In a computer lab on Christmas Eve somewhere in the Middle East

It's Christmas Eve and I'm sitting in a computer lab during my break at the university where I teach English because, well, I teach in the Middle East where Christmas isn't considered a holiday. Fair enough since last week we were off due to it being Al-Eid (a holy post-Ramadan kind of holiday that includes a lot of family time, feasting, and gift-giving). Still, there's a lot of pressure on westerners living over here who have to work, shop, cook the Christmas feast, bake ginger cookies and be there to watch their children open their presents.

As of right now, I'm between 75-80% finished of my writing target of 75K words. That boils down to only writing a meager 18K words or so. I think I know which scenes still need to be written, and I'm doing them one by one, usually taking two days to write a scene, but I've been going at a very slow pace because a lot of editing still needs to be done as well so that it's a polished first draft. I'm a little worried about the historical storyline since I haven't been working on that much at all in past months, and now I'm trying to figure out how it's going to fit. I have my outline of scenes I can look at to jog my memory, but my current storyline and its themes have evolved to the point where I can't just insert the historical storyline (as is) as I had intended.

You would think writing is a joyful hobby, but I tell you, I only feel joy maybe 1 out of 5 times when I sit down to write. It's painstaking, tedious, humiliating at times, and brain-sapping as if I'm solving a very difficult puzzle, taking every scrap of mental effort I had been saving to mop the kitchen floor with.

Anyway, it's likely I won't complete the first polished draft by December 31 since my husband and stepson are leaving for Nepal the day after Christmas and will be away for almost a week. Creche is on holiday, so I'll be sitting here working and watching my two little goats kids. That's okay, I'm not crying over not meeting my writing goal because I think I've done pretty well considering I didn't begin writing this novel until July due to the arthritis thing (however, I had written scenes, outlines, character sketches, and done research earlier this year and last year). I think the important thing is the determination a person has along the way when s/he is striving to meet a goal.

Comments

[Sylvia Shipp]

Hi Jen,

thanks for the encouraging words! I guess a good New Year's resolution for 2008 would be to get it published by the end of the year, just in time to give it out as a stocking stuffer.

Sylvia

[fondushka]

[this is good] No need to cry for sure! You are almost there...and...you'r writing a novel!!!! I must say that is very inspiring for sure.
Can't wait for the published edition.
Hope you had a very Merry Christmas with the family and friends.
xoxoxo Jen