I've set a yearly writing goal of 100,000 words for 2016. Which means I need to write 275 words a day. Which is harder than I thought thanks to my role as a Foster Mom to two little girls (5&7).
So...I missed my writing goal
yesterday. In fact, I didn't write a single word yesterday outside of
responding to posts on Facebook. I now have a few choices. I can:
1. Quit and start up again next
year.
2. Stomp my feet and cry.
3. Feel bad that I've let myself
down.
4. Tell myself that it's ok: I can adjust my word count goal to 99,725
for the year.
5. Hate or envy my fellow Poe Writers.
6. Feel intimated because
Cassie's written over 3,000 words and I've done...1500
7. OR I can tell myself
that life gets messy and I need to accept that.
I think I'll choose #7: yesterday
I needed to monitor a visit between my foster daughters and their biological
mother. She was an hour late: my writing goal turned into feeding the girls and
acting as cheerleader.
Little Princess wanted to write her mom off and go home,
but Big Princess needs the contact with her mom. So, we sat in a crappy
McDonald's, ate equally crappy food and waited.
She showed up, finally, and
pretty much ignored the girls while complaining about her life to me. Yay.
Little
Princess played on the playground or cuddled with me. Big Princess played with
mom's phone before playing and I lost the time I intended to read and research
England's Parliament (something necessary for my work in progress).
After we got home, I showered off
the McDonald's ickiness from the girls. Fed husband and myself. Got the girls
to bed with some cuddles and reassurances and then played Hay Day on my iPad
until I fell asleep. No writing got done, but I need to feel OK about that.
So here's my internal cheerleader: Be OK with that: I need to identify life's elements
that suck up time. If these elements are inflexible, then so be it. Do not
compare my word count to the count of others: their life may not contain as
many walls and barriers. Avoid feeling bad or intimidated. If I can flex some
of these barriers, find a way to do so: you can always catch up on your writing
on days without barriers.
The minute my enjoyment of
writing ends...take up painting. Writing is suppose to be fun, not a chore.
Hugs.
P.S.
Not all McDonald's are bad. The
one we visit is an armpit. The nice one I found that's clean with nice
employees and food that's actually yummy? Too far away from bio mom's home and
she actually complained in court that it's not fair that we chose a McDonald's
too far away. We are under court orders to go the armpit McDonald's where the
staff cannot keep ahead of the clientele. Yeah. She rocks.
