Today, I read the proposal one more time through and cleaned up mostly stylistic awkwardness and typos. Yesterday went well. I worked through transitions that were bothering me in the Project Abstract, and I also straightened out the Audience and Relationship to Other Criticism sections. I feel weird saying this, but I feel really good about the proposal. I suspect that it is still too long. Today I sent it to a friend who is an Assistant Professor, almost tenured, who finished her first book several years ago, and also to a committee member/mentor from grad school. I am hoping to have my husband read it once he returns from his trip. I figure that after all of those readings, I will have a better sense of where to cut.
So, I think I am on track to send out the proposal to the first press some time next week. It feels exciting. I have been surprised to find out how much more I enjoyed the proposal description of the project, more than any other iteration of the whole project that I’ve had to do before–like the abstract for my dissertation, job materials, etc. It was a bit longer than the project abstract I wrote for my job materials, so I feel like I was better able to explain and flesh out the project’s theoretical dimensions. I also felt like I was able to keep hitting the same points and conclusions. This might make the proposal sound slightly repetitive, so I’m interested to hear what my draft readers think. But I was still happy that, over many years, the project description has gone from being a somewhat hazy web of interrelated, but multiple, “key” arguments to being much more focused and precise, able to be boiled down effectively into one sentence that I felt good about. My husband was the first to point this out, but in the book proposal, you see the same concepts, ideas, and arguments re-emerging, rather than a big mess of ideas. I don’t know if I’m explaining this effectively, but it seems like one of the first signs of real progress, which is exciting because throughout this process–from writing the diss to turning it into a book–is so amorphous and lacks concrete milestones.
After sending out the proposal this morning, I got to work on the sample chapter that I will be sending to the press along with the proposal. Fortunately, part of this particular chapter has been accepted for publication, so I feel pretty good about almost half of the chapter. Naturally–as always–the introduction and conclusion need work, as does my treatment of the other narrative (the one that isn’t included in the journal article). I had been working on this chapter this past spring, when my mentor/committee member suggested that I get started on the book proposal and stop spinning my wheels on endless revisions before Press readers even saw the manuscript. After working on the book proposal so much for the past six weeks, it feels good to get my hands into a chapter again, and not have to write in the big picture all of the time. We’ll see how long that holds up.
For anyone who reads this who is interested in process, for much of the spring, I followed the advice in the book How to Write a Lot. I scheduled time for writing and didn’t let anything interfere with that time. I am finding it much harder to do this in the summer. However, I am using a timer software program, which I turn on the minute I start working and turn off if I ever stop working to do anything. This has helped me make sure that I am still getting in good amounts of writing time. I’d like to get back onto the How to Write a Lot mindset because I think it is really helpful and accurate. It really prevents academics from making the silly excuses we so often make (the worst of which is “I need chunks of time to write”). One thing he also recommends is setting daily writing goals, which you track in a database. (I also track them on this blog, as you can see below.) In addition to all that, he advises making a list of writing projects, which you should revise at least about once a month. Today, I went through that process and set up new long-term writing goals, based on what I think I need to get done should the Press get back to me and demand the entire manuscript. I think I’ll post those tomorrow.
Goal today: send out proposal to friend reviewers; work for 1.5 hours on chapter
Goal met: Yes.
Word count of proposal: 3,607 (still a bit longer than I would like)
Word count of chapter: 18, 973
