After six months, I finally finished Building Fluency: Math Practice! I used about half the problems in the book from sheets of paper I kept from when I was in the classroom. The rest I created to fulfill my purpose for the book (lots of practice on foundational math skills). This means that each concept and skill has between 25 and 150 practice problems. Then I printed out the pages. With pen and calculator, I worked through each problem, making corrections to the problem if the answers were too wonky. I read through the instructions and made edits. Back in the digital version, I corrected the instructions and the problems. Then I typed the answers in the answer key. Last, I wrote the Dear Reader letter so users of this resource will have suggestions on how to make the most of the pages.
I’m waiting to hear back from my cover designer. There is no hard deadline for this title. I’ve learned over the years that hard deadlines (or deadlines in general) are usually a serving of disappointment when I miss them. Though there are still more steps before it’s published (writing a description, choosing keywords and finding categories, uploading to two retailers, sending all the info to my web designer, creating ads, ordering author copies), I won’t be doing much with the interior. So, I’m calling this project “done.”
With this HUGE project out of the way, it opens time slots for getting back to fiction and the admin tasks I’ve set aside since February. Added to chunks of time created by clients doing other things, the next several months may eliminate my excuses for not getting the words down and the other tasks done.
I celebrated by sharing the news with two friends and having a glass of sparkling apple cider! I feel light, like a weight has been lifted. The feel good brain chemicals from this achievement give me a boost of joy. How do you feel when you’ve completed a project? How do you celebrate?
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