Good day to everyone. This is day 27 of the 28-day writing challenge.
Day 27 vlog
I spent my time today working on the ranked paragraphs.
Backstory
So the last two days I went all the way through the document (a printed version of my book). I numbered all the paragraphs. Then, I evaluated each paragraph.
These are subjective evaluations that the writer does just for himself or herself.
Today’s Work
I assigned each paragraph a rating on a scale of one to 10. Now I’m going through the document and working on those paragraphs that are rated from one through 10.
Getting so close
On this pass through, I’m skipping over those that are rated seven or higher. And those that are rated three or lower, I am eliminating any rated three or lower, and I am especially working on editing the ones that are rated four through six.
Now, it’s not that I will not work on the other paragraphs. I will have to figure out a transition between the previous paragraph and the new one where something has been eliminated.
Almost There!
Anyway, that’s where I am. It’s day 27 and I do have a first draft and am working on that good first-round edit. Then that will be what we called by definition our book. So I completed the book in 28 days or less, without stressing myself to death, at least for the most part.
How YOU Can Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death
Instruction manual
Anyway, I will check back in with you tomorrow. If you are interested in writing a book in 28 days or less, I would encourage you to click here and get a copy of my book. It speaks of all that I have done on this particular 28-day challenge AND it gives even more techniques and tips than what I’ve talked about as we’ve gone through this challenge..
This 28-day method speaks of three ways of writing a book in 28 days or less. I actually used a combination of all three of those techniques in this process.
Well, I hope that you have a good day. Where I am it is sleeting and it’s getting ready to snow. I’m sure that some of the activities that I have planned for tomorrow will be called off. I hope the weather’s wonderful where you are. If you desire to write a book, I just pray that you will take the plunge. My encouragement is, as always, remember YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!
Welcome, everyone! We are on day 26 of the 28-day writing challenge. Yesterday, I started talking about doing a paper edit as opposed to a digital edit. Today, I’ll explain more about that.
Day 26 vlog
Today I numbered all the paragraphs in my book. I came up with more than 700 paragraphs, which is what I expected because there are 208 pages.
Review
To review what I said yesterday, start off at the very last paragraph in your book. That last paragraph is numbered one, the next to the last is number two, and so on. Work your way all the way to the very first paragraph of your book. You’ll end up with a very large number. In my case, it was over 700.
The reason why you start at the back instead of at the front is that you are trying to evaluate each paragraph on its own instead of in the continuation of the story or flow of the book.
How To
Some instruction
So you start with paragraph number one, and you rate each paragraph in your opinion, between one and 10. Ten is just wonderful, great. People would set off fireworks as a result of it. Number one is you need to dig a grave for it. It is just the worst paragraph ever. Then all the ranges in between.
You need to be sort of careful as you’re doing this. You can be overly critical of every paragraph or you can be overly enamored with all of your writing. So you should remember that five is about an average type of paragraph.
So you will go through and review all of your paragraphs. Now, if you’re hiring a professional editor to help you you may skip this part, although I even recommend it for that because your book will be in much better shape before you give it to them. Then the editor can spend their time on more in-depth and even better editing.
Yes, this is time-consuming, slow, and tedious.
Average Rating
But go back through rank all of your paragraphs from one to 10. After you’ve got all the way through, one thing that is recommended is to add up all those numbers and then divide it by the number of paragraphs and you will end up with an average rating.
If your average rating is seven or greater then you’re in really good shape. It should be somewhere between four and eight or nine. s
When you do that, you’ll get an average rating for your paragraphs. That may help you to see if you are being too hard on yourself and maybe you should consider them to be a point or two higher. That’s fine as this is for your benefit and is your opinion.
Are any of your paragraphs a perfect 10?
Weeding Out the Below Average Paragraphs
Now the next step at this point is any paragraph that’s rated seven or higher, just leave it alone. If it is rated three or less, get rid of it.
What???
Well, yes, just eliminate it. That means that you might have to make a transition point from the paragraph before to the next one. In some cases you can just eliminate it and it just flows from one to the next and doesn’t make any difference.
But go through and eliminate all of those that are threes, twos, and ones.
