This one didn’t have a name

Here, for your eyes, is one of the two failed NaNoWriMo’s I started:

He was laid on his back in bed with his new Apple MacBook laptop resting on his raised knees. Time slowly ticking (not that he had a real clock) away, except it seemed to go much faster than usual. It was 2:30am. He had been staring at the screen for over an hour. Hoping the words would write themselves. But nothing appeared. Not even when he tried some telekinesis.

He needed to complete the essay by the morning: 10,000 words on the rise and fall of reality television. He’d chosen his subjects carefully. ‘Big brother’ shortly coming to the end of it’s 10 year run because of a decline in audience, and ‘The X Factor’, a show with increasing viewing figures week on week. And those blasted ‘Jedward’ twins should have made for lots of quality material on both the publics power and strong backlash against Simon Cowell. But the words just didn’t flow.

So far he had literally written the date, title and his name. Something was stopping him from continuing. The constant coughing from the room above him didn’t help. But it wasn’t just that. There was something else.

Throughout his GCSE and A Level years, he always maintained that the more someone pushed and nagged at him to do something, like exam revision, the less likely he was to do it. And that was how he explained his mediocre grades so far. But now he was in his final year of university, there was no one behind him nagging at him to complete his work. So what was stopping him?

Maybe the constant nagging to revise actually worked in the way it was designed and he was destined for a mediocre life and career? Or was it because he was studying for a degree linked to an industry he didn’t want to work in any more?

Both, he thought.

But a combination of working 12 hours every week in a supermarket, another 10 in a Pub, 11 hours worth of lectures and workshops, and his laziness stopped him from finding a job in his real passion and ideal career area.

That and the fact he was so close to finishing his degree (essay completion pending) it would have been a waste of the last two and a half years, not to mention the £13,000 in debt from student loan and tuition fees.

He began to type. He wasn’t really paying attention to the words appearing on the screen. But he had to write something, even if it was complete bollocks.

“The reality television programme in the UK, really took off with the launch of ‘Big Brother’, in 2000.” He began. “This new format, not seen on British television, gripped audiences as the newest form of “social experiment” panned out.” He continued. “The concept was simple. Throw X amount of people in a purpose-built house, give them tasks, film them and see what happens”.

He hit a wall. It should have been really easy to continue writing the introduction, but he just stopped.

He resisted the urge to look up some information on Wikipedia. He’d been caught out there once before, in his first year.