Writing in a Three-Ring Circus: On Chaos, Life, and Deadlines

What happens when your son leaves for college, your car breaks down, and your book launch moves up five weeks? You write anyway. Here’s how I’m learning to keep going.

Lately, my life has felt like a three-ring circus—exciting, chaotic, and just a little overwhelming.

Life under the big top—minus the elephants (unless you count deadlines).

In one ring, my son leaves for college tomorrow. (Yay! Amazing! So proud!) But also… he’s leaving me.

In the second ring, my parents are navigating health issues (🤬 you, Parkinson’s!). Our vehicle developed problems the same week we need it to move my son (I suppose that’s what happens when you approach 200,000 miles, but still). And the kids’ car? It’s now a rainwater collection system thanks to a leak we can’t quite identify. (Perfect timing for Carolina monsoon season.)

And in the third ring—spotlights and sequins!—my book’s publication date got moved up five weeks. (Good news! Great news!) But it means rescheduling the tour (update coming soon!), prepping for interviews, and somehow writing the next book while Lulu from The Mad Wife is still demanding attention (she has real main character energy right about now). Oh, and I need to develop a self-editing course for Drexel University. Before pub date.

So yes, lots of rings. Lots of juggling.

Yesterday, a students said, “I’ve been working on my novel for a decade, and I’m so frustrated.” I get that, especially because she has had distractions pop up. It’s easy to compare ourselves to big-name authors cranking out a book a year and wonder, What am I doing wrong?

Here’s the truth: writing requires learning to write through resistance. Distractions will always be there—health scares, car trouble, kids flying the nest, life being… life. If you wait for perfect, uninterrupted moments, you’ll never write the book. (But also, don’t compare your rough draft to someone else’s polished and published manuscript.)

Right now, writing is the escape I need. When I start thinking, How will launch go? How will it feel when my son isn’t home? How fast will Parkinson’s progress?—my work-in-progress gives me a place to breathe. Writing can do that. But you have to choose it, even when everything else screams for your attention.

So to all the frustrated writers out there: remember what I once told my son (the same boy now heading to college). Once upon a time, his favorite book was The Little Engine That Could. One day, when he was frustrated, I reminded him of what that engine always said. He looked at me with those chubby cheeks and big blue eyes and said, “I’ve been hearing that a lot lately.”

Me too, kid. Me too.

Please note: not a current photo. But it feels like this was recent.

So here it is for you…and for me. If you feel like you’re in the middle of a circus, if life has presented more resistance than you care for, if distractions are ripe and focused time rare, say it along with me:
I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.

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