The Excavation Draft
Starting the writing process by getting it all out there
I’m writing a book.
Yes Nick of course you are, those of you who’ve know me are now saying. You’ve been writing a book for as long as I’ve known you, and I’ve known you a long time.
That is true, so let’s say it this way: I’m writing a book, and this time I’m doing it properly and I’m going to finish. The book is currently my main focus and will be until it’s done. It’s why I’ve done very little blogging in the past few months, and even this post is part of the writing process, putting this out there as a public statement of where I’m at as a form of accountability.
What I’m currently doing, and what I’ve been doing for the last few months hasn’t been writing the book, though. I’ve been writing the excavation draft of it.
So what’s the excavation draft?
To explain, I’ll backtrack and tell you what the book is about. Or will be about when I actually embark on it. It’s a memoir about mental health, depression, grief, and walking. I came back from the Camino determined to write, but not just to write a travelogue of my trip. In the right hands that can work, but it can easily descend into into “today I went from X to Y via Z. On the way I looked at (insert overly lyrical description of…
