How to get this done?

There are days (SPOILERS: This is one of them) that the Life happening around me makes writing incredibly difficult. I’m a big believer in omens, signs, little signals to you that try to nudge you into a certain direction.

When I’m struggling, labouring, with that Ever Important Opening Paragraph, and it’s one thing after another, I’m inclined to just quit. Put the document away, open a new tab, and blog about how fucking hard this is instead of doggedly banging my head against the same brick, in the same wall.

First, it’s the youngest kid. He’s hungry. Then he’s spilled. Then, he’s finally happy with what he’s doing. Then it’s middle kid. She’s hungry but has served herself, but is anxious about the approaching holiday and what to do. I give her patient, loving, well thought out advice. She launches into ideas for what to get Mum, then Mum comes into the house and is in earshot. So middle kid, who already speaks way too quietly for me to comfortably hear, starts to whisper.

I try to give each answer a considered moment, but I am desperate to get this opening right. And I don’t feel like it is. And it’s not like when I was finishing the fourth revision to the Big Finale the other day, where I was banging my way through it like a champ, oh no. That was EASY, because I was already flowing. No, no. This here, this is about where I create that flow, and it’s fucking hard.

Then I finally allow that I can’t hear her, so let’s talk about this later. She turns the AC unit on, and that bastard is LOUD. Then she’s asking me more questions about the upcoming events, and now I can’t hear her at all. I finally coach her into “turning the volume up” which she seems incapable of doing. Then Wifeage wants to talk to me about upcoming holiday. Wrappings and plannings and it’s then that I start to think to myself that every time I’m settled in to get a good look at that Ever Important Opening Paragraph, something new happens.

Okay, they’re gone now. Off to do their own things. Maybe I can just… FUCK. Phone ringing. The signs are clear. Fine, Universe. I wasn’t listening before, but now I am. I’ll put it aside, and try this another time.

But, just for the record, this is one of the biggest reasons why writing novels is hard.