So, writing a book is a bit like walking through knee-deep mud up a hill while a beer is chasing you. You try to go fast, you try to make progress but you’re taking two steps forward and one step back. Today I made a decision. I set a date. Six weeks from now I want a draft, a whole draft that may, well, be full of holes, but a complete draft all the same.

Sunday May 6

I have set a date! The only problem is that this date is exactly 3 days before my parents head to Europe. I will not have the assistance of my mother, the super-editor, when it comes to editing my draft. But that’s OK. Luckily, a don’t have to send my manuscript by pigeon, we have ‘technology’. I’m not sure if 6 weeks will be enough but any later than May and that’s getting towards halfway through the year. Nope. It has to be done. I wan’t my book to be published this year (if, at all) and the editing and publishing process takes time. I have two chapters to write and 45 days to write them in. That sound’s like heaps!

In other news, Mum and I watched The Vow last night. A movie released for Valentine’s Day. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Overall it was brilliant, profound, moving and heart-warming. I disliked the cliche rich American Family and the fact that the Dr. seemed not so fussed about the fact that Paige had lost five years of her life from the car accident but I liked two things a lot:

I liked Leo’s theory that there are ‘moments of impact’ – tiny, fleeting moments that can change your life completely. I have had one of those (well, probably many). I fell in love with Row in a moment. It changed my life completely. Now I’m terrified of death (his, though I think I would cease to live too) and now, I actually don’t mind babies. Anyway. I like to think that there are moments that really do impact us and we don’t even notice at the time. I’m not a massive believer in Fate. I do believe in soul-mates though. I think that maybe not everything happens for a reason, but maybe these moments are meant to happen to stare us in the right direction.

I liked the concept of being able to, or perhaps, inevitably falling in love with the same person again.  It makes me think that underneath our clothes, our skin, our feelings and thoughts, there is something underlying, the most basic thing, that draws two people together, like magnets.

I’m reading The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin, at the moment and here is a quote from the book that I really like.

She always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day.

Virginia Woolf