Lost in a haunted forest, characters express their optimism about further progress.
Your author is striving to maintain something like progress as he makes the transition to moonlight part-time writer.
It’s fourth day of the school year (if you’re a teacher in the New York system responsible for various things), and the rewrite of the ghastly haunted forest scenes is underway.
On page 493, the characters have put their noses in the terrible forest. And, while you and I know that scenes have been moved and motivations are shifting, the characters are only just getting started (the poor dears).
If you work in a creative field, you will know that it doesn’t take long to get your head out of a project.
My characters might be lost in the woods, but, if I don’t keep pushing them forward, it’s likely that I’ll be lost in the same woods until the Winter Break. (And that really can’t be how this turns out).
[Author shakes fist at universe].
David Keck 