Reading ≠ Writing

It sounds obvious, but writing patterns is a lot tougher when it’s meant for other people to read. When I write things down for myself I’ll scribble some notes for reference in case I screw up, but it’s a bunch of nonsense shorthand that would only make sense to me. Writing a pattern for the general public is a different ballpark. I forget that every step needs to be accounted for. That every piece of material needs to be documented. Things that are habits for me aren’t going to be habits for everyone else. Things that seem common sense to me aren’t going to be common sense for everyone else. Will these instructions be clear? Will these materials be accessible to most people? I’ve already had to take a character apart entirely multiple times and remake it. I’ve looked through Amazon reviews for other crochet books to see what people liked and didn’t like about certain patterns, but I know I can’t please everyone. I’m just hoping it doesn’t end up like this:

This whole book-writing thing is a lot of work, but it’s been fun so far. The most frustrating part is that I can’t show what I’ve been doing yet! I’ve been crocheting more than ever to meet my deadlines (to the point where I’ve had to intensify my old woman status) and researching more into works of classic literature than I ever did when I was ASSIGNED to be reading some of these works back in high school. Hopefully lit geeks (and people in general!) will be happy with the characters I’ve made, but I can’t say which characters will be in the book yet because I honestly don’t know who will make the cut and who won’t. Hopefully I can crank out an extra character or two for Comic-Con drops if I get some time in between the book-work, but my final deadline is RIGHT before SDCC, so if my hands are still intact I might try to squeeze a few out just a week before heading out to San Diego. CROCHETING OVERLOAD HALP.