–He didn’t think it was a great story, but he liked how it referenced itself.

A cold sweat broke out on Chris’ forhead. Today was Feb 27, 2006. In two days it would be March 1, 2007. Yep, that’s how the calendar works. March 1 was an important date for Chris. He needed to turn in a story that he didn’t have.

Lets step back in time a little bit.

A few months ago Chris started a club. This was a club for writing short stories. The idea was that each month all the members would write and share a story with each other. This was a brilliant idea, because Chris is a brilliant person. All of his friends agreed on both accounts, so they all joined the club.

But everything wasn’t butterflies and sunshine in this club. Some of the people didn’t submit stories. This worried Chris a lot, because to make the club successful he knew he needed people to write stories. He knew the idea was awesome, and he didn’t want it to die off.

That’s when Chris made up a rule about kicking people out of the club if they didn’t write stories. He didn’t really plan on kicking anyone out, but he wanted to scare them so they’d at least try to write something. This was another brilliant idea.

Unfortunately the new rule didn’t work. Some of the members still didn’t write stories. Chris pretended to be annoyed, but deep down he really wasn’t. He understood that the people had other things going on in their lives that were a lot more important. Instead of kicking people out Chris invited a few more people to join the club. He really wanted the club to keep going as a group thing, not just as one or two individuals.

That brings us back to today. Still Feb 27, 2006. Chris didn’t have a story ready. He had some ideas that he was kicking around, but nothing close to being ready to submit to the group. Chris also didn’t want to miss a month. Especially after giving other people static about not turning in a story on time.

To make matters worse, Chris felt that this was an important month for the club. When he started it one of his previous coworkers expressed doubt that the club would last more than a few months. Chris was worried about that, but he didn’t let on, especially to his coworker. This month was the fourth month for submitting. A few of the members had thrown in the towel. Chris felt that as the founder and leader of the club he needed to set a grand example. He NEEDED to submit something.

The situation was really starting to bother Chris. His last story was pretty good. There were a few rough spots, but on the whole he thought it was a good first draft. He wanted another story like that. It just wasn’t coming.

That’s when it happened. Chris figured out what he would do. He brushed the sweat off his forehead and wrote a story about writing this story. He didn’t think it was a great story, but he like how it referenced itself.