Polishing the Four, Five and Six Rated Paragraphs
That leaves the ones that are rated at four, five, and six. These are paragraphs that are okay paragraphs but could be better. What you ought to do with each one of those is to do whatever is necessary to bring it up to at least a seven.
I’ll talk a little bit more tomorrow about how you can do that with some of those paragraphs.
That’s where I am now. I’ve gone through the entire book, numbered all the paragraphs, and then come back and rated all the paragraphs.
Now I have to confess to you I don’t have all of mine rated yet.
My Progress
The digital editing that I did before this big grand paper editing that I’m talking about, will be finished tomorrow. Then I’ll work on these paragraphs for the paper editing.
Actually, this could be like the next step, but I think I’ll have that done by day 28. Then I will have a good rough draft and a good first round of editing and then this even more in-depth editing.
That might actually be what you consider going on into the next step.
I’m confident to say that I have written a book in 28 days or less and done it without stressing myself to death, which is the goal of the last book I wrote.
The book!
Again, if you’re interested in that, click here and download a digital copy or buy a paper copy. It has all of the techniques that I’ve talked about and many more things that I’ve talked about during these 28 days.
So the next step after getting the book written, which will be written by day 28, is to start on the promotion of the book; getting it ready to be published and to be sold.
Unless something unforeseen happens, the book will be available on Amazon before the end of next month (March 2022). It will probably be somewhere around the third week or so but don’t hold me to that. I’ve got the whole month to work on doing that.
How About You?
Well, I am glad you have joined me on day 26 of the 28-day writing challenge. Did you attempt to write a book yourself? If you have I hope it’s gone well.
If you haven’t and have just watched what I was doing and saw my ups and downs, my joys, and my sorrows, I hope that’s been encouraging to you.
Today I want to talk about a word fitly spoken as found in Proverbs, Chapter 25. Verses 11 through 13.
Sermon video.
First, I want to tell you a little story from my own life when I was looking for a word to be fitly spoken.
A Personal Story of FItly Spoken Words
I was student teaching in Benton, Illinois and my supervising teacher told me that they were going to have a prom and told me I had to go. He also told me I could bring someone if I wished.
I had met Rhonda (my wife) a few months before and decided maybe I’ll see if she would go to the prom with me.
I was afraid, however, that if I called her, it would be too easy for her to say no over the phone. So I had a strategy: I was going to go in person and be standing right there and see what happened. She would have to tell me no right to my face.
So I talked to the supervising teacher he said it would be fine. I could go up to Rend Lake College, and if I ended up being late coming back, that would be all right. He understood what was happening. I was so thankful for that.
I had my plan to go and talk to her face to face. The first problem, once I got to the campus, was how to find her. There is a place there called the “South Oasis.” and I thought they may be hanging out there, so I headed that way. Sure enough, there she was, along with all our friends and many folks that I knew from Ten Mile Baptist Church.
It had occurred to me that somebody would say, “Well, hi, what are you doing here? I did not want to say in front of everybody that I was there to ask Rhonda out. I don’t know what I said. I waited for some time, but I never could get Rhonda by herself. Then I heard the bell ring and I thought, “There goes my dream.” But, fortunately, Rhonda was the last one going inside. I tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Can I talk to you for a minute?” She said yes and we went over a little way where nobody was around.
I was hoping for my own encouraging word.
Finally, I stammered and out that there was going to be a prom and would she go with me. I was waiting for that word to be fitly spoken which would have been, “Yes.” But instead, there was this little pause. I’m sure it was just a second, and then her mouth dropped open and she said “I’m shocked!”
I asked, “Well, does that mean yes or no?” I wanted to make sure. She said “Yes, yes.”
There it was, a word that was fitly spoken!
Encouraging Words and Discouraging Words
Have you ever had someone who believed in you? It could have been a teacher or a family member. Have you ever had someone say something that just discouraged you? Maybe someone even kept you from trying to do something that you should have done?
Apples of gold in settings of silver
Proverbs 25:11-13 (MEV)
11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. 12 As an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear.
13 As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him, for he refreshes the soul of his masters.
I want to talk to you about a loving example of God’s words, correcting words, refreshing words, and words fitly spoken in general.
