Much of the material for “From the Heart of a Grateful Man” is being drawn on, or derived from, earlier writing or notes that I’d created thinking some day they might come in handy if I ever decided to write a non-fiction book.
Each item was anywhere from a single line or two to about 4 pages, with most probably about a page long, so it certainly isn’t a completely from-scratch project. I’ve had to do a lot of re-writing, revisions, trimming, corrections, editing, and creating of new material, but the project is going blazingly fast.
This book is exploding from me like water from a pressurized fire hose. For example, in the approximately 16 hours I worked on it yesterday, my rough draft hit about 28,000 words before I finally stumbled off to bed at about 5:30 this morning (4:30 due to the time change).
I had vaguely thought that I might have enough material for a short book and therefore would need to create a lot of it from scratch to end up with a full-length book, but have discovered that I probably already have so much raw material for a full book that a lot of what I believe to be quality material will need to be left out to keep the book to a reasonable length.
With Love,
Russ
Russ Towne's A Grateful Man 
Taking posts from a blog or personal notes, putting them together and making them ‘flow’ constructively in a book is not an easy task.
Note that the ‘quality material left out’ can be put into your second book 🙂
Thank you for your comment and suggestion, Elizabeth. I agree. May you always feel at home and welcome here.
Russ
Your whole writing experience has mushroomed Russ in the short time that I have known you. I wonder if you ever dreamed that everything would come together as fast as it did… It’s very exciting to even watch how it has…. Diane
Hi, Diane. Your kind comments led me to think about whether I ever dreamed about such things, etc. I think writing was one of many dreams I had throughout life that I knew were highly unlikely to come true such as many people have regarding becoming a professional ball player, a superstar actor, or winning a Nobel Peace Prize.
Once I realized that I had at least some modest ability to write song lyrics a few years ago, my pipe dreams regarding other types of writing seemed to me to feel a little less far-fetched.
As I don’t tend to enjoy long projects–another reason that writing a full-length non-fiction book seemed very unlikely–I began to try short projects such as blog postings, poetry, and then children’s books and found that I also loved those forms of writing.
Always, in the back of my mind, I thought some of my original stories and blog posts might be of interest to readers as part of a book, but since I don’t enjoy long projects and do like to focus on doing things I love to do, writing a non-fiction book still seemed to be more of a pipe dream–until 2 or 3 days ago.
What changed? I don’t really know. All of a sudden I had the passion to write a non-fiction book that I’d never had before. I’ve learned that once my passion for something flares, I need to go for it with all I’ve got as I never know how long it will be until something else comes along for which my passion burns even brighter.
Thank you for your comment, Diane. I enjoyed the mental exercise to which your comments led.
Russ
I’m glad Russ … and I’m going to be able to say… I knew him when…….. Diane 😉
And I’m going to be able to keep saying that Diane was one of the people who always enthusiastically supported me right from the very beginning, and I’m eternally grateful that she did!
If I was a performing artist, I’d give you front row seats and back stage passes.
Thank you, Diane.
Russ
It is so inspiring to get to watch your dream come to life…..thank you so much and “keep writing”!!! paula
Your post brought a smile to my face, Paula. Thank you for your kind message and support.
Russ
Wow you are busy, but I guess onece it is so flowing you cannot stop! I am sure it will be wonderful just as you are !
Coming from a person as wonderful as you, Ute, I take that as quite a compliment. Thank you!
Russ
Looking forward to it. You have really accomplished so much – way to go!
Thank you for your kind compliment, Patty. May you experience much joy and love as you read it.
Russ