Five Easy Pieces: Punching My Book Proposal in the Face

Five Easy Pieces: Punching My Book Proposal in the Face

Amazing cupcake on fire courtesy of this place.

I had an epiphany that made me punch my book proposal in the face. Last week I started a new job and was feeling pulled in so many directions with work, the book proposal, this blog, that blog, and these articles, that I didn't know where to start.

So I took a breath and approached myself as if I were one of my own overwhelmed students:

   
     Instructor Me: Hey there, Erica. Which of those tasks is most urgent?

     Me: All of them.

     Instructor Me: Great! Now, which task are you avoiding?

     Me: The annotated table of contents for the nonfiction proposal.

     Instructor Me: Why?

     Me: Because I don't know if this book will ever sell, so what's the point?

     Instructor Me: Ah. Well. That sounds like a problem for Future Me. Would you send a baby to prom?

     Me: What?

     Instructor Me: Exactly. So why not combine the annotations with a blog post? You like blog posts.

     Me: I guess. I mean...It would be cool to use this blog as a place to authentically draft my chapters. All I need are the mini-sections I'm going to use in each chapter and start there. 

     Instructor Me: And what are those mini-sections?

     Me:Uhm...The Confession, The Story, The Hindsight, The Takeaway, and The Resources.

     Instructor Me: Great! Let's do this!

     Me: But what if the book doesn't sell?

     Future Me: LOL

And so, Dear Reader, I have a solution. My next dozen or so blog posts will be structured how I'm planning the book as well. With these five pieces:

          The Confession: A true confession about my time as PhD student.

          The Story: The story behind the confession.

          The Hindsight: What I realized a little too late.

          The Takeaway: What I've done or improved upon since the hindsight.

          The Resources: Resources I wish I had before I made these mistakes.

I haven't the slightest idea if the book will end up exactly with those five sections, exactly, but it's my starting point.

So here we go.

The Confession

I might be writing this non-fiction book proposal because I'm too chicken to finish the MG horror book. I know it started that way, but I genuinely can't tell anymore.

The Story 

This blog used to be called The Davis Girl, but now it's specific to my time as a PhDidn't. This is intentional because one major section of a non-fiction book proposal is my personal platform, and how it relates to this topic. So the new focus on this blog does double duty for me: It keeps me focused and helps me draft the chapters of Confessions of a PhDidn't.

The Hindsight

I should have been updated this blog weekly, if not monthly while I was in grad school. Then, it would have served as a perfect archive in my book. While there are some posts from that time, it's mostly just a glaring gap in time.

The Takeaway

Our forebears kept journals as a record of their daily lives. Why not maintain that tradition in our current literacies? I do keep scrappy journals, but something about a public web log ups the ante. I'm already editing as I type this. 

The Resources

Whoa. I just found an amazing article that's going to help me retroactively spruce my archives up, a bit. Take a look here for tips on how to increase blog traffic. 

The name of this site alone with an article on why we should blog makes me so happy.

Anyone else? How is your blog going? What are you punching in the face?

Let me know in the comments!