The truth about book writing

@theredkitchenkatie on Instagram

Life is one big surprise after another. We make plans. We have dreams. We go and do. But the things we have planned at the beginning of the day only sometimes get done by the end. Because life is one big surprise. We never know just what will happen. And isn't that exciting? And wonderful? It is.

But sometimes it's frustrating and even a little discouraging. Because when you're down in the trenches, in the deepest part of the wagon rut, there's nothing you'd like to see more than the end from the beginning. Or maybe that's just me.

The truth about book writing is that sometimes it's not the most fun thing ever. Like when I find myself re-editing pictures from scratch which I've already edited before. Or when I have to re-write a project that I've already written and stressed over once (or several times) before. It's times like this that I wish I could catch a glimpse of the finished project. Like I want to say, "Won't someone show me this book so I'll know how to write it?" I have a vision for it and it's clear, but I can't hold it in my hands and flip through it when my eyes and my body and my mind are tired and discouraged.

The truth about book writing is that I'm so brand new to it. I wonder all the time if I'm doing it right. Somewhere sneaking in my mind there's this really obnoxious little freckled fat boy who pops out at the worst times ever and says in his nasally voice, "You're doing it wroooong!" He's always licking a lollipop and, well, let me just say that I'd like nothing more than to grab that stupid lollipop and stick it right up his nose.

Why my drama teacher thinks I'm stressed

My high school drama teacher and I are friends on Facebook. (What? Aren't you Facebook friends with your high school drama teacher?) Anyway, he commented yesterday that my life right now is probably "a wee bit stressful." And it's because, well, it is. Mostly because I'm writing a book and I've never done that before. My friends smile and say, "So are you on schedule? With writing your book?" and I give them this really boring/rambling answer about how I have no idea if I'm on schedule. With writing my book. Here's where I'm at.

To make a long story short, my editor and I both agreed that it would be a good (and doable) idea to move up my deadline. By, well, several months. The good news is, you'll have this awesome book of mine sooner! The bad news is--ha!--I still have to write it. Bryan says I'm the only one who thinks about that. And I guess that's true. Everyone else talks about my book like it already exists when, really, right now it's just a handwritten notebook full of scribbles and seam allowances and, most recently, a boatload of step-by-step photographs. Wanna buy it? I thought so. :)

Anyway, I am actually very confident that I'll actually write the book and that it will be fabulous (and on schedule!), but, ya know, I need to write it. So I'm working on that. But for the past few weeks what I've been working on is taking all the step-by-step photographs and it's been, ahem, fun. Obviously photography is one of my strong suits (not), so this has been a total breeze (not). But the important thing is, that phase is done! Done done done! Except I still have to sort through and edit a million photos and I have a bunch of other photos to take for the book, but whatevs.

Also, I would like to brag some more about how awesome my husband is. There are plenty of things I could say to brag about him. I could brag about how he just finished this awesome piece of artwork for a contest. Or how he's really good at looking up housing all over the country. Or how earlier today he let me take a nap and just now he washed the dishes. But instead I would like to just brag about two things.