I've begun training for that never-gonna-happen marathon at least three times. Having traveled so much this year, I often write about returning home. Since I'm a klutz, I have had to write about broken toes, falling on the stairs and the many recoveries from my many injuries.
But right now, what I am returning to is my novel. I haven't really worked on it since my last class finished, shortly before I left for Italy.
I have accepted the fact that I won't manage to have it ready to send out by the end of August. However, I need to keep my butt in the chair, and spend time writing. Due to the work I've done over the past months on my storyboard, the beginning of the novel needs to be reordered and several scenes need to be written.
One of my mentors, Mary Carroll Moore, whose blog I follow, wrote this past Friday about the problem of starting over. According to the experts, after three days of not writing, regaining your momentum becomes difficult. The answer, then, is to continue writing every day, if only for a little bit.
My new writing group is going to be the accountability that a procrastinator like me desperately needs. Today it's my turn to send an excerpt to the others. I've decided to work on that beginning. I'm not sure which passages I'll be able to organize into a whole, how many gaps I'll fill in, or what it will be like, but by tonight, I'll send out the beginning of my novel.
Artificial deadlines work for me.
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