Bad Week

I guess we all are doomed to have a bump in the road at some point, the fist one came along last week for me. It was a wasted week for my writing and I'm starting to feel anxious that time is slipping out of my hands and I won't be able to finish. First of all, the so called short story is reaching its thirtieth page; granted, it's only missing the end, but you can see how it's only short by name. Then, a week ago I read about a contest for Fiction Short Stories (up to ten thousand words, thank God) with a Nov. 15th deadline; so, this is getting tight. And finally the last week was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Here in Canada last monday was Thanksgiving day, obviously, everybody stayed at home and I didn't write a word; that's ok, we all need a bit of a time as a family. Then on tuesday my oldest daughter didn't have school, so the younger one wanted to stay and play with her "siste"; anyway, another lost day. On wednesday my loving husband had to fly to NY for business... what happened to me? I had to take both girls to school, clean up the disaster of the two previous days, and pick them up; I know this is what most mom's do everyday but since my routine is different, it just messed me up. Thursday comes along and, wait for it, my husband lost his plane yesterday and I have to pick him up at the airport at NOON. Seriously? By now I'm wondering if there's a godly design to keep me from working.

Friday was my "good" day if you don't take into account that it was raining cats and dogs, the wind was blowing tree branches to the floor, and I got soaking wet when picking my oldest from school; but hey, at least I had some four hours of writing. On saturday I didn't even try, I decided to give myself some shopping therapy; 150 dollars later I was a happy camper.

Finally Sunday arrives and the morning was crazy; the girls were at each other throats and we got late to gym class. Once in the gym I realized it was the last day to pay for their pictures and I hadn't even had breakfast. To hell with it. I called my husband, pulled him out of his class to give him a full ear of my horrific week and how he had to figure out something before a meteorite came crashing down on my head.

After that relaxing exercise I got myself a BIG coffee and a doughnut and sat down to watch my girls' class. My husband got the pictures payed and he kept the girls entertained outside for the rest of the afternoon. I'm sure he did it more for self-protection than kindness but I don't care; I sat down and wrote.

Now, the plot thickens. Everyone has heard of "Writer's block"; I'm not sure exactly what it is but is one of those things that I'll know when I see it. Yesterday I got confronted by one of its many faces, I think; I had been so overwhelmed by the previous events that my creative mind wasn't flowing as usual. Normally I'll write some four pages in six or seven hours of work; I have no idea if it is a good or a bad rhythm but that's what I'm used to. Yesterday I wrote one, ONE; and I'm not even sure it's decent enough.

I have a couple of new ideas that are distracting me from this project; I have committed to finish this thing before starting another but sometimes I just feel I'm going through the motions just to see it finished and be able to move on. It definitively hasn't been a simple task to not let my mind wander to other stories and write the best thing I can 'till the end; don't worry, I'll do. I promised you, but most importantly I promised me.

In the mean time tell me if you have gone through something similar and how did you manage to complete the task that you had assigned to yourself.

I'll keep you posted!