#336 - Failure Compounded

I slept hard.

I woke wondering where I was again, not knowing the time or day. The house was empty and then I remembered that the rest of the family had left for a day at the CNE. A yearly exhibition in Toronto that has carnival rides, treats and snacks. There are buildings for food and merchandise of all kinds from plants to hottubs for sale.

It’s usually a fun day out to see all sorts of things, but I declined to go since I knew I would be writing late into the next morning again. But based on the way I woke, I clearly needed the rest.

Did I rush to my laptop get started on my writing assignment?

No.

I ordered a Greek omelet from a local diner with some orange juice and a side of bacon. I felt the feta cheese would have the salty characteristics I needed to fuel my brain today. I put on some YouTube to pass the time and relax while I waited for the food to arrive. The diner is just around the corner, and I could have easily just walked there, but I was feeling lazy.

The food arrived and I thought for a moment they’d brought the wrong order. Two boxes of food and two bundles in waxed paper.

The first clamshell box contained my omelet and home fries. It was the biggest and thickest omelet I had ever seen. In the other box were scrambled eggs, home fries and my bacon order. The waxed paper parcels held four pieces of white toast.

I wondered why all the extra food was included. I cut into my omelet and there was no feta cheese anywhere to be found. Plenty of mozzarella, but no feta. I was really looking forward to the salty cheese. I’ve met the owner in person, and she is often the one who cooks the food. She probably didn’t have any feta and added extra food as an apology.

There was far too much food to eat, and I wasn’t even able to finish my omelet, it was so big!

I put the rest in the fridge to have later in the day if I got the munchies.

Back upstairs I watched an hour of Dark Matter, which has released the first episode of season 2. It’s a sci-fi portal story that gets better as it goes. After that, I got changed and went for a walk around the block. I needed some exercise and a state change to help me get ready for a long writing session. I also couldn’t go too far from home because the faulty earphones I purchased were being picked up by a courier at some point between 1 and 6 pm.

I did a short loop and the went back to the house to pick up my wallet. My bank is just at the next major intersection, and I wanted to have some cash on hand. I like to have at least twenty dollars to pay for those few places that still only accept cash.

I made another loop with a stop at the bank machine and then returned home. I grabbed a cold drink since the weather was warm and humid and I worked up a bit of a sweat. Next grabbed my laptop from the writing cave and took a seat outside on the porch to begin my writing for the day. I started with this blog to limber up the creative juices and my fingers.

Robyn and the kiddos returned from their day at the EX, each with their own small haul of goods. Robyn took a seat on the porch and showed me all her purchases and told me about their day. She got two pairs of pants for ten bucks each, a T-shirt with National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation on it and a cloth bag to use for her school.

She left to go sign up for some work things she needed to do before Monday and extracted a promise from me that I would help her get through it all if she needed assistance.

Now it’s time for me to start a story, even though I don’t have a clue this time what it might be about.

I also received a message from the courier telling me that they would be by within the hour. So, I could have gone for a much longer and nicer walk. At least I have some cash in my wallet now.

Okay, it’s story time. Back when I have something.

I spent some time just thinking about the lady in the mirror idea and seeing if I could turn it into something that would interest me. The delivery driver arrived to pick up the falulty headphones and something happedn when I sat down to think again.

The spark of an idea blossomed, and I began to expand on it. I quickly wrote down some notes about what the mirror could do and what its limitations were. I made up a back story for the main character’s grandmother, and I found a house that would suit the story. I made copious notes and explored some possible titles and locked down the main character’s name.

I had an idea about what her conflicts would be in this story and all of a sudden, I had a world that so much bigger than I was anticipating.

Why couldn’t this have happened to me yesterday????

I was relieved to find my way into this story, and I went inside and had a bubble spa. I got a bit sweaty on my walk. After that Robyn left to do her second job and I took a short nap. I was exhausted yet again. I set an alarm and tried to get some rest.

I was back up and at it by seven, pausing to reheat some leftovers for dinner and making a tea before heading back down to the writing cave with my notes in hand.

I started writing the opening, set a two-hour timer and hoped for the best. The opening takes me much longer than it should, but it’s the process I need to go through. I got the initial setting sketched in and managed to develop a bit of the character to.

By nine thirty I had only written three hundred and sixty-five words, but I was happy with what was on the page. I’ll need to go a lot faster in the next two-hour secession.

I’ll break from nine-thirty to ten and do another two hours.

I took my break and came back and did about an hour and fifteen minutes. I managed to get up to one thousand words written on the story so far and that means things are going a little faster. But still not as fast as I’d like.

I’m out of the opening and moving towards getting the plot moving and that’s usually when the writing starts to go faster.

The clock just struck two and I have a total of just over two thousand words written. It feels like a long way to go still. Still, it’s only one thousand words in two hours. That’s me running at half speed. I am starting to enjoy the story as usually happens once I get into it but feeling the time crunch and the lateness of the hour.

Man, I wish I could get this part done earlier in the week. I really need to make pushing the deadlines a thing of the past.

It’s three thirty in the morning and I stopped to take a break, went into the kitchen and heard some odd noise and saw two racoons making a mess on my deck. Someone in our family left out a bowl of bird seed and they dragged it all over the couches and chairs. It also happens to be raining, so that is going to be a treat to clean up tomorrow.

I am still so far away from completing this story that I don’t think I am going to get it finished in time. I can’t express how disappointed I am in myself right now.

I’m throwing the towel. I am happy with the words I got down, just not the quantity. I’ll have to extend this deadline to another two weeks.

Until Tomorrow.