Chapter one countdown

I went out for a run this morning which makes two days in a row. I managed to run the entire 3 mile route in my neighborhood without much strain. It felt good for a change and I somehow know it will start to creep back into my routine. There seems to be an added bonus when I run while working on a writing project. I seem to get some of my best ideas when I am out on a run. They are not all best ideas but it seems to work well for brainstorming and thought gathering. It works the other way too. Some of my better runs are when I am giving more thought to my ideas instead of how my legs feel like lead.

So among all the thoughts I had this morning I realized I needed to give myself a deadline for writing the first chapter of my book. I thought about giving myself until October first to complete it. I know I have some idea organization to do and I need to write up a brief outline. October 1st seemed like a realistic time frame. It seemed realistic to me.

Then I mentioned it to Jay. I told him I wanted to set a deadline for my first chapter because I keep taking baby steps and/or side-stepping away from it. The actual word I used was pussy-footing. I should not have used that word. It started a whole other side conversation about where that word came from that I can’t even get into. But he said my deadline should be end of day tomorrow.

“Tomorrow! No way!” I said.
“Why not? You’re off tomorrow.”
“But I can’t. I have some ideas to line up.”
“Tomorrow sounds like a good deadline.”
“I was thinking a bit longer than that. I have an outline I need to sketch.”
“But you are only talking about the first chapter.” he said.
“Yes, but that’s not enough time.”
“Okay, then I think you should give yourself until Thursday.”
“Thursday?”
“Yeah, Thursday.”

I must have paused too long to take it in because now I think I have agreed to Thursday as my deadline. It is less time than I was going to give myself. I am not sure I can do it. I guess at least now I have a deadline to shoot for. Maybe it is the kind of push I need to stop stalling.

Thursday. Whew!

TT