TWO FOR ONE SPECIAL

So I've got a new dilemma: instead of procrastinating on one project, I have managed to get myself into the situation of procrastinating on TWO! Now as any writer, artist or sous chef can tell you - staring at the empty bowl can create more than a fair share of anxiety. We all know that sudden fear that seems to start at the nape of the neck and spread hither and yon - the "This is another fine mess I've gotten myself into" voice. Sure there are tricks to loosen the wheels - games to be played that might yield a sentence or perchance paragraph! But it all comes down to the same thing - deadlines, dreams, ideas that are just out of reach and that desperately want to be put onto paper if only they can be tamed (or lured) to the bait.

Lucky for me, not only am I working on the mysterious "BOOK #2" (shhh!) but I have a TV movie to write for the Disney Channel - and with it a hard and fast deadline (which seems to get closer by the day!). Staring down the pipe of just one project - I find the terror of too much wide open space and simply find myself going out for the proverbial walk. But now that my time has been impaled by (gasp) actual paying work...I miss my book writing like a best friend shipped off to an asylum. And I have to, HAVE TO LIKE MY LIFE DEPENDED ON IT get the other thing written (the tic-toc of Hook's crocodile always by my side). So do I sit and dilligently pound it out? Nay! I go out for the proverbial walk.

The thing is - my procrastination seems to diminish the more things I have on the burner - and with two competing needs in front of me, why I think I've solved a problem. Now I can work on the "one" while letting "the other" languish on the vine. And as soon as my brain wants to wander away - I can flip to the project in the wings, giving that baby the attention it craves - until of course I find a way to wander from both. Perfectly allowable and encouraged: there are always cookies in the kitchen, iced espresso waiting for more ice cubes and then the 5 minutes or so it takes me to pick the right colored straw. Because as all writers, artists (and sous chefs) will tell you - sometimes it comes down to the straw in the iced coffee!)

But alas, as the crocodile is tic-tocing again and my hooked hand aches at the reminder - it's time to turn one of my heads to the project most needing to be soothed.

As soon as I get the right straw.