1000 puzzle pieces

What’s it like to write a novel?  Sometimes it’s like living with a 1000 piece jig saw puzzle in the middle of the dining room table.  You keep working at it, but every once in a while a piece or two falls onto the floor, or someone buries your puzzle with “”The New York Times”  or you have to move the puzzle because you’re having all your relatives over for dinner.  Carefully you try to slide your puzzle onto a flat surface to move it, but you start to panic as the whole thing starts to buckle.  Inevitably you have to make some repairs.  As you make progress, though, the picture becomes clearer, and you find yourself drawn to the puzzle more and more.   It’s easier to fit the pieces, because there are fewer to choose from.   You start closing the door to the dining room so that you can finish in a few marathon sessions.  Back at the beginning, you’d welcomed distractions.  Now all you want is to sit alone with your puzzle working the whole thing out.  You forget the time.  You forget to look at the picture on the box.  In fact, you lost the box a long time ago.  You are working from the picture in your mind.