Mapping out my book manuscript.....

No, this is not a police department's criminal investigation board, this is the outline for the book I am writing based on my dissertation. I am a visual person and mapping out the different chapters to my book along with the main revisions necessary has helped me wade through the lengthy and overwhelming process. When writing the book seems daunting, I look at the board and break things down into more manageable parts. It helps me see how much I have done and where I am going with the revisions. I know they make computer programs that do that now but I am old school and I enjoy looking this when I need to rework a chapter or change the design of a chapter. I also posted my work plan for the next few months and my table of contents to help me visualize the process. I just started writing the only brand new chapter on policy implementation this week and it is slow going but I know every step is closer to my goal of a finished and published book. The writing and revision process will likely dominate my life this summer while I am in DC as a visiting scholar at the Kennan Institute. Revising is not as glamorous as gathering the data in the field but it is an important part of the scholarly process so I wanted to make sure I documented it in a blog post!