Wow! I don’t know why but this final re-write of my YA novel is taking much longer than I thought. I had envisioned already having my finished draft off my desk weeks ago and I’m still working through the final changes. Some days, I find myself back-tracking: rewriting something that I’ve changed back to what I had originally and then moving forward. It’s a slow process. I’m inchworming (mmm…is that a word? if not, it should be!) through my pages of changes and revisions.

The other day, I ran into one of my dog-walking pals, someone I haven’t seen for a while. She asked me how things were going with my book project. I said I was finishing up my final draft. She sounded excited for me, but all I could think about is that I’ve been telling people that same story for quite a while now!

That’s the thing about working on a book. It’s such a ghostly undertaking. You can talk about it as if it’s real, but most people have no idea what’s involved: what you’re actually doing day and day out. For them, writing a book is sort of ethereal, like imagining a castle in the air. It’s hard to explain that it’s all about writing and rewriting, moving pieces, trying to complete a puzzle.

For now, I’ve decided to give up giving progress reports: All it does is make me feel frustrated with the slow pace of my revision process. Instead, I’m going to focus on making steady headway — and pat myself on the back for moving forward, however snail-like my forward motion is. Day by day, I’m getting closer to my goal. And so are you. So for now, let’s just enjoy the trip. Write on!