Sunday Morning Tea: Feb. 12, 2023

Good Sunday morning and welcome to my front porch for Sunday Morning Tea!

For the uninitiated, Sunday Morning Tea is my virtual writing salon, where we talk about our writing goals and projects while sipping on a hot cuppa tea!

Today I’m drinking Harney & Sons Victorian London Fog, because the rainy weather is feeling very London grey, and contemplating the meaning of life, because, well… It’s been that kind of a week.

I have a confession to make. I have a story—more like a fantasy—stuck in my head, and it has completely taken over my life.

I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I’m barely present (mentally) at work, but I am at least able to pull myself back into reality long enough to meet that 8-hour minimum because inflation is a bitch and I can’t afford to get fired with a Beyoncé world tour and a trip out of the country coming soon.

Though, if we’re being realistic here…even if I did manage to somehow get chosen for the lottery, the chances of me finding a ticket in my price range…

So I’m sure you’re wondering what this story is that has prevented me from being a functioning adult. Well, it’s a story I’ve imagined for years. It comes and goes periodically, generally coinciding with bouts of depression. So I guess you could say that whenever I’m feeling unhappy about where my life is or whenever I experience something traumatizing, it resurfaces.

The first time it came was when my dad died. But when I really think about it, it actually started the year before, triggered by another untimely death. And when the nightmarish year of 2020 arrived, it brought the baggage of that story/dream with it, and it took root and has spread like kudzu swallowing the American South.

I know, I know. I’m being super vague. The truth is I’m embarrassed, and I’m not sure if I really want to expose myself because this story is essentially fan fiction, and I’m way too old to still be writing fan fiction, right? Right?!

Didn’t the After series start off as Harry Styles fan fic? And Fifty Shades of Grey as Twilight fan fic? I haven’t written fan fic since those erotic fantasies I used to have of Spectacular from the group Pretty Ricky when I was in middle school. Trash! Ugh! I cringe! Yeah, some fan fic should only ever exist in our heads.

But as I said, this story…this daydream…has completely taken over my life, and I fear that the only way I can get it out of my head and finally have some peace is if I write it. So here goes…

It’s a story about a woman who gets hit by a car while on a morning jog, and the impact sends her back in time to the 1980s, where she is run over by a famous pop star from that era (let your mind run wild with theories because I will never reveal the true identity of this pop star, and if I write this story, I’m using a pseudonym).

He takes her to the hospital, and when she regains consciousness, she’s of course in shock that she’s somehow ended up in the past, and although the doctors and nurses think the resulting head trauma from the accident has caused her to lose a grip on her reality, the pop star believes her. So he pays her hospital bill and offers her a place to stay, at least until she can figure out how to get back home. They eventually become friends and, over time, start to develop feelings for each other.

As the years pass, she comes to accept that she may never be able to go back to her time, so she settles in the past. She allows herself to fall in love, she marries him, she starts a family with him, and they’re happy. Then one day, a tragedy occurs, and she’s catapulted back into the future, but it’s not quite the future she remembers, and she still has all the memories of the past she’s been in for the last 15 years and the superstar husband she left behind, who she presumes is now dead…

Or is he?

So that’s actually where the story will begin, back in the future, with flashbacks to the past weaved into the plot.

So should I write it? Should I post it as a new serial? It definitely was not in my original writing plans for 2023, and I told myself I wouldn’t let any new stories derail my writing schedule this year (even if it has derailed my life)…

But maybe I could work it into the April A to Z Challenge, especially since I haven’t thought of a theme yet. Or, as I’ve blocked off June–September for the upcoming Stranded series, if that ends early (I haven’t finished writing it yet), I can follow up with this one.

At least with it out of my head, I won’t feel like I’m binge-watching Netflix on my brain 24/7…

Or maybe I’ve been stuck in the past this whole time…

—Nortina

Have you ever had a story idea (or daydream) that has held your brain hostage? What did you do to break free?