A Facebook friend of mine shared a  Douglas Adams quote this morning: “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” I’ve always enjoyed that line, although it has never fit me. I meet deadlines. I see complying with deadlines  as a statement as to my dependability.  So what the heck happened to my novel that was supposed to have been released a couple of months ago?  Yes, I missed some deadlines.

It felt like the wheels fell off of my entire life, but to an objective observer, it would appear to be only minor bumps in the road. At the point it should have been getting a final proofread, a problem was identified in the opening chapters. That converged with several life-altering personal events, and increasing demands in the day job,leaving me nearly paralyzed from the writing standpoint. And that, was unacceptable. But knowing that merely added to the pressure. I kept writing, but it was slower than swimming through mud. What should have taken a couple of weeks was going on two months. I became desperate, discouraged and in search of some inspiration to get back on track.

John C. Brewer‘s wonderful wife unwittingly provided that inspiration in a rather ironic form. A couple of weeks ago, April picked out a movie for us to watch: Music and Lyrics, a 2007 romantic comedy about a washed up pop-star (Hugh Grant) who has one week to write an original, blockbuster song, and convinces wannabe writer/plant lady (Drew Barrymore) to be his lyricist. As the pressure mounts, the would-be lyricist complains that she can’t just pop out the words on command – that it doesn’t work that way – to which the High Grant character flatly responds, “Inspiration is for amateurs.”  And that line got me to finally jump the last hurdle.

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t have the ability to finish the two chapters, it was that I was giving everything else that was going on a higher priority, tapping out my brain power so that by the time I sat down to write, stringing simple words together was tough. I reassigned priorities and now, I am happy to say, Foreseen is off getting its final copyedit . I am relieved that its finished, and delighted that it reads the way I wanted it to.

So thanks for the inspiration, April! And now, I guess I better take care of some of those other demands.