God’s Words
First of all, think about God’s words. We open the Bible up and it says, “In the beginning,” (Genesis 1:1) we move over to the New Testament and we go to the fourth Gospel, and it starts with, In the beginning.” (John1:1)
The Gospel of John says “In the beginning was the Word {capitalized}, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
Go down to verse 14 and it says “The Word {again capitalized} was made flesh and dwelt among us, {This is talking about the Living Word, not just letters on a piece of paper.} and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father full of grace and truth.”
There’s the clue, “the only begotten Son of the Father,”
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” This is a story about Jesus. The word “words” represents other things.
The Word is the divine expression of the Father. Jesus said, “If you want to know what the Father is like, look at me and you’ll find out.” (John 14:7)
The Words of Creation
At the beginning of the Bible, we read “In the beginning, God created the heavens of the earth.” (Genesis1:1) Then he started the sentences with the words “Let there be.”
So you have let there be light, let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let us separate the waters from the waters. Then God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so. Then God said Let the earth produce vegetation, plants, and so forth. And God said, Let there be lights in the heavens, to separate the day from the light and it’ll be for seasons. Then He says, Let the waters swarm was swarms of living creatures and then God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures. And God said, “Let us make man in Our image.”(Genesis 1: 2-26)
Let there be…
In all those earlier ones. He just said, “Let there be” and it was. “Let there be light,” and there was light. Let these things happen and they happened.
It didn’t take billions of years to happen, either. I believe He spoke and it immediately happened.
So you have the words of God.
Word of God
We also have the Word of God. We have the Bible. As we read, we read the story of God’s workings with people.
We have the story that goes out to the people in the Old Testament. There is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the 12 sons of Jacob. Much of the Bible is about that.
In the New Testament, it tells us holy men of God spoke as the Holy Spirit moved upon them (2 Peter 1:21), and they wrote it down. Moses wrote, so we have the writing way back there in history. We have the words.
The ultimate fitly spoken word
The Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). In other words, we have the words of God-The Word; the Bible. As apples of gold, you have a Word that is fitly spoken.
Precious Words
We have the illustrations mentioned in verse 11. It says, “A word fitly. spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” Other translations may say in pictures or it may say that it is in a basket.
In trying to figure out what the “pictures” are they said it was like an engraved picture, and the picture can be engraved in settings of silver. Then another said it was like an ornamental basket that was made out of silver that had representations of apples fashioned out of gold. Sometimes the metal was sort of like silver lace you could see through as it said on the table.
A beautiful image
The passage talks about precious things like silver and gold. Wherever people get married they have a wedding ring that represents the union between a man and a woman. The ring does not have to actually be gold, of course. It represents a commitment.
When you get ready to buy those wedding rings, you want to get the best. It’s something that’s precious.
“As apples of gold in settings of silver, so is a word that is fitly spoken.”
Correcting Words
There are also correcting words, as it says in the next verse. “As an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover to an obedient ear. “
A wise reprover, rebuker, or one who gives correction.
Sometimes, correction is necessary
That works well when you have somebody who has an ear to receive the correction. There are some people that, if you try to correct them, you might have a fight on your hands. You might experience that with children.
But it works best both for them and for you if they have an ear to hear the correction. They have to have an obedient ear to receive that.
Billy Graham’s Words
Billy Graham was a famous evangelist. He preached all over the world and had an audience with at least five presidents, maybe more. He was flying one time and there was a salesman sitting next to him. The salesman was using what some people would call “colorful” or inappropriate language. It seemed like he couldn’t help himself; everything that came out of his mouth was either vile or swearing. Even after he found out that Billy Graham was a minister, he just continued to spew it out.
Reverend Graham asked him, “Do you get paid for all that swearing that you do?” The salesman replied, “No. I do it for nothing. Why?”
The Reverend responded, “Well, you work cheap. You throw away your character, you bring pain to your friendships, you hurt your family, you break the Lord’s commands and you even put yourself in danger. You work really cheap.”
I don’t know if this man heard with an obedient heart or not, but he did receive a correcting word that day.
Words for a Young Basketball Player
There is a gentleman named James Malinchak who is a public speaker. He’s well known for public speaking and he’s written some books. After a while of public speaking, he became a millionaire. He was chosen to be on an episode of ABC’s show “Secret Millionaire.”
When Mr. Malinchak was in high school, he was a basketball player, and actually got a scholarship to go to college. He had to quit due to an injury.
