August 1, 2022

Day one of my solo writing retreat for my book and it still feels so surreal. I’m writing a book. I’m actually doing it. I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to.

Of course, there’s still a long way to go, but I’ve got two chapters written and I’m feeling pretty good about both of them. My goal for each day is 3, for a total of 12 chapters. A large part of me wonders if it’s enough for a “real book”. But this is also just the first draft. There’s time to add things in later.

I rented my AirBnB for Sunday through Friday. Originally, I planned to come up last night, but then I realized that bills and KPI’s needed to be done today, since it’s the first, and I didn’t want to do them on someone else’s Wi-Fi, so I decided to just spend one extra night with Russell. I got up at 4:30 and immediately got to work on paying bills and checking over my month tasks for the businesses’.

And then I packed up and got over here just in time for my 1:1 call with a Club Content Batching VIP student. Then I ate lunch, and realized that the air conditioning was broken, so I had to contact the owner, who had someone come out.

But, then I got to work and got my first chapter written. After that I took a nap. And kind of decided that after each chapter I would reward myself with a break, in order to keep things flowing. Then I wrote the second chapter, and now I’m taking another break. I’m circling back to my normal morning routine since I skipped it this morning in my rush to get out the door. Since I always get productive after that routine, I’m hoping it’ll help kickstart me into that next chapter once I’m done.

Chapter 3 kicked my butt, but it’s done. It came in at 4,500 words – bringing today’s total to just under 10,000. I’m official a fourth of the way done!

I ended up done much later than anticipated (10:00 pm), but I’m hoping that tomorrow will be better. I worked on chapter 3 for a couple of hours … like two, two and a half, and then Russell called me at 7:30 so I took a break. Talked to him, ate dinner, took a bath and relaxes.

I really didn’t want to go back and finish it, but I also did not want to start tomorrow behind, so I got out there, turned on the fake fireplace and did it. It’s probably not very good and will need some serious work, but it’s a complete chapter and just a rough draft. And that’s what matters.

Tomorrow I’m tackling chapters 4-6, and there is nothing on my plate at all except for writing those chapters. It feels so indulgent.

Love and cat-hair hugs,

Amanda

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