Overwhelmed by Writing Your Book?

Image courtesy of Franky242 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net I am midway through writing my second novel and feel the way I imagine a long distance swimmer feels when they can no longer see either shore. I am somewhere in the middle. There is only me and this unjudgeable distance still to cross before I touch land.  




At times like these it helps to forget the big picture and instead focus on the small. 
Writing a book can be overwhelming.  After the initial exhilaration of diving in the water and swimming away from shore we begin to sense the vast sea of words that must be crossed.  We
 begin to sense the ocean of possibilities that must be successfully navigated.  It can be
daunting.  It can be scary.  It is certainly hard.

For me, focusing on the small means thinking only one page ahead.  My one typed page is the
equivalent of one stroke for a long distance swimmer.  Only when that page is finished do I allow myself to think about the next one.  In this way I move steadily forward.

This is the only way I know to cross the great distance between the first page and the last.  In
this slow, steady way great distances are crossed.  Shores do appear in the distance, then grow closer, until finally they become terra firma to haul myself up and stand upon.  

A story, however vague at first, emerges from the imagination then slowly, page by page, draft by draft,  comes into focus, until it is a book to be shared.  

Writing Prompt: Tell me about a time when you gave up. Write for ten minutes.