RemembeRED: Deadline

Prompt: In “On Writing” Stephen King wrote, “The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.”


I stared at the white sheet of paper ensnared in my Smith-Corona typewriter.

It was the night before my research paper was due.

That page was as blank as my mind.

I had a topic: F. Scott Fitzgerald and the parallels of his life to his novels. I had checked out all the books, compiled all the research, completed my index cards with the correct citations. I just had no intention of actually writing the paper. I felt that it was a stupid assignment*.

My senior English teacher had informed me that morning that if I did not turn in this assignment, I would not be walking the stage at graduation. It was a major grade and a zero in a major grade was an automatic failure. While I didn't really care about walking the stage, anything that interfered with my college career would not be acceptable to my parents. I said a bad word under my breath as I left the classroom.

Now, I said that word again as I stared at that blinding whiteness.

Just like that, a research paper became everything.

I barricaded myself in my room with the family typewriter. It was electric, and it had one of those balls with all the letters on it. It was shiny, which was distracting even then. And it 'self' corrected!

Twenty minutes later, I still had the white paper staring at me.

I finally typed something. It was my name, my teacher, and the date.

Still, I felt this was a good start. Then my teenager brain figured out that I just had to complete the assignment. It didn't matter what grade I got, only that I finished. So I finished the assignment without thinking much about it at all.

I got an A. So much for thinking!



*I was, and still am, one of those people who need to understand the necessity of a task before doing it. I need the WHY before anything else. If I don't see a point to it, I don't want to do it. This one 'minor' character flaw gave my teachers raging fits, but the way I saw it, if a teacher couldn't explain the 'why' then it wasn't worth learning. I have stubbornness issues.