead.
The fear also comes from the fact that I'll be putting all these thoughts out there for friends, family and strangers to read, and the doubt that I am not good enough, or the imposter syndrome, is strong at the moment.
But as a status update: I have nine chapters drafted. The book's front matter and the copyright page are done. The cover is finished — genuinely finished, not "finished until someone finds another problem with it," which is a different and much less trustworthy kind of finished.
So I have one weekend left before I have to decide that good is good enough, stop writing and editing, and move on to publishing what's there.
— Ian
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