You are probably getting a little bit bored of the mention of this book I’m writing so pass over the following if that’s indeed the case. It is quite addictive though.
I’ve now written just under 20,000 words and have got as far as the end of the third day of cycling which puts me in Lille. There is another 35,000 words of raw blog that I need to transform into something which is potentially readable. So far I’ve been able to write about meeting up with people who I knew – Paul, Iain & Alain & his cousin Anais but for the next few days until I get to Strasbourg, it was just me on my own. I’ve posted two of the chapters onto website so if you click here you can read them. It seems to be that each of the chapters so far is between 6 and 9 pages long so let’s say an average of 7 throughout the whole book. 30 days of cycling, plus 5 rest days makes 35 x 7 = 245 plus the initial 40 or so pages at the start and something to round the whole thing off at the end. 10 pages? That would be more or less 300 pages and with about 320 words per pages, that makes a book of 96,000 words which is in the middle of where Google told me a book should be. Wow. And when I get to 24,000 – somewhere is the Vosges mountains no doubt – I’ll be a quarter of the way there. I’m enjoying it just as much as the cycling and it’s fun reliving what I did. Amazing how much I had actually forgotten.
No sign of writer’s block so far although I do go back to work on Tuesday and that will slow things down considerably, but it’s a short-term and we have another long weekend next week. Perhaps my deadline of the 31st August for having finished the draft was a little bit too generous?
And one thing is a sure sign that I am serious about the whole thing; I’m becoming increasingly paranoid about losing the whole thing. I’m saving regular back-ups onto a memory stick but perhaps the time has come to start saving it online as well. All I need to do is email it to myself I suppose… Exciting!
P.S. Suggestions for better titles still welcome. I did name ne of my posts “I spoke too soon”. It was the day after having climbed the Alps and I was on such a physical as well as mental high that the technical issues started. It was a nice play on words – spoke that is – so any ideas along those lines would be most welcome…
Alain
