I'm still writing my book, 90,000 words later

The latest on where I stand, and what happens next.

When I’m not writing, I’m often out hiking in winter wonderlands, like this one.

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know more than you ever wanted to about the word count of my forthcoming book.

That’s because, for the past few months, I’ve gotten into the habit of posting every time I hit a big word-count milestone: First 75,000, then 80,000 and then—incredulously—90,000, just last week.

You read that right: The manuscript for my book has now topped 90,000 words, and I’m still not done. This number feels impossibly large to me, even as the one who put that all down on the page. When my publisher told me, last spring, that I should aim for 90,000 words, I was terrified. I thought the average book was 60,000, maybe 70,000 words. But 90,000? Where, exactly, would those extra 20,000 words come from?

My brain, apparently. I’m telling you all of this not to brag, but to peel back the curtain on where I am with writing the book. In the fall, I wrote a post for my paid subscribers about how I navigated the earlier stages of the publishing process. But now, as I close in on the completion of the manuscript, I figured I would share another update with you all.

So, here I am, 90,000 words¹ and counting. I’ve just finished the draft of my second-to-last chapter, and now I’ve only got one full chapter left to write. By my estimation, I’ll finish writing that one—and, therefore, finish the entire manuscript—by March or April.

It must be said, I am really ahead of schedule. (For now, at least. Are writers really, truly, ever ahead of schedule?) My deadline is in September, which leaves some five extra months that I get to play with once the first draft is done.

I’ve got some exciting plans for how to use that time. At the end of March, I’m traveling to California to interview some sources in person. Also this spring, I’m hoping to go to Minnesota to pull on a rather obscure thread of this story that I find extremely fascinating. And in July, I plan to visit the National Jamboree to witness the next iteration of the BSA’s diversity, equity and inclusion programming.

By August, I hope to lock myself in a room (ideally, a cabin somewhere in the mountains) and revise, revise, revise until I can’t stand to look at my manuscript any longer.

Once I submit my manuscript to my publisher in September (if not earlier), we’ll be off to the races with editing and fact-checking. If all goes according to plan, you’ll be able to hold a copy in your hands by spring of 2024.

Now, if you’ll allow me to get sentimental for a moment: I can’t thank all of you enough for reading and cheering me on throughout this journey. I started this newsletter back in 2020 with the inkling that it might, someday, grow into something bigger. Now here I am, with hundreds of you reading every week, and a book that is sure to reach many more.

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Programming note: There will not be a newsletter next week. I am taking a week off for my birthday.

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1. By the way, I know most of you are probably wondering, why not share a page count? Well, I couldn’t really even if I tried. I could tell you how many pages are in my giant Google Doc, but that will not at all translate directly to the number of pages in the printed book layout. So, the best thing to count are words.