I just finished Chapter Eight of the new book on Friday. Printed it out then headed to Board & Brew after practice to edit. Just me, the pages, and a pencil. Sitting in a crowded place and losing myself in the words is easy, having spent the early years of my career writing at the kitchen table when the boys were newborns.
Then on the set of Survivor, writing a whole companion book and also finishing Farther Than Any Man just yards from the clear blue ocean, in the communal dining/socializing/television-watching area.
I once got so caught up that I missed a flight, even though it boarded about thirty feet from me. To my defense, I was in Argentina and they called the flight in Spanish. But still, there's losing yourself in the words and there are bonehead moments. Hoping that one never happens again, particularly if I'm in some corner of the world where flights only land and depart once a day — or week.
I sat there alone with Chapter Eight. Inside of a minute I knew it needed a lot of work. But I plowed on, putting a line through a sentence or two, writing in a word here and there. Sometimes, these moments reveal the chance to add some unique commentary, as if no writer in the world ever had the same vision. It's a lot of staring at the page. A lot. By the time I got done, it was clear the chapter would have to be totally rewritten. It isn't horrible but it is certainly sloppy. It's easy to fall into despair when a week's worth of work reveals itself as shite. But I knew it could be fixed.
Gathering my pencil and pages, I said goodbye to the guy next to me who'd been surreptitiously reading over my shoulder and went home to think. I can only imagine what he thought of the horrible writing.
The Long Run comes out next April, in time for the Boston Marathon. Let's not put the cart before the horse, because Taking Midway will be in stores on May 20. Order your copy today. It got a great review from Publisher's Weekly, a publishing industry staple. So I definitely think you'll be turning the pages long into the night with this one. Cool characters. Lots of action.
I am currently reading one of Rick Atkinson's World War II books. As a research nerd, I heartily applaud and am inspired by the depth of his digging. Maybe one day I will write something as long and exhaustive in my dotage. But for now I like to write heavily researched, page-turning history, for people who love history and for people who say they don't. My goal is to expand my audience, because the average history reader is over forty. Sure would be great to reach a few college kids and young parents. I want to entertain and inform. Midway is one such book.
The Long Run will be too. There's never been a history of the running boom quite like it.
But first I need to get past Chapter Eight.
I did a little work on it yesterday, sitting on the back porch as a hummingbird hovered at the fountain, taking long sips of falling water. My outdoor writing table is in the shade until about 3 pm, when it is bathed in so much sunlight that I can't see my computer screen. But I didn't hurry. Chapter Eight is nine pages long, soon to be six. I whittled out redundancies and deleted sentences that seemed so brilliant when I wrote them. I am ready to move on to Chapter Nine, which I will today.
But even as I go forward (because if you stay in one place too long you can get very, very stuck), I'll take an hour every morning and go back to Chapter Eight until it's just what it needs to be. Might take a week. A month. Perhaps I will set it aside and come back to it. But it will get fixed.
So next April when The Long Run comes out, and you find yourself turning the page to begin Chapter Eight, remember this blog post and know that the first draft was chaos. If I do my job right — and I completely intend to — those same words will be magical by the time you hold them in your hands. When that day comes, drop me a line and let me know what you think.