Monday, September 5, 2011

When Life Gets In The Way

I'm frustrated. I'n less than 20K away from the end of my draft, but I can't seem to find enough time to sit down and write it. My deadline is September 15th, and it is creeping up on me way too fast. I have plans to write every day, but somehow life keeps getting in the way.

For example. I was just getting ready to sit down a the laptop on Thursday night when my youngest son came out of his room barking like a seal and barely able to breathe. Luckily we knew it was croup since he gets it a lot, but it was a very bad bout and we had to take him to the Emergency Room. And if you've ever been there, you know how long you have to wait around.... So, no writing time for Kate.

Then, when we got back from the ER, my older son started vomiting, so I was washing sheets and duvets at 2am. I ended up having to take the day off work to stay home with them both, and luckily there was a short period of time when they were both asleep so I wrote then. But it wasn't long enough.

Then on Saturday I had to go into work early to catch up on all the work I hadn't got done on Friday. And Sunday is my day to do stuff with the kids, so we went out to the coast. I wrote in the evening, but again, there wasn't enough time to do as much as I wanted to.

And the rest of this week doesn't look promising either. I have a late night burlesque show opening at work on Thursday, which means I'll be working late nights twice this week. And both my parents' birthdays are this weekend.

I'm going to scrape and steal whatever time I have, but I'm not entirely confident I'm going to meet that September 15th deadline.

How do you fight back when life gets in the way?

4 comments:

  1. It's difficult. Because writing isn't 'pressing', it's the natural activity to get bumped when something unexpected happens. Unfortunately, this happens to me a lot.

    Maybe we could discover a way to freeze time?

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  2. I know that feeling feeling so well! I just have to make myself write, no matter what, in order to feel productive. Even when life gets in the way. My daily word goal is only 500, so it's very do-able even during crazy days, and it's a lot better than going for weeks without getting any writing done. I just have to make sure to be my own drill sergeant. Hope the kiddos are getting better!

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  3. This is a tough one. If you know you're going to be busy with children or away from your computer, maybe you could carry a small notebook with you. This way when you get two minutes you can still write, just long hand. Good luck!

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  4. I'm sorry! I've been there and it's definitely not fun. Sometimes there are ways around it and other times there just arent. Do what you can do. Anytime you can spare a few minutes, write, even if it's only a few words, it's better than nothing.

    You'll get there. I hope things slow down for you and your kids are feeling better.

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