Twofers

Two good writing days in a row is the kind of streak you don't want to jinx by talking about it too much, but I'll risk it.

This morning I was being followed around by the urge to write down a story that had been scratching around at the back of my mind for a while.  It kept knocking and knocking, and I kept telling it to go away because I wasn't ready to write it yet, or that I was busy with another piece and it should come back later.  But it was persistent, and today it even volunteered some information on how it would like to be written.  I wasn't sure where it was going to end, but since I had the beginning and the middle clear in my mind, I decided to sit down, get started, and see where it took me.

I kept on coming back to it, right through several phone calls, an email from a colleague who wanted to know whether I could sub for her next week while she attended a funeral - no, she couldn't get a copy of the textbook to me, but all the poems we'd be discussing were public domain, could I look them up online and print them out?  I could, and I did.  And then I came back to the story.  Texts began to arrive from my teenage son - he was reluctantly babysitting his one-year-old half sister while Half Sister Number Two was being born to my ex and his girlfriend, and I texted back "Don't worry, all babies fuss when you don't want them to" and "LOL" several times before returning to the story.

I was four lines away from the end when my husband walked in.  I said hello, heard about his day, and said, "Do you mind if I finish writing this story?"  He said, "Oh, gosh no - I'm sorry, I didn't know you were writing when I walked in.  Go ahead, I'll read my email."  (Now, there's a husband for you.  Don't you wish you had one just like him?)

So I finished my story.  Five pages.  Tomorrow, I'll look at it again, and I'll give it a name.  I don't have the title yet.  I'm going to sleep on it.

It's good to give things a little while to grow.  And then, when the time is ripe and you know it, you have to grab 'em while they're hot.