Self-help book. I didn’t think I’d ever write one. I don’t feel qualified for one. Yeah, I’ve created a website to share knowledge about how to recognize, diagnose, and treat brain injury. It’s relatively easy (though super tiring, draining, exhausting) to research and put together facts, especially since I’ve essentially been doing that since 2005.
But writing a book about how to feel yourself worthy of receiving better medical care, of healing grief from your own death while alive, of living like others get to…well, that’s…whew! Chutzpah!
The title came to me, something I’ve been telling others silently in my mind for years when I hear, “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.” Every suicide tells that statement is a lie. Every person crushed by injury and life, declares that a lie.
I have a fairly long title and subtitle in mind. How to create a cover for that?? I hear an editor screaming: “Shrink it!” Well, that would be the logical thing to do.
During my February Prolifiko writing sprint, ideas and a nascent outline poured out. And exhausted me. Since then, I’ve been thinking and jotting down ideas as they come to me…or when my fatigue allows my initiation button to work. This week, in preparation for writing the book during Camp NaNoWriMo, I created an outline in Scrivener, using the novel-with-parts template.
I called my editor a couple weeks ago to seek advice about how to make the book accessible. I was thinking content, about how to structure the content to make it easy to absorb and process. Canadian publishers have been looking at making ebooks accessible and have come up with guidelines, but those pertain to the technical aspects. What I’m looking for is probably 2 years away, my editor said.
Sooo I have to figure this out myself. As I doodled ideas, I felt the novel-with-parts template came closest to being accessible. In terms of technical accessibility, my editor will assist me in finding help for that.
Of course, as is usual in my life, the universe can’t leave me alone to focus on preparing to write. It has to fling all sorts of stuff at me to divert me and stress me. Hopefully, the outline is robust enough — including my crude sketches — to be ready for Camp NaNoWriMo start on April 1st. April Fools Day start seems appropo.
In other news, I’ve received back my critique of first chapters of Trilogy Book One that I wrote last November. Yay!! Meeting to discuss it, so I need to carve out time beforehand to read through her notes carefully.
