I don't have much time this week to work on the next book, because of another writing project I'm working on and also a caregiving job. But I want to report that I'm using the exercises at the beginning of Eric Maisel's book The Art of the Book Proposal to get my thoughts organized, and I'm thrilled and proud of myself for doing so.

Maisel offers exercises that help you "think your book into existence," and they have already shifted some of my ideas about how I'll do this book. I came across his book too late in the process of writing Practically Shameless for it to make much difference and vowed I'd do it differently next time. And I'm actually doing it - what a concept!

It's really striking how difficult it is to think about a book and consciously plan it, rather than do what most of us do, namely, "sit down and start writing." Last week I came home from the library with about ten books to start reading as part of the massive amount of research I'll be doing. And I'm proud that I haven't started reading them read. Because the truth is that it's a better idea to think carefully about the book and plan its approach before I do the research and start writing, as tempting as that is.