When things don’t go according to plan

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m a planner. I have spreadsheets to help me organize every aspect of my life. I set goals and deadlines for myself, especially when it comes to my writing. But sometimes those plans fall apart and once they do it’s really hard for me to get back on track.

It’s been over three weeks since I last worked on the rewrites for Family Binds. I first fell off the writing wagon before a family vacation. Usually, I start packing and shopping for vacation a good month before we leave. There’s a lot a little things I need to remember when packing for two small children, especially since this trip was a cruise and we wouldn’t be able to run to a store if I forgot anything. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case this time. So the week before we left I was running around like crazy trying to get everything ready. By the time my kids were in bed and my usual writing time rolled around I was spent. So it was the couch and a Downton Abby marathon with my hubby to ease my pre-trip stress.

Then of course there was the trip, a week long cruise on the Disney Fantasy. (I am thinking about adding a section to this page where I can write about my other passion, Disney, if anyone would be interested in that.) I had grand plans of waking up before the rest of my family and writing on our balcony while watching the waves or writing away while the kids happily napped before dinner. I should have known better, this wasn’t my first vacation with my kids. There was one night where I did manage to get my writing stuff out. It was my husband’s turn to go out so I was in the cabin while the kids slept. Literally 5 minutes after my tablet booted up the baby started to cry. But that was fine. It was a family vacation after all, the writing could wait. So another week went by without a word written.

When we got home I figured it would be easy to jump right back into writing. Of course I was wrong. First I was spent from having traveled with two small children and then came a completely awful, stress filled week at work filled with emergency calls and saying goodbye to a lot of friends and ended with my work load doubling for the foreseeable future. And so a third week passed with no writing.

I’m really hoping to get back to writing full force this week. I’ve been saying Family Binds will be released sometime in May, which if I’m being honest I’m not sure is going to happen anymore. I’m working on accepting the missed deadline, but it’s hard for me. I know at the end of the day the most important thing is to make the book as best as possible before I send it off into the world, even if that takes longer than planned.

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