This morning I got up, checked my email, had a coffee… wanted another coffee… and wondered: Does your main character hate Mondays?

It’s a typical thing in our culture to attribute mistakes, bad attitudes, forgetfulness, and the need for extra caffeine to it being Monday. We have a “bad case of the Mondays” or “Monday brain”… though I imagine for some people, Monday isn’t a bad thing at all. They love their job and love to get cracking as soon as the clock hits 9am.

But even for people who like Mondays, I’m guessing they’ve had a ‘Monday incident’ at some point or another. I hesitate to believe someone who’s never blamed the day for something at some point in her life.

To bring it back to writing (it’s relevant, I swear), when we’re writing a contemporary piece set in Western society, do we remember to include this extremely common convention in our characters’ everyday lives? If your character’s feeling a bit drained, does she blame it on the beginning of the week? If she dribbles coffee down the front of her blouse, or forgets to call her mother and gets a scathing email because of it, does it all come down to Monday?

I’m sure I’ve read books where Monday gets the blame, but of course I can’t think of any examples right now. I’ve used it myself at the beginning of my editing-stage novel A Work in Progress, but what about you? Do you see this often? Have you used it yourself?

Tell me the most creative way you’ve used Monday to create conflict for your characters! Or, if you haven’t used it before, would you consider it? I’m curious…!