Wednesday January 1st, 2014

The exercise:

Welcome to 2014! Our writing prompt to begin the year is: the pessimist.

I've mentioned here before that I don't do new year's resolutions, but I don't want to rain on anyone's parade who does go that route. So I won't go into the reasons behind my decision.

Instead, I'd like to invite you guys to share any resolutions you've made for this year, be they writing related or not. Perhaps we can support each other to stick with them. At the very least we can offer words of comfort should any goals fall by the wayside.

I worked a 9 to 4 shift today, both to get some extra cash and because no one else seemed interested in working New Year's Day. I'll be picking up a few extra shifts for the next couple of weeks to cover someone who will be away, so my energies will be focused in that direction for a bit.

After that? Perhaps I can come up with some fun and interesting things to do here on the blog.

Mine:

The list of pros easily outweighs the list of cons of being a pessimist. Aaron had grown up believing this, and it had become a mantra to be repeated under his breath whenever reality attempted to prove otherwise.

High up on that list of positives was the fact that a cynic is very rarely disappointed. Expect the worse and you'll either be prepared or pleasantly surprised. There's no chance of a letdown. Well, except for those times when the very worst doesn't occur to you until it's too late.

Those are rare occasions though. At least they are for the veteran pessimist.

There are many other reasons to forgo optimism, obviously. One could go on for days. Easily. But for some reason Aaron is not in the mood to do so. His mind is elsewhere. On that list of cons, to be truthful.

His thoughts are revolving around one item in particular: pessimists don't get very many invitations to New Year's Eve parties.