My daughter, Haley, is writing a book.
Her book, “Mia Maria and Two Times The Kindergarten” is a wonderful little project, though Haley is slightly devastated she missed her first deadline.
Yes, she’s only nine, and yes, I did give her a deadline.
We’ve been working on Mia since early this year, starting back in late April. Every Wednesday night we would sit in my office for an hour or two, starting with our outline and working through the chapters one by one.
The finished outline was 3,000 words and provided a thick skeleton for her full story. Haley diligently added pages over the last several months. I promised her that as soon as she finished the rough draft, we would work together to get it finalized and published by the end of the year.
Haley’s voice is especially strong, the book is semi-autobiographical, and we were working from a solid outline, so the plan seemed sound at the time.
But the months faded too fast, and the end of the school year seemed to arrive ahead of schedule, even though it was on the exact day the calendar had promised. We drove to California, stayed for five weeks, then hurried back to catch the tail end of summer and school at the end of August.
Mia was stalled at the end of chapter 11, where it remained a chapter from finished for approximately forever.
David and I have published a couple dozen titles this year, but had to schedule a publishing pause in December so we could streamline our catalog, tie a few loose ends, and write the second of Yesterday’s Gone before the start of the new year and our next 90 day quarter. Our final publishing date was November 30, so Haley’s deadline for the Mia draft was November 15, at the absolute latest.
I told Haley it was no big deal either way, yet as her deadline loomed I could see the stress starting to simmer. I hated it, and myself a little for giving my daughter the deadline the first place. Yes, deadlines are important and must be honored, but you don’t need them (or the canker sores) when you’re nine years old and working on your first book with daddy. When she missed the deadline, her biggest emotion was relief.
Haley is a lot like her father. She loves to work on 1,000,001 projects at once. Missing the deadline gave her a short reprieve to finish up a few things on her plate and hit the new deadline, which is December 20, for a publishing date of her birthday, January 14.
This last weekend, Haley finished her rough draft.
I’m so excited to be working on this project with my little girl. I’m blessed with many amazing co-writers, but this is the first one to share my gene pool.
I love Haley, I love this project, and I’ve never been more excited for my first baby’s birthday!
About Sean Platt
Great stuff Sean. 3000 words is amazing for a 9 year old. I can recall struggling with 3000 word assignments at varsity and I was a lot older. Deadlines! As someone once said “if it wasn’t for the last minute nothing would ever get done” and for many of us procrastination often leads to forced deadlines that didn’t need to be there.
I’m sure your little girl will do you proud. Enjoy your time with her while you can because they don’t stay young forever. Have RT your tweet.
Cheers, JR @affiliatesouth
Thanks Jon!
It’s a small, wonderful project. ANd I’m proud that Haley will have her first book published on her 10th birthday. That’s pretty freaking cool. :)
What a beautiful project. I am so happy for her and for you guys. My oldest is always doing things like making books, etc…maybe I could encourage her to dream up her own when she’s a little older. Great job and all the best to every one of you!
Thanks Tania!
It will be super interesting to see where this goes. I told her she could keep whatever the title makes, but I’m trying to convince her of the value of FREE, especially when just starting out as an author, lol. Will be amazing to see what her Amazon page looks like in another 10 years!
Love this! Can’t wait to read Haley’s first book!
Thanks man, you know you’ll be seeing it super early!
What an accomplishment – to actually finish (or almost anyway) such a huge project!
Love the title, by the way.
It is so satisfying to see our children embrace their gifts and celebrate. I am so proud of everyone. Seriously, start early and finish strong baby girl! Spot on with deadlines Dad. She delivered for you and happily. That is priceless. Merry Christmas Papa Bear!
The best early Christmas present I’ve had so far! xoxo
We are always juggling a gazillion writing projects. But this one is my All Top Favorite. Go Haley Platt. You are on your way big girl!
That is incredible! What an experience for both of you. Amazing!
Thanks Janice!
Yeah, the draft is now on my desk and I’m dropping the ball, lol. I’m hoping to get to it tomorrow.