a work in progress

Help! I'm being held captive! There must be a plot afoot! First it was the plumber who had to make two trips out to fix a leaky pipe.

 



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Then I had to call PennDot--to cart a rotting deer carcass off the end of our driveway (I would not want that job...). Then I needed our landscaper because, for some unknown reason, all of our new shrubs died. But worst of all has been the tree service ("We'd really like this dead oak taken out before it falls onto the house," I explained...two months ago.).

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It has been one delay after another. The plumber had to wait for parts. The ground was so dry, the landscaper wanted to wait for rain. Now it's so wet (we got 8 inches of rain in two days last week), the tree service wants to wait until the ground dries out before bringing their equipment out onto the lawn. After I called PennDot, five days passed with temperatures in the eighties before they came for the deer. Not a pretty sight. Not a pleasant odor.

You know what it's like. You wait all day waiting for that special delivery...



...or for the repairman to come, and then at 4:00 he calls to apologize. Something came up. How about tomorrow? After a couple of weeks of this, you're ready to give up. Why bother?

Home ownership is definitely a work in progress. Keeping a house up and running takes constant effort. There are repairs to make. Things wear out. Accidents happen. There are inevitable delays and postponements. You get frustrated. You lose patience with it. Sometimes you wish you'd never gotten into it in the first place.



Likewise...writing. Sometimes the plot springs a leak, or you need to tear out a scene, or you have to patch up a rough spot. You ask for help but no one shows up. (Cue in fingers drumming on the table.)

 

 

Maybe you've run out of ideas. Perhaps the dialogue just won't come to you. So you roll up your shirt sleeves and buckle down.

 

Then, just when you think you've fixed everything, you get some brilliant idea, a moment of inspiration, and it's time to start remodeling...er, revising...all over again.

 

Uh-oh. Roof just sprung a leak. I kid you not! Here we go again...

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I'm now in the process of outlining chapter 6 for NaNoWriMo. And I'm officially registered, along with over 75,000 other delusional dreamers!

jan