What a feeling

When you're a writing parent, finding the time to write or complete an assignment can be difficult. It's rare that I get to finish a whole assignment in one day, but those moments do happen. It takes a lot of time management, patience and determination, but I have managed to get them written in just one day. Even if it means staying up REALLY late, or getting less sleep. Or not going out. Or socializing with people. Or even eating something, already! I make sure I somehow or another get it done. That I start writing it and I finish writing it in that same day.

And when that happens, I'm on cloud nine! HOORAY! I wrote something today! I want to do a happy dance! Go tell it on the mountain! I can totally DO this writing parent stuff after all!

I always feel a huge sense of accomplishment when I'm able to complete a writing project, especially if I am able to do that in one day. But when the going gets rough, the research does not go well, it takes hours to complete the assignment and the kids keep pulling me away from the computer, it really is a great feeling when I can somehow or another get it done.

But it's not just the assignments I try to complete in one day. Some days, I don't even have an assignment. Sometimes it's a chapter I'll be trying to write in one day. Or a poem, an essay, a blog post.

Like I said, it's rare I get to complete those tasks in one day! Let alone twice in one day. If I'm able to write a chapter in one day, I will feel like my life is complete. I can retire from that day knowing I accomplished something good with my writing. But if I don't get it done, it lingers with me. I feel bad that I wasn't able to finish something in one day that I SHOULD have been able to finish in one day. (And, yes, there are times that even my ability to finish a poem I start writing gets a little compromised because I get pulled away.)

I suppose I got myself into this "write something every day" habit from when my oldest was a baby. At the time, I was able to knock out an article every day. When I told one of my sisters this, who is also a parent, she looked surprised and said, "I wish I could write an article every day!" I was literally on a roll with the writing and ever since I have been trying to keep up with writing something, at least ONE WHOLE THING, every day. A poem. A chapter. A blog post. An essay. Just WRITE SOMETHING!

Yet there were times I just couldn't do it. Because of emotions, life in general, sickness, fatique, etc., there were times I couldn't write something every day.

But I still try to. I still try to write something, anything, every day. No matter what that something I manage to write is.

Because no matter what it is I DO manage to write that day, I still feel an overwhelming sense of joy and accomplishment after I do so. HOORAY! I wrote an article today! I wrote a poem! I wrote a whole chapter!

Heck, I'll be doubly pleased if I even manage to write a scene.

Because I know that any writing is better than no writing. Because I know that one more thing accomplished makes room for more accomplishments with the writing. Because I know that if I write something in one day, if I write it from beginning to end, I'll have that happy feeling to get me through the rest of the day.

Because I know how VERY hard it is to find the time to write one whole thing in one day. And when I conquer that challenge, it is a huge boost to my sense of accomplishment. That's part of the happy feeling that will result when I'm done.

And what a happy feeling it is.