I live in la-la-land

Progress Update: 1769 words; total word count 34,315

My head is in the clouds. I daydream constantly. I never think about what I’m currently doing, only what I could be doing. Or, rather, what my characters are doing. How they’re going to get from Point A to Point B and fall in love in between. How they’re going to defeat the bad guy. How good triumphs over evil. How the guy gets the girl.

Am I the only writer out there that does this? Am I the only one that sits around and thinks about the WIP constantly while trying to accomplish important things at the Day Job? I doubt it.

I worked out the black moment of my latest contemporary while in the shower. I figured out a crucial point of a sci-fi action story while brushing my teeth. I thought about how the smuggler turns over a new leaf while drying my hair.

I am cursed to live amidst distraction.

I walk down the street, see a colorful person and immediately make them a colorful character in a book. I see things happen and wonder what would happen next if I were that person. What would I do? I see a road I’ve never traveled and wonder where it’ll take me. When something happens to me, I wonder what could have been different if I had reacted differently, if I had said something else or remained silent. I wonder where I’d be if I had stayed in my previous dead-end job? Still at a dead-end? Doing something I hate? Wishing for another life?

I wonder what it would be like to wake up in the morning, get a cup of coffee in my kitchen and go to my desk and sit down to write all day. I wonder if I would write more, get more published, be more prolific. Find an agent. I wonder what it’s like to have an agent request material and then offer representation. I wonder what it’s like to have my dream publisher send me a contract. For a three book deal. In six figures.

I wonder.

I wonder what it’s like to be debt-free. Would life be easier? Different? More awesome? Or harder? Or just different? I wonder what it would be like to get rid of the scumbag collection agencies who hound me day and night for a debt that’s nearly four years old. I wonder what it’s like to not have that debt. I wonder what it’s like to have the house paid for. And the car. And a closet full of shoes and Coach bags.

I wonder what it’s like to wake up in the morning in a place I’ve never visited. To walk outside and inhale the air that belongs in another country.

I wonder what it’s like to be a bestselling author and have adoring fans.

And I wonder all of this between an eight-hour time span. When my brain is idly doing mindless activities that have to get done. When my brain is restless.

Yep. I live in la-la-land. I wouldn’t want it any other way.