Writing – (c) Elisa Xyz

My goal this weekend was to work on a short story I’m trying to finish this week. I knew where I was heading and so, in theory, this should have been a cinch.

Turns out, it wasn’t.

I got very inventive at avoiding sitting down at my computer to write this weekend. Saturday I finished switching bedrooms by organizing all of my books onto their new shelves. I even took the time to put a bunch of unorganized pictures into photo albums. This is a project I should have done years ago considering some of the pictures were from elementary school. Sunday I played around online for a while and then decided I needed to get some sun, so I went out to the pool for an hour or two. It was while I was baking in the blistering Florida sun that I finally realized why I was avoiding my story.

It wasn’t that I didn’t know what the next scene was or didn’t know my character or any of that, I just didn’t want to write it. I knew what was coming and it was going to be painful for both me and my character and I didn’t want to face it. Luckily, once I understood this, it was easier to take a deep breath, sit myself down at my desk, and plow through that scene. Everything is moving forward again and the end is in sight. Yay!

The lesson to be learned from my weekend o’ procrastination is that it isn’t always your story blocking you from writing. Sometimes you need to look at what’s coming and realize you’re not willing to face what you’re about to put your characters through. Maybe that will be enough for you to change the plot and maybe not, but it’s something to keep in mind when you just can’t seem to force yourself to place your fingers on the keyboard and go.