This is the 80th installment of a 100-day challenge to write a new vignette every morning.
All you need to do is pick up the pen and begin. Simple, right? Just pick up the pen.
Oh, but what kind of pen? There are so many to choose from. There’s ballpoint and gel. There’s the classic black or blue—or even red—or you could go with something fun, like purple. You’ve got a dozen choices in front of you, and you sit with a fleeting whim: Should you go buy more pens before one of these runs out?
The impulse passes; you stay in your chair and reach for a purple ballpoint pen.
But really, should you even pick up a pen at all? You’re just going to have to type everything up anyway, and paper is made of trees—and do you really need to be sitting here killing trees? You’ve got a “May the Forest Be With You” bumper sticker on your car down there.
No, you can’t compromise your principles. You’ll do the outline and draft on your laptop. It’s the right thing to do. Your laptop powers on like an old cat lifting its head, and you see the clock for the first time in hours.
The deadline ticks steadily closer. You have 47 minutes. Maybe this isn’t an essay at all; maybe it’s a math problem. If you have 47 minutes to write 3,600 words and your typing speed is 68 words per minute, how long until you’re scrolling through YouTube again?
Miles Away 