With my lifestyle, I often feel out of control.  I’m always juggling a half dozen things while trying to stay up on a rolling log.  With a life like that, it’s not easy to feel stable nevermind feel in control.  What I have to do from time to time is stop everything and figure out where I am.

This also applies to writing.  Whether you’re a plotter, a pantser, a plantser or a writer with the perfect process, you still have to take a breath from time to time and figure out where you are.  This weekend, an email from a friend *cough*captain*cough* reminded me I was in desperate need of figuring out where I am in this writing thing.

Where I am is 73 pages into a 300-something page book that has been going around in my head for more than a year and been restarted twice.  I have two great characters who have only just begun the journey to their HEA and constantly bug the crap out of me to stop ignoring them. 

I have a heroine who wants more out of life, but doesn’t like quick change.  She likes to ease into things slowly, always with a back up plan in place.  She’s really going to hate me.

I have a hero who has taken a major blow in his personal life and has decided to focus all of his energy on his career as a chef.  The last thing he wants is any distractions, especially a woman complicating things.  He’s really going to hate me.

What I have is a book in desperate need of being written, a story in desperate need of being told, and a home in desperate need of a maid.  Since I have four other stories waiting not-so-patiently in the back of my mind, I’d better give up on the maid thing (although I could so find room for Christian the Cleaning Boy) and get to the storytelling. 

Where are you?  Are you struggling along trying to figure out who your characters are and what they want?  Are you drowning in revisions and hating life right now?  Or are you sending that beautiful MS out there into the world hoping someone will snap it up?  If you’re a reader, do you have trouble fitting those books into your busy schedule or do you figure those dirty dishes can wait until morning?