It is almost midnight and I just realized that I was supposed to post today. I am the worst. So here are two paranoid questions for Tuesday (even though it will be Wednesday by the time anybody but insomniacs reads this):

1. Does anybody else have a deep fear of unintentional plagiarism? You would never, ever plagiarize intentionally, but every time you write a joke that actually seems funny or a line that actually seems profound or a moment that actually seems poignant, there is a little part of your brain that thinks, I’m not funny/profound/poignant. What if I read this somewhere and stored it in my subconscious and it just bubbled up and presented itself as an original idea?

2. Is anybody else afraid that their well of ideas will run dry, mid-book or mid-series? That, try as you might, there will be nothing interesting left to say? Sure, you’d still be able to put words on the page and finish the story, but not in a manner that would be remotely satisfying to writer or reader.

Just wondering. I don’t have either of these fears, of course. But I have this friend who does, and she wanted me to ask…