Taking a Break

Sometimes, the best way to accomplish your goal is to stop trying altogether, for a day, a week...however long you need. Sometimes it's good to take a mental break, give your brain time to rest and refresh so that, when you're ready to get back to it, you get back to it with productive fervour! This is exactly what I am doing now...I'm frustrated when I can't write. I see the mountain of work clearly ahead of me, and it is a very tall mountain! It is a task I do with glee, climbing this mountain of words and decisions, but it is still daunting and sometimes I can't believe what I'm getting myself into, especially when I can't find time to write despite all my efforts. And worse, sometimes I just can't get into the right mental zone to make writing sessions worthwhile. A pattern is emerging.
It seems, more than ever,  I: a) don't have time to write, or b) don't have the energy to write. Teaching, report cards, shopping, cooking...even if I have time at the end of the day to sit down and get a good chunk of writing done, I am too tired. It takes a lot of energy to write, I find...and when I try in the midst of exhaustion, it comes out like a bunch of gobbledygook!
So I wonder, how on earth am I ever going to finish this book, and how much do I sacrifice in order to make it happen? Already, the evenings seem to grow longer as I try to squeeze more in each night. Then, do I go with quick dinners so I can get to writing sooner? Or rush dinner?
So, I decided tonight, even though I haven't written much for three days, to just take some time, sit with my husband, and get absorbed in LOST. This was good. I feel frustrated that I'm not writing, but I can't just abandon everything to make it happen! Life must go on, and it's very hard just to watch one episode of LOST when you have a whole season at your fingertips...addicting!
I'll try to get back on track tomorrow with my novel. In the meantime, at least I've written this. One of my goals is to write at least a bit each day. Just a few well-formed sentences put together in some sort of comprehensible order. And when I go back to the novel, I think I'll do better after having a mental day. Well, seems more like a mental week. Or perhaps I'm just mental, period.
Oh well. Time for bed.

Novel Word Count: abysmal.