Pushed

Inspirational song: After the Love is Gone (Earth, Wind, & Fire)

I can't resist a dare. I've admitted that weakness before. So when my daughter assigned a challenge goal for my writing, of course I had to agree to it. She knew I was working to expand my Jade Slipper Suite, the story I wrote from a prompt for our writers group. I told her about another one that came up from a series of unsuccessful flower purchases we made since February. I described it as a story of failure and perseverance. My daughter said that she once challenged a mutual friend of ours to write 500 words a night, and he scoffed, saying "that's all?" Best she can tell, he has stuck to the challenge, often writing more like 1000 words a night. Most of what he sends to her to read are character development, not sequential chapters of any one story. Still, he is writing, and it's helping him. So when my daughter suggested the exact same challenge to me, I jumped on it. I am not counting the blog in my word count. And because I'm working on two stories, I am allowing myself the ability to combine word counts between the two, as long as I meet the minimum. In an ideal world, I'd write 500 in each piece, each night. But I have to be realistic about my chances of meeting that goal.

As I think about the challenge, I think this is the right way to go. I know that I can write, but I frequently struggle with topics. I think that's why I do so much better when we receive a prompt in writers group. It's why I did so well when Mr X would throw out goofy details I had to fit into a story, like when he dared me to use song lyrics in Jade Slipper. I can do the writing, but I just need a muse to give me inspiration. And apparently I need a muse to kick my ass too. Luckily, my daughter is a tough enough chick to do that.

I have a lot of writing to do in the next several hours. I need to put 500 words in my fiction before I go to bed. Tomorrow morning I need to write a new offer on a house. (Wish us luck!!!) So now, I need to wrap this up. I have only a few photos, of an overheated feline, a rose that has finally revealed itself to be vaguely purple, and a long view of the Cold Springs fire from the road as I returned from showing a house. That's a good enough place to stop this. Now, on to fiction.