I met with Gayleen Rabakukk today and we sealed or Spring Break Pact. I dropped off about 40 pages of Nadia’s Children with her, and set a goal of writing another 75 pages before Friday. That’s a pretty ambitious goal. I wanted to make it big so I’d buckle down and get to work, but I’m wondering if I bit off too much. Bottom line, I should be on page 225 when we meet again on Friday. I’m now on 155, after putting in about an hour tonight. Yeah, that means tonight I only produced five pages in an hour.

I still have some grading to do, and I have to fix a mess a long-term sub left behind, plus help hire a new long-term sub and lay out plans for that sub to have on Monday. Also, my wife isn’t off, so I have my kids to take care of during the break. However, I think back to the fever pitch at which Carrie Jones and I wrote our book together and I know I can knock off 75 pages in the time remaining. I just have to drive myself to do it. The trick is to get myself caught up completely in the story again. My biggest problem is that I let too much time go by between writing spurts, so I have to try to get myself back into the tale before I can continue it. I. Must. Stay. Focused.

In his early days, John Steinbeck kept a cot in his writing room and he would immerse himself so deeply in his work that he’d often sleep in that room as he worked toward the end of a book. Of course, his marriage broke apart, too. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have that kind of focus … or a private room for writing. Or maybe that little tidbit is just some 1:17 a.m. rambling.