COMPLETE THE STORY
Cindy Maddera
Someone asked me recently what I was doing with my writing. I replied with “I don’t even know. Nothing?” That someone then told me that I was too good of a writer to just do “nothing”. That’s nice. I mean, I didn’t say that, but I thought it. I also thought “I am not ‘too good’ of a writer.” I am not much of a writer at all. Where’s my book? Where’s my audience? Why do I even do this? “I am worthless!”, I say to myself as I dramatically shove everything off my desk. Not really. Probably only about 98% of my ‘actions’ only happen in my head. My head is filled with zings, bams, kapows, and yowzas. Every time I pick up the fly swatter to kill a fly, I am mentally drawing a Samurai sword and I’m killing Bill. Move over Herman. You have nothing happening inside your head that is more action packed, crazy pants than what’s going on in mine. Bonus points to who ever gets that shout-out to Herman.
Part of me wants to tell you that I am really good at wasting time. That is why there is no book. That is why my writing is going no where. The other side of that is that I am not necessarily wasting time. I mean, give me a break. How much more things do I need to put into my day?!? I am already focusing on doing my actual job that pays the bills, my mental and physical health, feeding my creativity with a daily photo, and reading some important books. On top of that, I’m staying informed with the daily news (not your rumor mill telephone game news, but actual news) and keeping up with scientific papers. I’m cooking healthy meals and taking care of animals. I’VE GOT LAUNDRY TO DO! WATER TO DRINK! And some where in the middle of all of that I should be doing something with my writing. I recognize that I don’t have to time for writing a book is also an excuse. Really, what has happened here, is that I have not prioritized my writing. I have placed all other activities above my writing.
Saturday afternoon, Michael returned home from a shopping outing with the Cabbage. She’s turning ten next week and Michael got her a phone for her birthday. Don’t even. The phone is necessary for some independence. She currently only has phone numbers, no apps or social media, on this phone. After they got the phone, the two of them went over to Five Below because she loves all the crap you can buy in that place. Michael nabbed me a new journal. It’s one of those writing prompt journals where you are given a few sentences and then you complete the story. I thanked him and then wedged the journal into a group of other journals/notebooks on my desk. That is when I noticed the title of the journal, boldly written on the spine: Complete the Story. The title of that journal knows things. I have probably half a dozen incomplete stories sitting in a Google drive folder right now.
Maybe this a nudge for me to change some priorities and complete a story.