Incoming!

I'm working my tail off this week in an attempt to complete the draft of a book due all too soon. So what do I get? Distractions.

Not the family kind so much. With my son off to college, husband off to work, and the mutts behaving themselves (mostly), there shouldn't be much in the way of obstacles.

So my subconscious, ever resistant to the idea of finishing a project, is manufacturing the little suckers and lobbing them in my direction. Some are fears: what if I finish and it stinks? how can I possibly get the manuscript edited in such a short time? Others are wildly-improbable plot wrinkles: what if I went back to page 100 and completely rewrote all the hero's scenes from his dog's POV? Wouldn't that make my publisher more excited about the book and fit onto the current fantasy bandwagon? Others, most seductive, are ideas for completely-different novels, often in genres unrelated to the multi-book contract I'm completing.

I'm reminding myself these "brilliant ideas" are mirages, which will evaporate the second I have the time to pursue them. Basically, they're grenades lobbed my way for a brain that's desperate to get out of the hard, hard work entailed in wrapping up a novel that amounts to a romance, suspense, and mystery all rolled into one.

So which part of the manuscript causes your brain to throw up roadblocks (or maybe just throw up)? Is it the beginning, middle, or the end? Or do you have more trouble sending out submissions?