I overslept this morning.
(Well, in truth, it’s hard to oversleep on your day off. )
This was a planned day off – having worked 45 hours last week and 35 this week in order to get a “free” day.
But, in this case, a “free” day only means that I don’t have to report to my day job. I’ve packed it with other stuff that absolutely needs to get done, like:
• Drive to the college in the next county over to fill out paperwork so that I can teach a class beginning next week;
• Get to the library and pick up the CDs I have on hold before they put them back in the general collection;
• Get my hair cut, since I’m beginning to look like Cousin Itt.
• And 27 other items on my to-do list, most of them writing related.
See? There’s nothing “off” about it.
But I digress.
I got up early, made a pot of coffee, drank the entire pot of coffee, made some breakfast, checked my email…
…and before I knew it, I was later than I wanted to be. Now, I’ll be racing through the day like a mad-woman trying to get all these things done. (Who wants to be burdened with a ‘to-do’ list over the weekend… I plan to have fun!)
Here’s Your Prompt: Look at your current work in progress (or start a new one) and put your main character in a situation which makes him or her late. (If your story’s been plodding along, this should add some tension. Bonus!) How does the lateness affect the story? What goes wrong? How does your character deal with it? Is she cool under pressure? Pragmatic? Does he turn into a basket case? How is the situation resolved?
If you journal, think of a time when you were really late for something. What did you do to try to alleviate the problem…drive 90 miles an hour on the interstate? Call ahead and try to gain more time? What happened? How did you feel? How many folks did you tick off? How was the problem resolved?
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