A writer who won���t give up! (part 4)

continued from July 21���

After Hillary and I decided on our book’s subject (the breast cancer journey) and the tone (not heavy!), we went back and forth about how best to get her thoughts from��inside her head into my notebook.

At first, we thought it might be a good idea for her to use iPhone’s built-in voice recorder to log her thoughts. I scripted an outline for her to use so that she had��some kind of structure to follow. I didn’t want her to feel like she was just rambling aimlessly into a microphone. Plus I knew that if she had an outline to work from, it would be easier for me to translate her thoughts into notes that I could eventually edit into a book.

Hillary is not shy by any stretch. So I wasn’t too worried about her recordings sounding awkward or about her feeling uncomfortable recording private thoughts into an

iPhone. But after 3-4 weeks of NO CONTENT, she admitted to me that it felt too weird talking into a recorder about her breast cancer odyssey. I’m glad she shared that

with me, but looking back, I think that was my first clue that this project was going to be a challenge. I learned that I was going to have to continually tiptoe��around her, understandably, wildly fluctuating feelings. I felt up to the task.

Next we played with the idea of her writing longhand into a journal and then scanning the journal pages so that she could email her journal entries to me. I didn’t��know this before we started, but I quickly found out that Hillary is, er, how can I say this nicely, uh, well she’s “technically challenged.” And that’s a gross��understatement.

So the scanning idea was a “no-go.” Now what?

Since I was living in an apartment only 10 minutes away, instead of trying to transfer her thoughts digitally, I was able to drive to her house with my laptop, take��her journal into a quiet room, type her current entries (verbatim) into a text file, and then return to my apartment. Before going home, Hillary and I met briefly to��discuss any outstanding issues that needed resolving.

My goal when editing her journal entries, was to render her thoughts as lucid and cohesive as possible without skewing her intent. I kept that goal in mind as we��muddled through our process for the next 5 months. Finally, I had a structure in place that was starting to take on the shape of a book.

At several points during our��journal/meeting process, Hillary’s health unfortunately interrupted our flow.��Writing into her journal just got to be too intense for someone struggling with the realities of breast cancer. I knew I needed to be as patient and compassionate as��possible. We were writing about an extremely delicate subject and, remember, she was kind enough in the first place to take me in when my confidence was at an all-time��low.

I remained confident though in what we were trying to accomplish, simultaneously knowing that the longer our process took, the more we were prolonging any potential marketing��opportunities. (October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month remains our publishing target.) Daily, I felt like I was walking a tightrope between being compassionate and practical.

Thankfully, Hillary’s health is improving and we’ve been able to not only finalize most of the mundane chores of writing a book, but also successfully collaborate on the creative parts. The fun stuff!

To be continued…