Supposed to be Writing

I'm supposed to be writing (well, something besides this blog), but I'm in paralysis mode right now.  Last Tuesday night, I started a Popular Fiction II class at UW, and I'm supposed to turn in pages this coming Tuesday.  I'm not sure it's going to happen.

Let me give you an example of what is happening.

I sit down in my favorite writing chair and pull my laptop over.  Then my cat gets in the chair with me.  So I have to pet her, don't I?  I look at the blank MS Word sheet and then I realize that I need to put a load of clothes in the laundry (or take them out).

Fifteen minutes later the process starts over, but this time, the dishes need to be put in the dishwasher (or taken out).  Or I need to start making supper, or the sheets need changing, or I need to get the mail.  Or something.  Anything that distracts me from staring at that blank page, at that blinking cursor.

Sometimes, I tell myself that I'll read for awhile because that usually stirs my writing creativity.  You know, reading and thinking, "now how would I have written that" or "I would have written that this way".  And often, that will spur me to a new sentence that begins a whole new scene.

I did manage to write about half a page today.  The first sentence goes like this:  "Once, many many years ago, there was a Nookta chief who had a beautiful daughter, or that was how most of my mother's stories began."

With that said, I'm going to go read a book.  And try to build that scene, any scene in my head.