I'm home sick, today. And just in case anyone from work is reading this, we'll say I'm actually sick and not playing hooky.
Just kidding, of course. I am indeed sick. I don't have Miliaria or Mad Cow's Disease or anything like that. Just a cold. I've been fighting it all week, but I lost the battle. The cold won. So what better to do when you're home sick than to blog about it, right?
Today's blog will not have any agenda, no grand purpose, no hidden message. It's just going to be your garden-variety entry in a personal blog; a day-in-the-life sort of thing. I will call it The Procrastinator's Guide To Writing. What do you think? Okay, maybe it has a little bit of an agenda.
A few months ago, I was pondering which story idea I wanted to pursue next: a woman's journey back in time (metaphorically speaking, of course) or the darkly humorous thriller about a man who is secretly plotting his wife's murder.
At the time, I had written roughly a chapter and a half of each story. The story of Annie's thoughtful reflection on her life's journey had heart. The story of Jack fantasizing about his wife's demise had ... well ... murder. It's hard to top that.
I went back and forth again and again until one day Annie's story took the lead. I got some inspiration one day and delved into the story and before I knew it, I was seven chapters in. It seemed I had a winner.
Then I stalled out. And lately I have been wondering if I should be writing the other story. I know there are many writers who work on more than one story at a time. I had pondered that approach, but thought it might not be the best idea. The stories have such different tones, I wondered if working on them at the same time might disrupt the flow of either or both the stories.
So I'm at a bit of a crossroads. The one thing I do not want to do, though, is to allow this dilemma to become an excuse to not work on either. Procrastination be damned, I will forge ahead.
So here we go. I will take some more cold medicine (non-drowsy formula, of course) and see if I can take advantage of my time alone with my keyboard. Wish me luck.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash