Greetings Backers!
TL:DR:
Expect an email with your survey in the next week. Filling out is important to get me counts ...
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Sandra Tayler
about 2 months ago
Revision Progress
Greetings Backers!
TL:DR:
Revision is progressing nicely! I'm about 1/3 done, but I expect the middle 1/3 to take less time. You can see a chapter-by-chapter report down below...
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Sandra Tayler
3 months ago
Quick Update: Revision Progress
Greetings backers!
TL:DR: Revision is in progress. I'm going to focus down in October and get this revision pass done. I've given you a sample from the chapter about Dreams....
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Sandra Tayler
3 months ago
Quick Update: Trying Again Next Week
Greetings!
I had an ambitious plan for two weeks of productive work on SLSC. I failed at all of it. I did not finish a single item on my SLSC to do list because all of my effor...
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Sandra Tayler
4 months ago
Quick Update: Progress in Drafting
Greetings Backers,
TL;DR:
I've read through 29 pages of edit notes and feel confident about revising. Finished drafting the project management chapter and have started work on ...
Sorry this update is a few days late, I've been kind of slammed. I'll put the details of what I've been up to down below, but first:
TL;DR: No action items for you. Thank you for filling out your surveys, if you have questions or concerns about anything relating to your order please email [email protected]. I am giving everyone access to a video of the presentation that was the source material for this book. I'm also giving you all another chapter to read. Both the video and chapter can be accessed by clicking over to Backerkit and logging in. Details below.
Surveys
Thank you so much for filling out surveys. It really helps me to have a count of how many of each item to order so that I can plan manufacturing. I will launch manufacturing in January. I also plan to give a full status report on all deliverables with my next update.
Shipping costs
Some of you (particularly international customers) were surprised by shipping costs. I'm very sorry about that. I did put the expected shipping costs on the main story page, but the information was kind of hidden towards the bottom. I really wish I could make shipping cheaper, but unfortunately those are the real costs for US-based shipping. I actually expect a rate hike between now and when I send packages. Additionally the incoming presidential administration has announced potential tariffs which could launch a trade war that could further complicate international shipping. No matter what happens, I will not increase the charges from the prices I have set right now. If the current listed costs are too high for you, please email [email protected] I am happy to adjust your pledge to be digital only or to provide a refund. We have plenty of time to make changes. I will not charge cards for shipping costs until much closer to when I plan to ship items.
Bonus Lecture
My original plan for this project had me recording and posting the lectures for the lecture bundle in September. That did not happen as I'd planned (because I over scheduled myself). I intend to record both Caregiver's Guide to Creative Spark and Introverts Unite: Finding and Maintaining the Creative Community You Need before the end of December. These are both ready to go with completed slide decks. The other two lectures in the bundle both need to be done and posted by end of January. As an apology for the delayed lectures, I offer a bonus lecture to every backer. It is called Structuring Life to Support Creativity and is the seed of the book I'm writing. If you click over to Backerkit and login you can read the chapter on The Community You Need and click a link to download the lecture.
Progress
I have less progress to report than I would like. I've finished both Changing Your Life and Goals. I'm in progress on Believing in Your Work. I simply haven't had as much time to devote to revising as I would like. What else have I been working on? Well...
All of the Busy
Just after posting my prior update to you all where I spoke hopefully about my work schedule, I had an appointment with a new doctor about a chronic health condition that I have. We agreed that the next medical step is for me to go on a pretty strict elimination diet where I remove all of the following foods for the next three months: Wheat, Egg, Milk, Soy, Fish/Shellfish, Peanuts/Tree Nuts. So a lot of time and energy has gone into reading food labels, adapting meal plans, and cooking from scratch. I am incredibly fortunate to be married to Howard who is something of a food wizard has taken it as his personal mission to make sure that I have delicious food to eat. The diet is the right course of action, we've got a good handle on it so food can be routine going forward, but the adjustment ate some brain space over the past couple of weeks.
Then just as I was adjusting to changed food, a freelancing client reached out to see if I was available to pick up some work hours. I said yes because I've been stressed about finances across the holiday season. The work itself was fairly simple, but that took up about 10 hours of time that then wasn't available for other things.
We hosted Thanksgiving this year, which is not unusual. It is an event mostly for us and our adult children + 1 grandchild. But the food preparations were additionally complex because Howard was determined to make sure that I got to feast right along with the people who were allowed to drown their foods in butter. Food prep started four days before dinner and two full days were devoted to the final stages and celebration.
