May Update: 5 year writing project

I’m taking part in Misha and Beth’s Five Year Project and my five-year goal is to write a novel and get it published.

But this month my entire focus has been on getting my non-fiction book, Walking the English Coast, ready for publication.

My original intention was to publish this book in May, ready for the summer hiking season. That deadline has, of course, slipped. Maybe it will be published in June… maybe.

Work done this month:

• Agreed final changes to the text. These include the personal anecdotes and tips I added at my editor’s suggestion. Also, at her suggestion, I’ve livened up some of the more ‘doctorish’ language in the health section, by swapping active verbs for passive verbs and being less equivocal in my opinions.
• Removed and reinserted references, because Microsoft Word had messed them up completely in the draft document. This was a tedious job and, with nearly 300 end notes to reinsert, took me ages. Two long days.

On a more fun note, I enjoyed the following tasks

• Choosing the photographs to be included. This also took a long time, only because I have many  thousands of photographs to choose from. The trick was to find a photograph for each chapter that was (a) roughly connected with the theme of the text and (b) visually attractive and (c) provided variety across the book.
• Taking new photographs, because I needed a few new ones to illustrate some of the more technical matters I cover, such as plotting routes on a map and doing after-walk stretches.

Still to complete:

• Final proofread of next round of edits.
• Agreement on layout, after final proofread.

If any of my writing or walking friends out there are interested in reviewing the book, please let me know. Any offers would be much appreciated.

Author: Ruth Livingstone

Walker, writer, photographer, blogger, doctor, woman, etc. View all posts by Ruth Livingstone