One morning this week I was discussing retirement strategies with a friend at work. I learned she is retiring about the same time I am. We have similar goals.

Clean-out our homes and sell them. Settle in the eastern mountains (Blue Ridge, Smokies, or Appalachians). We talked about what we want out of our retirements. She wants to travel and volunteer.  I want to write.

She knew about my blog but doesn’t read it regularly. She didn’t realize my dream is writing novels. She is an avid reader and was very excited for me. When I told her about my writing I got excited.

People say my face lights up when I talk about this passion. Since I’m not looking in a mirror, I’ve never seen it. I choose to believe them. She must have seen it because she lit up too. She wants to read my book!

This week I had a site visit. On the five-hour round trip another colleague and I talked about lots of stuff. He wants to read my book too. I’m gonna have to get some copies printed for readers.

Where does this leave me? My dream is stalled at the moment. My life is disrupted by the personal and professional: Dad, legal stuff, family, career, dreams, health stuff, etc. That’s just in the corporal world. The spiritual world is busy too. My prayer life has ramped up as I battle for my family and friends. What fell away when life got turned upside down in March?

First was my writing. Again this week I missed my post in the middle of the week. I feel the struggle. I’ve been talking about finding an editor for Buried Secrets, learning about the publishing business, selling stuff on eBay, and preparing for the move in 2.75 years (Not that I’m counting or anything {wink}). This is just off the top of my head. My progress towards being an author is on hold.

Do I need to change something I ask? I start thinking about my non-negotiables: Spending time with God, my family’s needs, transitioning, honoring my father, writing, connecting, and choosing health. I tend to lose the writing, transitioning, and connecting when the tasks take over.

Thinking about my post Write Now, has got me considering how I can carve out time for writing. First, I asked my husband and the princes for help. We decided to develop new habits to get the household duties done faster.

I need to write in the early morning. The morning is my golden time for creative thinking. That means getting my rest by going to bed on time! 4:30 am is pretty early and staying up past 9:30 pm isn’t working!

Friday, I unexpectedly ended up at home alone. The guys had gone out. I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t write now. I did chores. Checked emails and surfed the web. When it got late I regretted not using the time to write. I had thought about it and had not paid attention to the nudges.

Laying in bed that night, I decided to steal the quiet times. When it’s quiet I need to shove away the “To-Do” list and write now. I am writing this post in the morning while the night owls are sleeping. I have felt the need for several months, to pick up Disrupted again. The story pulls at the edges of my consciousness. It begs to be fully written.

The title, Disrupted is appropriate, the book itself is in a disrupted state. How funny is that! The book is basically in pieces. It jumps from one detailed event to another without a lot of transition in-between. This is a product of the NaNoWriMo challenge. It’s not good…or bad…it just is.

I enjoyed NaNoWriMo but the goal was to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in a month. The writing is done in a rush. The result for me is a story that doesn’t flow. The connecting plot lines are murky. Some of the characters aren’t even named yet. When a name didn’t come to mind immediately I wrote in “Smith.” Searching the book, I found 80 “Smiths” in there. Obviously some of the Smiths are the same character. But, the characters are crying out for names!

An aside: I may keep “Smith and Smith” a male/female pair of partnered cops just for giggles. I really like that! I also have two Angelas. I really like the name for both characters. Hmm…I’ll figure that out later.

Anyway, the point is I set a goal: Rewrite one chapter a week.  I have 17 chapters and an epilogue. That makes 18 weeks if I can stay on schedule. Oh My! as I’m writing this I thought of a prologue…I’m  going to have to write it to see where it goes. Make that 19 weeks…Oh Fiddlesticks! I’ll just round-up to 20 weeks to get the first draft straightened out. First draft by February 10, 2019. It’s doable!

Write Now empowered me to reclaim my writing mojo. One of my readers made the comment “So Write on!! Are you waiting for a bus to come by? We’re waiting to hear the next episode.” I love that! It’s challenging, encouraging, and funny! Just the right kick in the pants to get me out of the mud and back to my desk! The message I received this week is people want to read what I write.

Let’s do this! Reclaim your mojo! I’m writing on…Blessings,

Milly