On top of all of that, we're exhibiting with a 10x20 booth at Dragonsteel Nexus December 5-7. The logistical planning for this event kicked into full gear with planning fixtures and tables, reserving a cargo van, and stressing over all the little details that go with setting up a small pop-up retail store. (I'll spare you from the play-by-play) I have pre-planned for a pile of inevitabilities and also for some highly-unlikely contingencies. Two of my adult kids will be booth crew and so four of us will be sharing a hotel room for three days. For bonus levels of difficulty, I'm going to have to pack along all of the food I expect to eat because I can't depend on any restaurant or fast food service to be able to match my strict diet requirements. It is going to be a lot to cope with.
I'm going to take my laptop along with me and will try to sneak in work on this book. Once I'm done with that event, This book and recording lectures will be my first priority through the end of the year. At least that is my plan, but as the report of the past two weeks demonstrate: life finds a way to send my plans sideways. Holiday shipping may be more involved than I expect, or more freelancing work may come my way. My life has a lot of moving parts and I have to stay on my toes to avoid getting clobbered.
Thank you so much for reading all of the detail and for supporting this project. Getting to work on this book is an anchor of calm joy in the middle of all of the other stuff. I keep being frustrated that I haven't finished it already. I want to be able to hold the book in my hands. Your next update will happen the week of Dec 16-20 after I've recovered from Dragonsteel Nexus and assessed how the remainder of the year will go.
The shipping is more than the book. It is always terrifically disappointing when this happens. Sending a paperback from the USA to the UK does not cost $25.
Please either reassess the shipping or refund my pledge. Many thanks, Joe
TL:DR: Expect an email with your survey in the next week. Filling out is important to get me counts for ordering. Revision is progressing nicely: 15 out of 24 chapters are revised. You can see a chapter-by-chapter report down below. You can also read the full chapter on Identifying Your Pillars by clicking over to read this update on Backerkit and making sure you're logged in. Your next update will be the week of November 25-29.
Details: I'll be sending out surveys sometime in the next week. This will be your chance to double check your order, check your shipping cost, and add any items you might want. Filling out your survey promptly will really help me out as I need to get counts of how many of each item I need to order. I won't be locking orders or charging cards until sometime in early 2025 when I'm placing orders for books and prepping for shipping.
I love the way the bookmarks and stickers turned out, I hope you do too. If you have a notebook as part of your order, you'll have the option to upgrade to the custom designed notebook. So here are some details on both.
The regular notebook will have a bookmark ribbon, an elastic, and a pocket in the back. You can have your choice of blank, dot grid, or lined pages in your notebook. This is the design for the cover.
The custom designed notebook will have the same artwork on the cover, but will be a slightly larger format and the interior pages will be designed specifically for the activities found in the SLSC book.
Revisions on the book are going well. I love the moment when I feel the whole chapter click together. For the second pass edit I've found an editor who is working with me to edit chapters as I finish them. This is going to save me a lot of time since I can immediately dive into a second editing pass as soon as I complete this one instead of pausing for a month. I'm hopeful that I can find a copy editor willing to work in the same way. Then I could have the whole book ready for layout by either the end of December or early January.
Here is a chapter by chapter list of what's done and what I have left to do. Last week I posted the chapter Weight of the World to my Patreon. It seemed like a thing people might need at the time. You can read it here. I've also included the chapter Identify Your Pillars here for backers only. (In order to read it, you need to click over to the Backerkit website and login)
Intro (I'll write this last)
Creativity and Dreams 1 Creative work of our lives (Also write this last) 2 Landscape of dreams DONE!
Prioritizing 3 Priorities DONE! 4 Identifying your Pillars DONE! 5 The community you need DONE! 6 The boundaries you need DONE!
Energy 7 Managing Mental Load DONE! 8 Ebbs and flows of Energy Levels DONE! 9 Replenishment and Depletion DONE! (10/28/24)
Productivity 10 Curating Your Commitments DONE! (10/30/24) 11 Your Physical Space DONE! (10/27/24) 12 Fragmentation of Creative Time DONE! (10/28/24) 13 Time Scheduling and Project Management DONE! (10/30/24) 14 The Motivation Problem DONE! (11/8/24) 15 Managing Your Motion DONE! (11/12/24)
Making Changes 16 Structuring Changes In progress 17 Goals In Progress
Special Cases to Consider 18 Believing in your work 19 Your access needs 20 Emotional processing and grief 21 Caregiving and creativity 22 Health challenges 23 When things go sour 24 Weight of the World DONE! (11/1/24) Conclusion
I'm hoping to get some of the presentations recorded and available soon.
Thank you so much for backing this project! If you have any questions about this update, please feel free to ask! Sandra
TL:DR: Revision is progressing nicely! I'm about 1/3 done, but I expect the middle 1/3 to take less time. You can see a chapter-by-chapter report down below. You can also read the full chapter on Priorities by clicking over to read this update on Backerkit and making sure you're logged in. Your next update will be the week of November 11-15
Details:
Going by wordcount, I'm about a third of the way done with this revision pass. I expect this middle third to go much faster than the first third did because I won't need to completely deconstruct and re-make all of the chapters the way I had to for the early ones. There are some chapters at the end which might be more work, I'll have to see when I get there.
