Pressure

Oh, it is so on. Pressure, I mean. This weekend I'm headed to a condo at Table Rock Lake with my colleague, friend and fellow writer Tammy, but it's not your typical "girls' weekend." We're hiding away with our laptops to write all weekend long - Tammy's working on editing her awesome three-book fiction series for young adults that an editor's already interested in seeing (show off), and I'm ... we'll I'm trying to finally get my book going.

It's in my head (and yes, I think we can all agree that's a very dangerous place for it to be), but until Bill Gates invents the Shower PC (I do my best thinking in the shower. Don't ask.) it's going to stay in my head unless I go hide out for the weekend and write until my fingers fall off. So I'm going. And now I'm worried. My worries in random order:

• I don't know how to write a freakin' book. Speeches, press releases, crisis plans, sure - but a book? Shouldn't I take a book-writing class or get a license or pass some kind of test before I start this?
• What if I'm a really bad writer and everyone has just been trying not to hurt my feelings by telling me I'm a good writer?
• What if I'm only a good writer in (relatively) short lengths but not for a full book? I may only be entertaining for the average length of an, ahem, bathroom visit. Am I doomed to the bathroom book genre?
• I have a horrible imagination. Seriously. I'm missing some gene or have some sort of vitamin deficiency. How am I supposed to flesh out interesting characters for a book?
• What if I suck at this and totally let my dear friend Nancy - whose life I'm fictionalizing for the book and whose already invested a trip to Mexico in this endeavor - down? Nancy is my biggest cheerleader. She totally and completely believes I can do this. She's poured out her life story to me. What if I turn her inspiring story into a bad Lifetime movie?
• Will my dear hubby rebel and allow the children to run naked in the neighborhood while consuming massive amounts of chocolate and throwing scissors at each other if I leave him alone another weekend this year to work on the book?

I've got two choices. I could bag the trip and stay home this weekend, fighting the never-ending clean house battle and running interference between the princesses. Or, I could go find out the answers to these questions.

I'm a huge chicken .... but I'm also insanely curious. And in the mood to possibly fall on my tush - or fulfill a lifelong dream.

Did I mention how much I love pressure?