An S.O.S.

(X Posted on my other blog.)


It's two weeks into the school year and I am falling into a very bad rhythm that I must break. I think I may have confessed to accomplishing next to nothing on my writing last school year. This summer, I went to the Blue Mountain Center, and wrote like I was on fire. Still smoking, I came home in July, spiffied up my writing room and wrote like crazy for the rest of the summer. Then school started. I have read over the entire manuscript, but I haven't been really in the world of the novel enough to write meaningfully. This is not good.

I have featured guest posts here for working writers-- working writers with KIDS even-- who find time to get their work done. One of the most popular posts on this blog was Renee Simms's excellent piece "Jazzing My Way Through." So why am I not jazzing? I come home, tired, hop in the shower, whimper into my Carol's Daughter, and crash, crash, crash.

I have urged people to snatch time while they can get it. I remind everyone that Judith Ortiz Cofer found her writing time while her baby's clothes were in the dryer. But I am finding that I need full immersion time, which is not only free time as measured by the clock, but I need free mind space as well. I can't work when I feel like I am stealing my time, when my to-do list is ticking like a bomb.

It's time for me to reorganize my life and refocus my efforts. I know that I usually am providing helpful hints for other people, but now I am sending y'all an S.O.S. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am three quarters through this novel. I can't let it go until next summer.