Be receptive to instruction
But, back in his basketball days, he was working really hard. He had a basketball goal in his yard. One day, his neighbor came up to the fence and was standing there watching. James was missing a lot of baskets and his neighbor said, “I can help you with that.” James thought, “Who is he?” and asked, “Did you play basketball when you were in school?” The neighbor said, “No.” “Are you a coach or something?” Again, the man said, “No.” So James shot a couple more times, and then, out of curiosity said, ” Okay. Tell me how you can help me. He said, “You’re putting your elbow way out. Pull your elbow down and you’ll have the better straight shot at the basket.” Well, James tried it and he started making more baskets.
When you get a correcting word you need to have an obedient ear for it to really work.
Words for King David
We know the story of how King David fell into sin. The Bible tells us that he was a liar, an adulterer, and he was responsible for a murder. He’s often called a murderer, but he actually set it up for a man to be killed.
So here’s David, and he’s God’s king, and he’s done all of this. Of course, he thinks at least hidden but he hasn’t. A course of people in the palace knew about it, and I’m sure the word spread through the countryside.
The prophet Nathan received word from God telling him to go talk to David. King David could have had Nathan put to death, but the king had an ear to hear.
David’s correction.
Nathan came and snuck up on David with a little story about a lamb. He told a story about how somebody took this person’s only lamb. David was angry about that! Then Nathan turned it around and said, ” You are the man.” Then David realized he was talking to him. He had violated another man’s wife. But he could be forgiven, and he was forgiven. (2 Samuel 12)
But suppose he hadn’t had an obedient, willing ear. If he had rebelled against Nathan, there’s no telling what the rest of the story of the life of David would be. But he repented of the sin and God forgave him, and his kingdom forgave him.
David is known as being the greatest earthly king of Israel. (We all know that in the spiritual aspect Jesus is the greatest king) He was forgiven because he was willing to hear.
Refreshing Words
Then there are refreshing words, according to the next verse. As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him, for he refreshes the soul of his masters.
The time of harvest could be hot times, especially in the Summer harvest, but even in some of the Fall.
Snow can be refreshing at times
The cold of snow at harvest. They had ways of preserving the snow. Of course, now we have refrigerators and actually even make ice now. But they were able to bring the snow.
When you’re out working hard on a hot summer day, and you wipe the sweat from your brow and you’re a little bit parched. Then somebody brings you a good cold glass of ice water. Snow at harvest was for refreshing.
A faithful messenger refreshes his masters. So we have refreshing words.
You may go throughout your day and you may come across 30 people. Several of them may just talk about the weather and other things that are not of much consequence. There may be 19 people who come along and really compliment you on something. That makes you feel good when they do that and it motivates you. Then you may have one person give you some harsh criticism.
That night when you go home, what do you remember? You should remember the compliments but it’s awful hard to because of that one word of harsh criticism.
Well, we should have words that are refreshing words.
There’s a sign at a local restaurant that reads: We do not repeat gossip. And then it finishes: So listen closely the first time.
A man named James L Sanders said his mother could be really exasperating. Sometimes when people are upset with other people they will vent about something. Sometimes they will do it in a criticizing way and put the person down. He said his mother is really good. When somebody was doing that, she would listen to the conversation, just waiting for her moment.
When there was a lull in the conversation, then she would be empathetic, she would say “I understand that…. ” But then she would say, “But are you aware that (the person being criticized) makes pies and takex them to the other ladies in the neighborhood?
There wsa a critical conversation about some man. and she said, “I understand what you say. But are you aware that he took a day off from work to go help a neighbor?”
Refreshing
She had refreshing words to say.
There was a lady who was known for being positive all the time. She would always manage to work the word “yes” into the conversation. One day her daughter came over to her house and they were getting ready for lunch. Her daughter looked in the freezer and she said, “Mom, do you have any ice cubes? ” The mother replied, “Yes. They’re not frozen yet.”
She was positive. Always be positive as much as you can.
I’m told that in the Civil War, there was a general his name was Jeb Steuart. Toward the end of the war, Jeb Steuart was preparing for a charge by forces that were several times greater than his. The captain looked to general Steuart and saw a smile on his face. General Steuart realized that the captin was wondering what was going on and so he answered the question he saw in the captain’s eyes. He said, “When you fear God, you don’t have to fear anything else.” A refreshing word to that Captain that was in battle.
