When real life gets in the way of your writing

My New Year's Resolution was to do my best to get my book published (or at least under contract) in 2007. As a result, I put together monthly writing goals, which I break down into weekly goals for the current month.

Last week went well. I completed edits to The Sisterhood and scheduled a meeting with the co-author for two Sundays from now. I finished the revisions to an article I am going to submit to Writer2Writer for review and planned on beginning more research for A Shepherd's Journey.

But on Saturday real life began to unravel in annoying kinds of ways--like it sometimes does--and five days into this week the only thing I've accomplished is catching up on critiques on my writer's forum. No research, no writing, nothing of substance. And why? Because when I get so frustrated I want to scream, my muse goes running for the hills. I have no desire to write--not even this blog entry.

I've heard real writers are disciplined enough to sit their butts in their chairs and write every day, no matter what. That's where I want to be. I don't want real life to get in the way of me reaching my goals and finding my dream.

I refuse to give in to these feelings of frustration and anxiety as real life throws me for a loop. So I sat my butt down in my chair today and forced myself to write this entry in the hopes it will be the start of something new. I can learn to write every day, no matter what else is going on in my life. And I am going to prove it...even if it's just to me.