Demons & Detours

Courtesy Freedigitalphotos.net

By now most of my readers know that I've hit a snag in my writing schedule. I have a deadline and it was going pretty well... until Mike had an accident last Friday and broke his tibia and fibula. He came home on Monday but needless to say, since Friday I've  written very little. 

On top of his accident, I had to reset my computer and reload everything over the weekend. By Monday, I was back on line but with a full time patient in the spare room... or living room recliner, depending on the time of day. 

On January 21, when I accepted Autumn's challenge to finish a 1st draft by April 22nd, little did I know what demons would descend to derail and detour me. That has some nice alliteration to it, doesn't it? Broken bones, broken computers and exhaustion are now wreaking havoc on my writing schedule. 

Today I ran across this blog post: Productivity For Writers: 5 Ways To Become More Productive on The Creative Penn and thought I'd share it. I was so pleased find I'm actually doing most of this. My plan covers them all, except #2 but honestly, my reward is a finished first draft, so I feel I've got covered, too. 

I was a bit nervous when I accepted Autumn's challenge but it has been an immense help to have that deadline. My late writing teacher, Ron Roat, was right about me. I do better with a deadline. Add a scheduled work day to that and things were progressing.  

Each day I've found myself measuring how much I got done and how much more I need to reach that goal. The progress I was making encouraged me, The accident simply means I've had to re-evaluate how I'm going to finish. 

I'm exhausted by the time I get to bed. Then, I have to get up every four hours to dispense pain meds and help with bathroom breaks or change the ice packs. By the time 6:30 rolls around and I have to get Sarah to school, I'm tired. So, I have to adjust my writing schedule to compensate for the increased demands on my time and lack of sleep. I'm having some pain problems of my own that are not as easily solved without sleep but that's the norm for me.  I'm confident, well, pretty confident, that I'll be back on track in a few days.

The point is that the article was a nice validation of all my efforts. I think writing is one of those jobs where it doesn't take much to discourage you. It is a very personal endeavor and we tend to judge ourselves more critically because of that. It has taken years for me to get there. I'm not going to let a few broken bones get in the way. 

And if I happen to fall asleep at the keyboard, then so zzzzzzzzzzzzz