After finishing the first draft of my novel in May 2012, I gave it a second dusting off then set it aside on Dec. 1, 2012.

My writing group friends, aware of my tendency toward being shy regarding my creativity, therefore gave me an assignment. My sister Angela said it kindly, but the essence of the assignment is this: Finish the freaking novel already and send. it. out.

I took the following picture to let her know that, yes, on January 1, 2013, I started my final edits on this project. See?

The process is slow. I’m on page 49 out of 358 pages. It feels even slower when I think that this novel has taken me about three years to write. However, as Angela, Mark, and I remind ourselves: Don’t rush the process.

The three of us have day jobs, children, relationships, etc. that require ginormous amounts of our time. Angela writes at the crack of dawn, Mark works in bits and pieces of stolen time, I carve out a couple of hours in the late evening. Progress for all of us is slow… but the main focus is to make progress. That’s the unofficial motto for our writing group: Keep moving forward… even if you move at a snail’s pace.

As long as you’re not moving backwards, you’re doing well…