When Real Life Intrudes

I had a goal - when I finalled in the Great Beginnings contest with the first five pages of Camilla, I decided that I would finish my first draft by the time the winners were announced - not unreasonable, really. It would require about 900 words a day production.

I went gangbusters for the first few weeks - went from a starting word count of just under 10,000 and was up to 30,000 words in about 2 1/2 weeks!! Yahoo!!

Then real life intruded.

I sliced open my finger and had major trouble typing.

I homeschool my daughter, and had to work on creating, locating and purchasing her curriculum for this year.

My husbands new job has different hours, and he now gets up early - used to be that I would get up at 5 a.m. and have two solid hours to myself for writing and catching up on posts for my online writing groups. Now he's up at 5:45 and, though he doesn't expect me to make breakfast or even make him coffee, he's loud and a huge distraction. No more quiet in the a.m. unless I start getting up at 4:00 - something I am considering since I'm a definite morning person.

I also decided that I needed to clean the house at least occasionally, and - oddly enough - my husband wanted dinner now and then! As a SAHM those things are my job - as much as any of you who work outside the home.

Since we're currently in the middle of the two months of summer that we get here in the Northeast, I like to garden and sometimes even do something wild and crazy like take a walk with the dog and my daughter. Call me crazy.

THEN... I realized that I needed a bigger conflict for my story. This requires going back to the beginning and making some changes. So, although I am writing, I'm not exactly increasing my word count.

So... I have a week to write 20,000 words. And I'm starting school with my daughter on Monday, a second grade curriculum that will take up about 2-3 solid hours daily, not to mention the time I need for preparation and getting the literature she needs either from the library or purchasing it when I can't find it there.

Still, I tell myself that I am writing, even if I'm not reaching the goal I set for myself. At least my momentum is forward - at a snails pace instead of a greyhounds, but forward is good.

Forward is good.