So we have we have these words that are like apples of gold in settings of silver. We have correcting words that we ought to be willing to hear when they come our way – when it’s true. If it’s not true, ignore it. If it is true, do something about it.
Concluding Words
Do you realize you have sinned? Do you wonder if there’s any hope that God will forgive you?
The Bible tells us that even though we’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23)
Redemption is within reach.
If you’ve never accepted the gift of salvation, you can do that today. You can reach out to me, and I will show you how.
Hello, everyone. Here we are on day 25 of the 28-day writing challenge.
Day 25 vlog.
I have printed out a paper copy version of the book manuscript in eight and a half by 11. Today I’m going to talk about setting up for a paper edit. This is a method that a couple of people have proposed to evaluate your book.
Digital and Paper Editing
I’ve been doing a lot of editing on the digital version, but some things tend to be missed when it’s not on paper. That’s why it’s a good idea to print it out.
A paper edit can offer a new perspective
When I printed mine, it came out to 208 pages in an eight and a half by 11 format. But it was just expanded to fit that for the printing. The actual book is going to be six by nine format.
If you watch the video, you’ll also see that some are farther to the left. That’s because of the way the gutter would be set up for having two pages on one piece of paper.
How to Edit on Paper
The way you do the paper edit is to start at the very last paragraph of the book. Label that as number one and the next to last one is number two, and second to the last one’s number three, and you just keep going from the back all the way to the front. You’ll end up with a very large number. I know mine is going to be more than 200 because there are over 200 pages in the book. Y
Then you go through and evaluate every paragraph. Force yourself to quickly evaluate on a scale of one to 10. A score of seven to 10 would be a good paragraph. Four to six is an OK or average paragraph, but it could be improved. A score of then one, two, or three would be way below average.
So I’m going to go through and evaluate each of these paragraphs. This is an optional thing, especially if you are going to hire out the editing. However, if you have confidence in editing yourself, then this is a recommended way of doing it.
Results Tomorrow
Maybe tomorrow I’ll tell you how it works for me. So stay tuned. Also tomorrow I’ll show you how to use this evaluation.
Digital editing is still going on.
I’m also still doing the chart where I’m doing the digital edits on each section of the book. If you recall, those are 33-page sections that I work on for three days, and most of those are done already.
In fact, if I go ahead and do that tonight, which I think I will, there will only be one section, that would be 167 to the end, to go over digitally tomorrow.
Getting Close to the End
Then I will just have two more days left, and I will have written a book in 28 business days, not consecutive days. Remember, when I say “book, ” it’s defined as a rough draft and a good first-round edit.
After that, whatever you do is just polishing. You have your book, and it can be put out there just as it is. Of course, you can polish more if you desire to..
After this 28-day challenge, I will go into the process of getting this published and the process of launching the book.
Next Steps
I will talk more about establishing a launch team soon. I will say, unless something goes drastically wrong, this book will be available on Amazon before the end of next month (March 2022).
You CAN write a book!
Thank you for joining me on this journey. I will touch base with you for the next three days. Then I will talk about the end product on day 28.
How are you doing? Have any of you joined me in this writing project where you have worked on it yourself? I hope you’ve learned some things along the way and have been challenged and encouraged that you can write a book.
I just wanted to prove that you can write a book in 28 days. It’s certainly not required to write a book in 28 days. You might want to divide it up a little more and maybe do it in two or three months. Three months is very doable. That’s a good book. I mean, I’ve got a pretty good book here so far where it’s at, and I’m still going to do some more on it.
I am glad you have joined. I hope that things are going well for you. Until Next time, remember YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!
Welcome everyone to day 24 of the 28-day writing challenge. I am happy to report that we have a book cover.
Day 24 vlog
You may have noticed that I missed a day. Day 23 was fairly uneventful. I just continued following my editing chart. Day 24 has been very exciting, however.
In the video above, I show what we had to choose from and the one that we decided on.
