Extending my crowdfund campaign seemed like a good idea. Maybe people who’d been thinking about it would use the extra time to make that pledge, to say with their hard-earned income that they believed in and supported updating Concussion Is Brain Injury through PubLaunch. My campaign certainly received more retweets, likes, and shares! People threw their support behind it.
Unfortunately, the pledges just about dried up. And meanwhile, my energy stores dropped and dropped, and my pain rose up. I was starting to get mighty pissed at the pain in my right hip and lower back waking me up every morning, even after I’d thrown everything I had at it one night and managed to quiet it down to almost zero.
And so I hunted around and gathered new sources to prop up my flagging energy. As I write this, even those sources are flailing futilely in the wake of my injured brain screaming, “Uncle!” as in, I give up. No more work!!
I used to have a habit of pushing myself until I crashed. It took me well over a decade to learn how not to do that. This past month has been a blast to that past! But some of these newish energy props are keepers.
1. #braininjury sucks the life out of your energy. Brain biofeedback gave me some bk; I use devices & strategies to prop rest up. @PubLaunch
— Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) April 9, 2016
2. Crowdfunding my #book w @PubLaunch & @Iguana_Books tsunami’d my devices & strategies. Had to up the energy ante. #concussion
— Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) April 9, 2016
3. Crowdfunding acetylene to the rescue! Um, sorta. Run out of stamina now but got me thru this week. @Iguana_Books pic.twitter.com/WfWtYxSdOh
— Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) April 9, 2016
4. My energy-rescue-for-crowdfunding-book pkg incl chocolate! +3 essentials 4 brain aftr #braininjury https://t.co/BpJusBU4Zm @Iguana_Books
— Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) April 9, 2016
5. My Dad co-invented w a cardiologist a supplement that gives energy to anyone: https://t.co/QjXJFgcLXN #concussion pic.twitter.com/UXOQ9ZVq8g
— Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) April 9, 2016
6. I’ve talked abt CES for #braininjury before. I used Relax option to drop my pain w all this #book work https://t.co/ZonYdpcMLy @PubLaunch
— Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) April 9, 2016
7. Nothing lk Soma hot chocolate to buzz a somnolent brain to action! https://t.co/Uvw5cFBGXD https://t.co/3S8Xaaxgbm #concussion #book
— Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) April 9, 2016
8. But no matter how much I buzz #concussion brain, fatigue will win. https://t.co/03IVlR2EyD @Iguana_Books #book pic.twitter.com/WWg19BLmUd
— Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) April 9, 2016
9. Tastes good tho. And while works, feels better too! Heh. https://t.co/XiTcZYh7kv @Iguana_Books #book #concussion pic.twitter.com/KLg7TFHW7X
— Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) April 9, 2016
10. Now time for some funny w #TheDebaters cuz God knows, #crowdfund needs a laugh!! https://t.co/r5IA1wrapc @Iguana_Books @PubLaunch #book
— Shireen Jeejeebhoy (@ShireenJ) April 9, 2016
Now that the crowdfunding is over and that it will be an Ingram Spark book not a polished book with the Iguana Books imprint — not enough funds were raised for proofreading, distribution, and marketing — although at least in the last hours, pledges came in to cover the full editing costs! — Alright!!! — I will hunker down and focus on rewriting it with the help of Camp NaNoWriMo (it’s amazingly well timed for me this year).
Since it looked right up until the last minute that the funds would not cover structural editing and my injured brain can barely see the big picture of my book — or read it, except with the aid of the Kindle Paperwhite in small chunks — my neurodoc is reading out my Index Card app outline to me.
I began this new method with reading the chapter titles out to him, and the next time we spoke, he read the titles back to me. But now, he reads the Index Cards out loud as I try to absorb. Over and over he reads each card title slowly; over and over he reads any notes on each card with careful enunciation. Nothing happened the first few times, but last week, we focused on the first section of the book, and I began to see. I moved the index cards around, wrote in new ones, and he read them back to me again, starting from the beginning. I added and moved more cards. He took my iPad back and again read them back to me from the start.
Suddenly, my brain quit. Nothing made sense any more. But he asked me if I thought it flowed better, the first section we worked on; I thought so. He did too. He was really happy he could do this for me and that it worked.
On the weekend, I manually copied the work I’d done in the Index Card app over to Scrivener for Windows (their iOS app is coming too late for me) and wrote one of the new chapters. I again reviewed the outline in the app and tweaked the first part of it. The middle to end remain out of my perceptual grasp. But it’s getting there.
And so to the twenty-eight people who backed my crowdfunding campaign: I am writing new chapters and revising the old ones. I don’t know how long it will take me without the full resources I needed, but your faith in me is committing me to finish my book. Thank you!!!
