Friday, November 17, 2006

Writer's Dilemma

To write, or not to write. That is the question.

My novel writing is going very well. To date I've written 32,613 of 50,000 words. And to top it off, I'm liking what I've written. The story is moving along. I've been building up to "the big scene" which I am right on the verge of now. This is the steamy one, the very emotional one, the rock your socks off one. I'm both excited to write it and want to jump right in, and at the same time afraid I won't be able to do it justice and it will only come out a luke warm version of what I want it to be. Here's the problem: timing.

I've been getting myself all psyched up to write this sexy, emotion packed scene but life has intervened with distractions a plenty (none of which contribute to the sizzling hot scene). I got a call yesterday informing me of my cousin's death.

This cousin is very special to me since I spent eight years looking for him and only got to know him and his family for 18 months before his death. He was a wonderful man who went above and beyond the call of duty to teach me about my family in Poland and the heartache and brutality they suffered at the hands of the Nazis (he immigrated here when he was 40 so he was there to see his own father executed in front of the town hall in Poland). Tonight I will go to his viewing at the funeral home and tomorrow morning I will go to his funeral. Wouldn't you know it would be the same day as THE GAME? The Michigan vs Ohio State football game is tomorrow too and I live for Michigan football. So I have both the distraction of the death of my dearly beloved cousin and the Michigan vs OSU game which will occupy my thoughts today and tomorrow. It's hard to think about hot and sexy when you're feeling sad and anxious.

So why not put the writing off for a couple of days? I'm far enough ahead in my word count to be able to do it except that then I'm backing into next week and the Thanksgiving holiday with all the extra activities that go on with that. And the three days after Thanksgiving are when I get most of my Christmas shopping done, which will be another huge distraction. But I can't put this scene off until all that is over or I'll be too time stressed to get the book done by deadline and may end up rushing through this important scene just to get it done. Yikes! What's a writer to do?

It's a typical dilemma for a NaNoWriMo competitor. And I thought the new addition to the Ancestry.com database was a big tempting distraction. This is what I get for complaining. Should have kept my mouth shut ;-)