Making a Latte Progress

Sorry for the bad pun. But I haven’t blogged for quite a while, and I wanted to remind people that I am still here, working away at my book, even when I am not posting regularly on my blog.

A recent latte at my downtown office, Goodbye Blue Monday Coffee House.

If you are my Facebook friend, or if you follow me on Twitter (@RiggsJoy), you might have noticed that I have been posting a lot of latte photos lately, with the #amwriting hashtag. It has been a great way for me to stay accountable as I work toward completing a draft of my book-in-progress.

The change of scenery and the dose of caffeine helps, too!

A latte from Mars Cafe in Des Moines, Iowa.

Writing a book can seem like an insurmountable task, when taken as a whole. But when I take it chapter by chapter, and set deadlines for completing the individual chapters, the process seems way more manageable.

A latte from the Copper Rock Coffee Co. in Appleton, Wis.

My book is outlined to be 25 chapters, plus a prologue and an epilogue. I recently completed Chapters 10 and 11, which puts me at about the halfway point (I have now written the prologue, Chapters 1–11, and drafts of Chapters 14 and 25). I am hoping to finish a draft of the entire book by mid-July. Then, after taking time in late summer to make some revisions, I will be ready to start submitting it to potential publishers this fall.

(Note: I don’t usually travel so far away from my home office just to get work done; I have been accompanying Sebastian on some out-of-state college visits recently and made time to write during those trips.)

I am now at work on Chapter 12. It may take me another two weeks to finish it, since I have other writing and editing projects to complete this month. But I am confident that if I take it word by word, sip by sip, it will come together.

Cheers!