A Woman of Letters

I haven't done any writing on my book this summer, with the exception of two pages.  Two...meager...pages.  That isn't to say I haven't done any writing.  Each day I've been penning away wonderful emails, letters through Postcrossing, and my new thing - volunteer mail.  I send postcards to sick children.  I mail packages and letters to a wonderful soldier over in Kuwait.  Each morning I'm up around 5:00 am and the writing begins.

But I feel defeated.  I haven't made any progress on THE BOOK.  I even started another one, with the thought that perhaps "Three By Three" had gone stale.  No luck.  I'm like a gnat with a five second attention span.  I just can't do it.  My mind wanders.  I sit down to write, scribe a few lines, then jump up to make more coffee.  Oh yes, let's write a few lines, and then put on Pandora!  Wait!  The cat needs to be fed some kitten treats!  The list goes on and on.  I haven't even updated this blog, as my attention span just can't even fathom sitting down (until now) a subject through to its completion.  Perhaps it's just teacher summer mode?  This is my first summer in my entire career that I did nothing - no graduate classes, no tutoring, no curriculum workshops.  Maybe that put me into sloth mode supreme.  And MausiGal usually runs on empty - all systems go.  I'm not used to doing nothing, and I'm finding it depressing.

Let me take part of that last paragraph back.  The writing I am doing - through postcards and mail - is doing lots of good, and I should be proud of it.  But each time I open the computer it seems that THE BOOK is there, looming in the distance, waiting to be worked on.  Have I lost my passion for it?  Do I need to ditch it and just start another?  Start it again with a different theme?  I don't know.  I don't have an answer.

Writing is a very solitary endeavor, and it seems everyone is doing it.  I did join a Writers' Group, but didn't go as I didn't complete the prerequisite pages completed for the week.  Bad, bad MausiGal.  Maybe I need to just dive in, start something new, and do it.  And stop whining.