Even though I try to convince myself that summer doesn't end until late September (in the Northern hemisphere, that is) let's face it, after Labor Day weekend, summer is officially over. And for those who go back to school in August, summer ends even earlier. I've always thought of this time of year as the Sunday night of summer. Remember that feeling you'd get in the pit of your stomach on Sunday night before the school week started? The weekend was over and it was back to the routine of getting up way too early, sitting in classes, mounds of homework, etc.
That's how I feel at this time of the year. I'm fortunate enough to have summers off and stay home with my kids. I'm able to get up later than the usual 5:30 wake up during the school year, there are no school lunches to pack and uniforms to iron, I'm not juggling my schedule to get the kids where they need to be, and there's a lot more free time to procrastinate, er, I mean, get things done. That's all coming to an end soon and that familiar pit-in-stomach feeling is returning. Soccer practice for 2 of my kids starts this week, cross country practice for 1 starts next week. I've been nervously go over and over in my head if everything is ready - supplies bought, uniforms pressed and ready, school assignments completed - and whether I've forgotten anything. (Cleats! The kids have to try those on today!). This fall I'm also returning to a part time job that I began last winter (with the possibility of extra hours) which means bye-bye to my free time to write. I'll need to get back to a disciplined mindset if I want to achieve some writing goals I've set for myself.
I recently reached the 10,000 work mark in the first draft I'm working on now which means it's only 1/4 of the way finished. I plan to push myself the next 3 weeks before I officially return to work. I'd like to add another 20k by then. This is rather ambitious for me because I'm not a fast writer, but I have other writing goals I'd like to accomplish between now and the end of the year.
Unlike those Sunday nights, I'm not dreading the fall, I'll just miss the laid back, carefree days of summer.
Good luck with the next push into your writing. I find you just have to be flexible, and even a single page of prose is better than nothing.
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