Making the Choice
I had my cover designer team come over. The team consists of myself. my wife, our oldest daughter, our second oldest daughter, and two of our granddaughters. So we looked at the choices for the covers, and we were pretty well in agreement as to what we chose. (View the video to see our process)
A team is helpful when making a decision
Title Considerations
I thought I might come up with a title other than “Valuing Your Spouse,” but actually the feedback that I got from my team was that they all liked the title. Remember, this is the third book in a series of six books about “The Loving Way to A Successful Marriage.” “Loving” is an acrostic The “L” stands for leaving, the “O” stands for overcoming, and the “V” is for valuing. That’s what this book is about: valuing your spouse. So I might just leave the working title as the regular title. I may get some feedback on that when I do the survey.
So that’s where we ar1e today. I’m continuing to do rounds of editing on the chapters of the book.
As I said, the rough draft is basically done. I’m continuing to do the first round edit and then I will go into launching the book. That will take two or three weeks after I have the book written. So the book will soon be available!
Maybe you would like to serve on my launch team? I will talk to you more about that next week.
I’m also considering running a sale on some of my books next week. too. Stay tuned for that.
The Designer
Anyway, I’m happy to report that we have a cover. I appreciate the designer, Katrina Richmond presenting all seven of these ideas to us. They were all good. We chose the next to the last one. We really liked that one. I’m going to contact her and I may ask her to tweak some of the things on it just a little bit.
A graphic designer can help with the cover
If any of you are interested, Katrina is willing to hire out her work. If you would like to inquire about it, you could do that. You could email her here, or you can contact me and I’ll put you in touch.
Anyway, I hope you have a great day. Remember, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!
Hello, everyone. This is day 22 of the 28-day writing challenge.
Day 22 vlog
There’s nothing really new for me to share with you today. I just did some more editing based on that editing chart where I’m trying to spend three days on each of six sections of the book.
So, today I did section 1, pages 1 to 33, and then I did my second day of pages 67 through 99, and I have day two on pages 33 through 66 up there too. However, I think I’ve made a mistake because it shouldn’t be three to one, but it’s three to two. But I’ll leave it the way it is because I’m still on track.
New Tools
While it’s not directly related to writing, I want to tell you about a couple of new tools I’m using to make my Facebook videos.
I made the video above using Iriun Camera, using my phone as a webcam. I have also downloaded a new software called OBS Studio. So I’m recording this in OBS Studio instead of going directly to Facebook Live. There is a way to stream from OBS Studio to Facebook Live. I’m supposed to get a “stream” key, but when I went to Facebook to get the key the page was grayed out. I’m sure I’ll get that all worked out.
Struggles are part of the process
Maybe knowing that small struggle I’m having will give you some comfort when you have your ups and downs with the things that you’re trying to do
That’s all for today. I hope it’s a great one and remember, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!
Hello, everyone. This is day 21 of the 28-day writing challenge.
Day 21 vlog
Editing
Today I did some more editing. I went over two sections. Each of those sections has 33 pages within the sections. Later this evening, I will work on pages 67 through 99.
Cover Suggestions
So you remember yesterday I showed you (in the video) some samples that I sent off to my cover designer who’s also my assistant. She got back very quickly today. I had given her a really rough sketch of something for some ideas along with those samples of other books.
So many options.
I’m happy to report that she’s already given me a bunch of ideas here. Now she says I can mix and match and she’s open to all kinds of suggestions. I haven’t talked to her yet about what she would charge to do this for someone else, but if you’re interested, you can get a hold of me and let me know. If you watch the video above, I show the samples that she’s sent.
So that’s what’s going on. That’s where we are now: day 21 of the 28-day writing challenge.
Time Frame Information
By the way, this work on the cover and the more extensive editing would be outside of the scope of what I talked about, in the book, “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death.” So we’re going a little bit beyond what that definition of the book was, which is a rough draft and a good first-round edit. After that, you would just continue to improve however much you wanted to.
28 days is possible
So we’ve talked about 28 days to write your book, maybe another 28 days to get your book published. In fact, I was thinking about writing another book along that line. Maybe I’ll do that.
It CAN Be Done!
With this exercise, I’m just doing this to prove again that you can write a book in 28 days or less. So I have the rough draft, but I don’t have that first-round edit done. So I’m doing some of that now.
