Okay, so I’m two weeks finished with jury duty, and I’m exhausted. Being busy either in the courthouse or at my day job for seven days straight ain’t good for – well – for everything. I don’t know how some people can manage holding down two jobs, but I freakin’ sympathize and bow to them.

Since I haven’t been writing because of this, I at least have been scribbling notes in my writing journal whenever there’s free time, i.e., during our breaks. On the upside, it’s great figuring out how my next story will go. On the downside, I’ve scribbled so many notes on a couple of stories that their plots evolved so much, and I’m now wading through probably the fourth incarnation of each.

Nope, that’s not a good thing. I need to commit to something, not tweak away till the story’s completely unrecognizable from my initial plan.

So I’m planning to bring my notebook to the courthouse starting tomorrow and attempt to eke out something that I can go with and eventually turn into a fully fleshed out story of whatever length. I frankly would prefer bringing my laptop with me, but it can be such an incredible hassle, lugging the damn thing through security and then finding an outlet I could plug my laptop into (I don’t like using its batteries).

I figured I might as well make use of those extra minutes waiting to be called into the courtroom, writing, instead of reading. I’ve been abusing my Kindle since this started, and I’ll admit that after a week of this, I find that I can’t read another word. I end up skimming through passages or stopping at different points and looking for something else to read. Total scatterbrain syndrome.

Besides, I got inspired by this account, and I think I should at least try something rather than slowly petrify my brain, waiting for the trial to end. Mind you, even if I had a state-of-the-art cellphone, I wouldn’t use it for writing. At least in my case, sitting around and twiddling my thumbs in the courthouse lobby is more conducive to tapping away at my laptop.