Back in February, Greg Lindsay, a contributing at mediabistro.com's FishbowlNY blog, landed a book deal with FSG as the co-author of Aerotropolis, a book about the giant airport-industrial complexes springing up all over the planet. Now Lindsay is documenting his progress in a series of monthly articles for mediabistro.com called "Off The Ground." The series debuted in late September, as Lindsay began organizing his field notes—"30 pocket-size notebooks, filled on both sides, and more than six days of audio recordings—and quickly found himself overwhelmed. Thanks to some good advice from Charles Fishman, though, he's back on track... somewhat.

"Writing 1,000 words a day... has become a goal unto itself on some days," he writes, "and that's usually the copy I throw out the next day because I veered off the outline and stopped paying attention to the greater goal."

Sounds like Lindsay's ready for more advice, this time from sportswriter/novelist Will Leitch, who teaches him how to stay focused on the project's overall goals and stick to a manageable word count.

"Off the Ground" is one of several mediabistro.com features exclusively available to AvantGuild subscribers. If you're not a member yet, you can register for as little as $49, and start reading those articles, receive discounts on mediabistro.com seminars and workshops, and receive all sorts of other bonuses.