Helpful information
Well, have you started writing your book yet? Maybe you’ve kept up with me as we’ve gone along and we’ve done this together. If you are interested in writing a book in 28 days or less, you can click here and order yourself a copy. I still have it on there at half price (as of 2/15/2022) but it’s going back up soon. So if you’d like to get one hurry up and get it.
I hope you have a great day. I’ll talk to you tomorrow and until next time remember, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!
Hello, everyone. This is day 20 of the 28-day writing challenge. I am happy to report what I’ve been doing.
Day 20 vlog.
On the editing chart, I did the first round on pages 34 through 66 and the second round of editing on pages one to 33
The Process of Choosing a Cover
I also worked on the cover some more. I did some research on some of the bestsellers in the Amazon current bestsellers and used keywords that are similar to what my book has.
If they can do it, you can do it!
What I have done is take the pictures from some of the book covers, made comments on them, and sent them to my assistant, who is also my cover designer from time to time. She did a really good job last time so I’m going to give her another opportunity to present an idea.
In the video above, I show a mock-up of an idea and pictures of several of the book covers that have elements that I like.
This is sort of the work that I’m doing so far.
It’s getting exciting. We’re already at day 20 of the 28-day writing challenge. Just eight more days to go and I’ll have the rough draft written. I’m working on what some writing coaches call their “vomit draft.” Some of it’s a little bit like that, but it’s not really that bad. I’ve gone through and done revisions of that.
Facebook Group
I’d like to know how you’re doing with your book. You could leave some comments about your book here if you wish. I also want to encourage you to go to the CCS Book Encouragers group on Facebook. Just sign up for that. It will ask you a couple of questions in order for you to be able to join. I would be glad to have you in the group there. You have access to all the previous videos that I’ve done.
You can watch all the videos on Facebook
You’re watching the progress the ups and downs, frustrations, whatever. I’m not too frustrated right now, I feel pretty good.
I hope you have a good day. Until next time, remember, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!
Hello everyone. Welcome to the report for day 19 of the 28-day writing challenge. Today, I worked on the cover, adding humor, and headings.
Day 19 Vlog
A Brief Recap
As you recall, yesterday, I set up an editing chart. The plan is to spend a day s on each of those sections. So I started on the first section, pages one through 33.
You CAN write a book!
Headings
While editing, I found that in chapter one, I did not have any headings in that original document. So I went through and I found places that would be good to break up the writing a little bit with headings.
Cover Feedback
I got feedback from some of my family on the cover research I had done. They looked at a page full of the covers of books that are similar to the books that I’m writing. They were all books about marriage. So I got their feedback for that. So that was the cover.
Adding humor adds interest
Humor
Then the humor. I just looked up some jokes and humor about marriage. I wanted to see if any of those would relate to any of these chapters that I’m working on.
So that’s my report for day 19 of the 28-day writing challenge. We’re winding down, we just have nine days left. Isn’t that amazing?
Helpful reading
So you’re aware, I still have the book and the ebook for “How to Write a Book in 28 Days or Less Without Stressing Yourself to Death” at half-price (as of 2/12/2022) but I am going to raise it back up to the regular price soon. So if you’re interested in getting that a half-price, please hurry and order it at the link above. I will talk to you again on Monday. I hope you have a wonderful day. Remember, YOU CAN WRITE BOOK.
Hello everyone. This is day 18 of the 28-day writing challenge.
Day 18 vlog.
Editing Chart
Today I set up an editing chart. It basically contains four columns. In the first column are numbers one through 33, then 34 through 66, and so forth in groups of 33 pages. (See video for visual) So, day one day two, and day three.
Time to do some editing.
For each of those days, it’s more than one chapter so. It’s actually the book divided into six sections. So, I spend three days editing each one of the sections.
Adding Humor
Part of what I did today was look up some jokes and humor about marriage that I might want to insert in the book. Part of the reason that I do the jokes and humor is, when I do speaking engagements, I throw in jokes and humor about every five minutes or so, mainly to keep the men interested in what I’m talking about.
So today I set up the chart and I have edited day one of pages one through 33. Then tomorrow, I will edit day one of pages 34 through 66, but I’ll also do day two of pages one through 33.
That’s how the editing chart is set up. I hope you’re doing well with your book. Until next time, remember, YOU CAN WRITE A BOOK!
