Where’s my Calgon?

I now have less than a week to finish and submit this short story. EEEEEEK! Where the heck did September go?

I’ve been up against multiple deadlines this month and I’d hoped to have this story finished well before now. However, that’s definitely not the way it has worked. The characters have been not cagey, but playing their cards close to their chests, we’ll say. Every paragraph has been a struggle to write. I think it’s the added pressure of knowing it was intended to be submitted for real and that I’d promised myself that when it was done I’d send it to Jodi. Yeah, no pressure or anything.

“Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
— C. Northcote Parkinson

So, where does the story stand? Pretty much where I left it over a week ago. I have five basic scenes/plot points to hit and I know there are a bunch of things that I need to bring back to wrap it up nicely.

So, what’s the problem? A distinct lack of focus and motivation. I feel like I have a perpetual headache. Most of my other obligations have wound down for a bit but there’s still the daily grind to accomplish as well. However, I still feel like that Greenday song, “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” Oh, not anything from the lyrics or the video, just the title. After two essentially sleepless nights last week, I could use the extra Zzzz’s. Maybe that’s part of the headache?

So, why am I whining (am I? I tried not to. Honest.) about this here? DH and I drove an hour or so north of here for a friend’s birthday party on Saturday night (*waves hi to TinyFroglet!*) and to mourn the passing of her youth. She turned 40 this year as well. Anyway, she said she really enjoyed reading the blog because I wasn’t afraid to be honest about my struggles with this process. So thank you for pushing me out of the rut and making me realize that explaining it and thinking out loud about it does actually help more than just ignoring it and hoping it’ll go away again.

So, what am I going to do about it? First, I’m going to go check and make sure the premier of Heroes is taping tonight, then I’m gonna sit down with my timer and jump into one of those chat challenges at Romance Divas. Ready? Here I go….