Remember how I said I’m competitive? It’s true, I am. But I can’t stress this enough: I’m also super slack. The other night in the hot tub, Paul said that this summer would be his “Summer of Painting.” He was sort of down on himself because he also hoped it’d be his “Summer of Writing,” but he’s afraid he won’t have enough time to devote to both. To which I replied, “You can’t have all the hobbies. Why don’t you let me write, and you paint.” Because seriously, WHY DOES HE HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING?

So Paul, because he, too, is competitive (but knows I’m terrible with follow-through). said “How about this: I won’t write if you produce 50 pages. But your blog doesn’t count. It has to be something of substance and it can’t be about chickens in tutus.”

WTF Paul? Chickens in tutus is substantive. MY BLOG HAS 12 FOLLOWERS! Clearly I’m doing something right. So I immediately started negotiating:

• Does it have to be fiction?
• Can it consist of writing prompts I get out of a book?
• Are we talking handwritten pages or typed?
• Because if it’s the later, I need some formatting parameters: Single spaced? Double? Standard margins? Serif or sans serif font?
• And if it’s the former, nobody–including myself–will ever know what it says. But if it’s handwritten, where should I write? On a napkin? In a journal, and if so, what size? You see how complicated this is?

He wouldn’t commit to an answer, so this is a call for help, y’all. What should I write? Give me some parameters. I want to see Paul’s challenge and raise him 50 pages of “I Told You So.”

Thanks, friends. xoxo