I really thought that writing these posts would keep me more accountable, so I wouldn’t experience exactly the sort of crunch time that is happening right now.

But things happen. Life happens. You spend three weeks emailing cosplay photographers in a quest to find the right photos. You rearrange the chapters. You email twenty or more cosplayers at least to quote them for the book, and then you postpone writing the chapters until you hear back from more, fully aware that you might never hear from them again. (Mine is not the only cosplay book to solicit their opinions this year.)

What happened happened and I’ve found myself in the tight spot of having far less than half of the book written with just three weeks to go. This week’s goals:

Finalize all photography

Communication has been slow because my publisher and I have an eight-hour time difference, plus the cosplay photographers we’re contacting are all over the world. And I have to do a lot of waiting, since I don’t always recognize the cosplay and it isn’t always ID’d on the cosplayer’s website, so I do a lot of back-and-forth “what IS this?” emails.

No matter. This is the week I’ll nail it down. I spent this weekend rifling through more photos than I can count to select the final 300 for the book. I sent it off to my publisher, who will ideally spend the week getting the rights to these photos by negotiating payment and contracts with photographers, leaving me free to forget about them. Well, at least until it’s time to write a caption for every single one.

Write now, edit later

I’ve been putting off writing chapters. First, because I didn’t think the original chapter arrangement I’d conceived (some chapters focusing on genre, others on craftsmanship) truly reflected the cosplay community as a whole. Many thanks to Anna Fischer in helping me right this!

Now that I’ve reordered the sections in a way that feels good to me (now they’re all focusing on a genre, with the final chapter on original costuming), I have two options. I can wait around until I hear back from even a majority of the cosplayers I’ve contacted, or I can start writing now and fill in the quotes later. Each chapter only needs to be 1,000 words, which every high school student knows is maybe an hour’s work at most.

Remember this is just a job

Even in our digital age, there is something magical that happens when you tell people you’re writing a print book. For writerly types, the Book is still the ultimate unattainable artifact. I mention my book coming out this year and their expressions soften a bit. Now the people I admire are starting to ask me for advice on writing proposals.

But anyone who’s been reading these weekly updates knows that this book is not a Book book, it is not my blood, sweat and tears condensed into knowledge over 100 nights, and then granted legitimacy through a book deal. Instead, it happened backwards, a result of the coffee table book cottage industry. A publisher decided that cosplay is hot right now, and then Googled the first writer they could find with cosplay reporting experience.

I have been agonizing over every topic in an attempt to give cosplayers the rich, diverse book that the community deserves. But the truth is, the ultimate cosplay book simply can’t be written in seven weeks. The best I can do is strive to showcase cosplay in a way both fans and outsiders alike can enjoy, and that’s not such a bad goal to set.

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 6

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 4

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 3

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 2

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 1

Photo by Anna Fischer, you guess the cosplay. After all, that’s the game I’ve been playing all weekend 9_9

On Monday evening, I came home from Geek Girl Con to a packed inbox I really wasn’t ready to tackle. Because of the time difference, I ended up devoting two days to travel, and because of the lack of Internet in both the hotel room and the convention hall, I lost a full four days in which I’d normally be working on my book.

A lot of people, including myself, have an idealized version of the time spent writing a book. When I was younger, I imagined that by now I’d have a sunlit office (or any office at all), where I’d rise at 5 AM and churn out a chapter or two before anyone I knew was even awake. Or perhaps I’d retire to my candlelit library with a glass of wine in the evening, and transcribe the words on parchment with a fountain pen. So romantic.

But unless writing books is your full time job, and I’m guessing even if it is, life gets in the way. I wrote Otaku Journalism in snatches of time between my actual life obligations. And this book had such a tight deadline that I’m pretty sure I wrote every word of my chapter while actively experiencing a panic attack. Now, I’m writing around an event, not to mention all my usual writing jobs. (Though if I was going to take off time for ANY event, it’d be Geek Girl Con. More on that in a later post.)

I spent a good chunk of Geek Girl Con advising people how to launch their own careers in fandom, and if you have the time, I’d love for you to check out the fully taped panel I’ve linked here. But all the while, I was feeling pretty behind on my own. So now you get a short, late book-progress post, and I get a short week to compensate for all the work I didn’t do earlier.

I guess what I’m trying to say is there’s no perfect time to start writing your book. There are always going to be a million more pressing obligations to take care of.

Since high school I have idealized NaNoWriMo and every time—for over a decade now—I’ve pushed it aside with excuses. “I already write hundreds of words a day for work.” “Not this November; I’m too busy.” This year, however, none of that is stopping me. Because that decade has taught me that when I look back ten years, I don’t remember all the tiny chores I took care of. Only the book I didn’t write.

Who’s with me?

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 6

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 5

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 3

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 2

Writing a book in seven weeks, part 1

Screenshot from “From Feels To Skills: Putting Fandom On Your Resume.” Recording captured by Alexandra Edwards.