I have been writing and writing and writing—pretty much nonstop, without coming up for air. Five chapters are now complete. I think I may be turning into a mushroom, having spent so much time in a cool, dark room without much sunlight or fresh air. Yes, there’s a fungus among us.
The last two chapters have been struggles, and the amount of research and reading I have to do to prepare to write each letter is overwhelming, especially with such a truncated schedule. Yesterday, I hit a serious wall, and literally could muster neither the physical nor mental energy to go on. My eyes are continually sore and strained, and I look like hell. I took a short break to regroup, gave it another shot and wound up crafting one of my favorite chapters yet. So onward I march.
My whole life is about words these days, and sometimes I’ll overhear someone use a word on TV and decide it’s the perfect way to express something I wrote about two chapters back, so I go digging for the phrase and make the word change. That’s pretty nutty, if you ask me. I broke the 200 page threshhold, and I now have five letters to go. What I really wish I could do is finish writing, take a break for a few days and then come back and read the whole book. I actually think it might be pretty good! I’m not optimistic that I’m going to have that luxury though, with the deadline looming for the manuscript. Oh how I wish I had a little more time to savor this process, but it was such a good opportunity, I couldn’t pass it up despite the crazy deadline. In the end, I hope my words will at least touch a few readers, especially my boys (if they ever decide to read it!).