I just wrote this in about 12 hours. It's not much, but I decided to post it anyway. Maybe this is exactly what I need to kick start my writing again...
"Pep Talk"
By: Anne Spear
Lois Lane lit a cigarette and hung it out the window of her jeep as she waited impatiently for traffic to move.
"Are you sure you want to do that?"
I look up, searching for the source of the voice. I'm curled up in my favorite chair with a cat sleeping in my lap. The TV and computer are off and my husband is out with friends. Either the other cat saw birds through the window or I'm going nuts. I go back to my notebook to try and figure out what Lois would do next.
"You can't leave that!"
Okay, I'll bite… "Why not?" I ask out loud. The cat looks up at me then lays her head back down again.
"Because I would never smoke," the voice replies.
"I think you did in the first movie," I point out.
"I don't care," the voice insists. "I'm not that Lois."
"Great! I'm hearing the voice of a fictional character," I realize. "I am going nuts."
"Whatever. Just change that opening…or better yet, why are you even starting a new story? Why don't you finish some of the ones you've already started?"
"I can't," I mumble.
"I didn't quite catch that."
"I'm stuck, alright?" I rail. The cat jumps off of my lap.
"Stuck?" Lois' voice asks. "All of them? What about the Supergirl sequel?"
"I can't figure out how to question the arms dealer," I explain.
"And the Elseworlds?"
"Which one? There are three."
"The one where I'm a princess," Lois verifies. "That's my favorite one."
I smile. "Well, I have the beginning and most of the end done. I just can't seem to find the middle," I admit.
"And the pirate one?" Lois continues.
"So far, that one is just a concept," I tell the empty living room. "I'm not even sure that there is a whole story there."
"What's the third one again?" Lois prods.
I sigh. "Um…oh, yeah. It's the one where a different family finds Clark as a baby."
"What's wrong with that one?" Lois asks.
"I can't find that notebook."
"I'm sensing a pattern here…" Lois says.
"Hey, I am working on them…sort of," I try to explain.
"No, you're not," Lois interrupts me. "You're procrastinating like you always do."
"But, I…"
"And after you promised yourself you weren't going to do that anymore," Lois reminds me.
"You're right," I admit.
"And…" Lois prompts.
"And I'm gonna finish what I've started before I work on anything new," I concede.
"Good. My work here is done…" Lois' voice fades away.
I wake with a start, still curled up in the chair. The cat in my lap is purring like crazy, which is probably why I fell asleep in the first place. I rip the page I've just written on out of my notebook and crumple it. I throw the ball of paper across the room and the cat jumps off my lap to chase it. Once my lap is empty, I get up to find the notebook with those other stories in it and start to work.
End
