Write Affair

Search for Five

[Author's Note: This was inspired from the contest at ProBlogger that has now ended. I had fun reading the posts and decided to see if I could link them as a story here. As it's a 1st draft, I understand that the flow may not be smooth. However, I do hope that you'll enjoy reading the links that I've included.]

The list was staggering. Liz didn’t realise that there were so many top five of any topic under the sun could be found. From finance to blogging, she was swarmed with the mind-boggling list. While pondering on the next step, she decided to read those that caught her eye. The random clicks brought to her attention that there were really good writers out there to be found.

One wrote about when it was time to stop writing, while another wrote about how to start writing. Although the two were contradicting in titles, they were humorous. Since she was on the topic of writing, she went on read other posts with the same topic. Overcoming writer’s block seemed to be commonly touched on, even song writers have the same problem. 52 Novels touched on what are the must-haves software for writers that even Liz didn’t know besides using her Word software. She archived the link for future reference.

Procrastination was never far from her mind, the list that was screaming to be shortlisted was way too near the deadline. Liz hurried with her reading praying that she would be able to submit to her boss for reviewing which bloggers were to be shortlisted.

Still on searching for writers, she found one that wrote about stopping to be called a writer. While it tickled her, it was too true, she had been guilty of one of the five points mentioned. “Onward, I say,” she brought herself back to her search.

With a long list to go, she shortlisted 2 of the posts she felt that her boss would consider and looked at another topic, finance. It seemed that most loved to make money online as there was a whole lot of money-related posts. The most common way was to work from home. One wrote about earning spare cash during the spare time that was not much different from the first post. There was a post on why earning from the Internet was not a good idea which Liz privately agreed. It wasn’t quite there despite the success stories out there.

While some introduced ways to put ads in their blogs, they have recommended known ads that do pay. Liz was impressed because these are the people who do their research and test them out. Since she had her own blog, she could try it out.

Saving for the future was also on the top priority. There was this about how the Internet could help in saving money, ways to achieve retirement, how to make money while wearing underwear and many others that Liz couldn’t possibly read finish. With so many posts on finance, she had to split them into savings, earning and planning. It was late but she still had to go through the list and shortlist 2 more for finance topics.

She was particularly impressed with one who was creative to come up with ways to save money without noticing. She had to use them, her pay simply wasn’t enough for the future, she had to pay her mortgage, mobile, electric and all things related to her house. It was barely paying her mountainous bills and she had to start saving for her retirement too.

After 20 minutes, her body was aching and was screaming for a break. Liz had been staring at her screen for 2 hours, with 4 shortlisted, she still had to continue because her boss had expected her to give a long list. She was starting to be tired of her boss’ demands because it was never ending. She didn’t want to end up dead just for the money.

Meanwhile, she had started looking for other opportunities as she knew her boss was very protective of her position. Liz wasn’t interested in it, she loved her job but it was causing her stress because of the competition out there. Sometimes, she wondered if it was really worth to stay put.

Her break brought about a thought, maybe she could work from home once she had sorted out what she could do. The list had brought about new viewpoints that she wouldn’t have thought of in the past. Excited, she decided to see what else the bloggers have posted on.

She got particularly interested in freelancing as it seemed to fit her. She loved to start work while her brain was at the optimal. While a post on reasons to play pranks on her co-worker brought chuckles, she decided against it as her boss had a wide network and if she were to give up her current job, she might have difficulties in sourcing for a good job.

A post on how to get away with doing nothing at work caught her eye, she couldn’t shortlist it even if she wanted to. Her boss would ensure that no one would be able to slack off and she didn’t want to be targeted at work. She could however take the advice and included ways to entertain herself at work in her private list. An odd topic on discerning between humans and zombies brought out a laugh in her.

The list was getting slightly shorter. Another topic was next in line, relationship. This didn’t seem to be a hot topic as the list didn’t contain a lot on them. She felt that it was real sweet on the ways to love a wife. She would definitely want such a husband except that she didn’t have a boyfriend. Her job was definitely encroaching her private life too much.

She didn’t even had time to have a proper dinner with her friends for the past 6 months. The depressing list of beautiful songs was one that she made sure not to play. It would remind her of her pathetic love life or lack thereof.

She was surprised to see that posts on relationship was surprisingly short. There was one on how to move on from a wrong relationship. Another was about communicating with the kids such as getting them to talk about school. Her parents never asked her and just wanted her to do well in school. She felt a twinge of sadness.

Entertaining kids would be important from what she read so far. If the kids weren’t entertained especially if she had a family with young children, they would demand her attention. She wished that her parents had done things for her. The topic on family was getting to her. She had to shortlist 4 more and called it a day.

She read through a few more and shortlisted them. The process went well past near midnight. Liz was happy that she could sleep earlier. At that moment, her boss called. “Liz? I need you to shortlist 6 more for these topics…” Liz decided to submit her resignation letter as soon as she could.