Please do not be disappointed in me. I just can’t string together enough minutes in the day to write a cohesive work of fiction. My mind is too bogged down with other thoughts of money, family, careers, and my place in this world.

I am not complaining, nor am I looking for any encouragement to “get through this” or “just keep writing.” I just need a little time to sort through this whole moment.

Thus, the shift in my Nano Project.

I started writing a story called Cafe Yesterday. Then I came up with another idea for a seven-book series that is a lot like Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians. The ideas are flowing like crazy. The actual time I have to place Butt In Chair and write for any sustained period is practically nonexistent.

Take today for example. Leave house by 6:30 to take H to the gym. Pick up H at 10, then take M to soccer tournament at 10:30. Take H to skating lessons at 12:15. Take M to horse lessons at 3:00.

Again. No pleas for sympathy. We’re all in the same boat. I get that.

But as a writer, I can’t just flick that creative switch on and off as easily as I can start and stop the Jeep in the carpool shuffle. As much as I’d like to be like those writers who can do that….I cannot.

Yet….I will not abandon the Nano Project altogether. Instead, I will attempt a creative nonfiction piece of no fewer than 50,000 words that chronicles my attempts to locate, lasso, and enliven my muse, to discipline myself as a writer to somehow do the things I’ve always wanted to do.

Could be ultra boring to read, and I promise you nothing. I may not even share all that I write. But if I can do this–If I can fulfill this promise to me to spend 50,000 words exploring the writer within, then I believe something good will come out of it.

Now. Back to the car pool line…