I suppose everyone has bad streaks. I need somewhere to vent, so it might as well be cyperspace that hears my lamentations.

Right now I am besieged by frustration from two stories I’ve dubbed “the evil twins”. The two tales — one in the third-draft phase, the other in the first-draft phase — have several things in common:

• They are both horror stories.
• Both have novel concepts.
• Both are tightly protagonist-based.
• Both are frustrating the hell out of me.

I have been plagued by how to end these two stories. In both cases, I had the two stories outlined well in advance of writing them. However, despite flying well, I can’t seem to stick their landings. And it’s sapping my enthusiasm.

Worse still, this had bled-over into my ability to work on a third science fiction piece that I should be salivating over. The problem is, I’m negatively associating my frustration over tales one and two with this third effort.

I don’t know how to get my enthusiasm back. Long hours at work and the demands of the Christmas Season have sapped my time and led me to crave relaxation to the point of slacking off even during my normal writing times. Instead of writing during lunch, I’ve been browsing the web. I’ve been lucky to get north of 500 words a day lately, and some days I haven’t done any.

I remained determined. I have to kick myself in the butt and get in gear. I have self-imposed a deadline to get all three tales out before the year is over. That means I have to correct the first story, finish off the second and move it through the normal draft and first reader cycle — then do all the same with number three.

All over three weeks.

Think I can do it? I promise. I expect you guys to hold me to it.