I reached out to my editor and I'm getting a bid on a "Substantive Edit" which will dig in chapter by chapter to make sure each one is fully formed. I'll have to do a cost / benefit analysis based on the bid and the sample edit that she supplies. Such is always the case when creating projects, we have to decided how much is enough. As much as I might wish for infinite resources of time, energy, and money, I have to make do with what is actually available. The chapters I've revised are already so much better than they were before. I'm going to let all you backers read the chapter on Priorities in full. You can access it by clicking over to Backerkit and making sure you're logged in when you read this update.
Here is where things stand based on the table of contents:
Intro (I'll write this last) Creativity and Dreams
Creative work of our lives (Also write this last)
Landscape of dreams DONE!
Prioritizing
Priorities DONE!
Identifying your Pillars DONE!
The community you need DONE!
The boundaries you need DONE!
Energy
Managing Mental Load DONE!
Ebbs and flows of Energy Levels DONE!
Replenishment and Depletion DONE! (10/28/24)
Productivity
Curating Your Commitments in progress
Your Physical Space DONE! (10/27/24)
Fragmentation of Creative Time in progress
Time Scheduling and Project Management in progress
Stopping and Starting
The Motivation Problem
Making Changes
Goals
Structuring Changes
Personalization
Believing in your work
Your access needs
Emotional processing and grief
Caregiving and creativity
Health challenges
When things go sour
Weight of the World
Conclusion
You may note that I've got three chapters "in progress." I've discovered that when I'm stuck on one chapter I can sometimes bounce to another one and make progress on that. Then when I bounce back to the first one sometimes I'm not stuck anymore.
I've put design work for stickers and notebooks on hold for right now. Trying push everything forward all at once was making me frazzled and wasn't actually getting things done faster. If I have brain for complex thinking, I'm spending it on revising instead of design work. I'll catch up on the design work when the manuscript is back in the hands of an editor. Thank you so much for making it possible to give this project so much of my focus. It is because of your support that I'm able to give it my first attention instead of my third or fourth.
TL:DR: Revision is in progress. I'm going to focus down in October and get this revision pass done. I've given you a sample from the chapter about Dreams. Your next update will be the week of October 21-25.
I wanted to check in with all of you after my big trip to let you know where things are with this project. I rarely get any work done during the Writing Excuses workshops because I am too occupied with staff duties and care work. That was not the case this time, which makes me very happy. I worked on the book consistently through the whole trip.
One of my revision tasks was to take the giant chapter where I covered Dreams, Goals, and Priorities and turn it into separate chapters for each of those concepts. This required pulling apart ideas, deciding which ideas go where, building a new "spine" of thought for each chapter and then reassembling everything so it makes sense. The result is going to be far more comprehensible and useful for all of you backers to read, but it has been a lot of slow, thinky work.
Writing it out like that, helps me see why the process for these early chapters is taking so much longer than I wanted it to. I feel the clock ticking in my head and there is a near constant stream of thought about how I should be working faster. Yet it isn't the existence of other things in my life that is preventing me from working as fast as I want to, it is the fact that I have to walk away from the work and let the thoughts percolate before I can see how to fix them. So I push words around, then I let them sit, then I push them around, then I do something else, then I come back and have an aha moment. Slowly I get to a place where I'm confident that the words say what I need them to.
Fortunately most of the chapters won't need this level of deconstruction and reconstruction. I'm very hopeful that I'll be able to fly through revision on later chapters. In fact I'm starting to work ahead on easier chapters while the more complicated chapters are percolating.
The other thing I am doing is paying attention to activities which might use up the percolation space in my brain. I skipped sending out my monthly Newsletter in September, I've let my blog and Patreon sit in idle mode for now. I'm posting on social media less. All of which is the result of giving this project first crack at my available writing energy.
A thing that is giving me hope relating to this project is the conversations I've had with people during consultations, group mentoring, or even at the in-person retreat I attended. Each of these conversations is a treasure. I keep wanting to shove chapters into the hands of people who those chapters might help. So the urgency I feel to get this project done isn't just guilt around not meeting the (ambitious) deadlines I said I would hit, it is that this book can't begin to be helpful until it exists. It can't exist until I do the work.
So that is what October is about for me. I'm not going on any trips and my other projects are mostly in resting phases. I get to spend October finishing the revision on Structuring Life to Support Creativity and I'm going to schedule my time around that as the central project. I'm also going to make time to record some of the presentations that I've promised.
Thank you so much for joining me on this adventure. Your next update will be the week of October 21-25. Down below I'm including a backers-only snippet from the beginning of the chapter on Dreams. Hope you enjoy! Sandra Tayler
