So close and yet so far

Between exhaustion, too much work, and some breaks this weekend to avoid burn-out, I'm not writing as much as I should. At the same time, I'm definitely in the end stages of the book. On the one hand, I feel like I'm almost there, that at any point I could be typing the last words of the first draft. On the other hand, I know how much story remains, and I know I'll be at this one for quite a while still. The conflicting impressions are frustrating indeed.

This experience reminds me of the first time I drove out west. My friend and then partner, Tyler, were heading north out of Los Alamos toward Boulder. A little while out of town, we spotted some mountains in the distance and decided we'd take a break when we got to them. Boy, were we dumb. Hours and hours later, we stopped for lunch and were still not to the mountains.

The answer in both cases, of course, is simply to keep on moving, which is what I'm going to do now.