Meg Dowell Writes

I’m having a hard time balancing school and writing.

It’s not easy striving for that 4.0 I promised my parents (and myself) while writing an average of three thousand words a day. I’m not much of a multi-tasker: I tend to focus on one thing at a time. Sometimes I spend too much time on one thing, though, and I end up cramming things in at the last minute. I’m trying to break my procrastination habit, but it’s hard. After about five years of last-minute studying, papers, and projects, teaching yourself how to get things done early (and get them done well) takes patience. I have no patience.

I love this novel. I love writing. I love how it feels to take the thoughts and words in my head and write them down. I’m not the best writer in the universe, but I also have experience. It’s one of those things I could do every day for the rest of my life. It doesn’t matter how good I am, if my dialogue makes sense, or anything like that. I’m not in it to get published or for money (though both of those things would be amazing). Though it would be a dream come true for someone to pay me to write, the world won’t end if it doesn’t ever happen. And it’s not likely that it will.

But you never know.

I’m also getting 11 credit hours out of the way before I scamper off to my four-year in the fall. I started my senior year in August with 25-and-a-half credits, even though we only need 22 to graduate. I could hardly fill my schedule for one semester during registration last year. So I finished in January with about 28 or so credits, a terrible GPA, and a dream to get A’s throughout college. So far, I’m doing okay. Not great…but okay.

The hardest thing about writing is knowing the difference between making time for it and having time for it. If you have to make time to get in a thousand words or so, you shouldn’t even try. You should probably get everything else done first, so you’ll actually have time to write later. I’m not trying to make deadlines or write a perfect book. I’m trying to write my heart out, as long as it’s done before finals. June 6th, at the latest. Graduation day probably wouldn’t be the best day to finish a novel.

I’m trying; I really am. I’m trying to learn, is what I’m doing. I’ve been writing for, what, nine or so years, and I still haven’t figured out how to walk across the balance beam without favoring one side over the other, or falling off completely. But I get back up every time, and hopefully soon I’ll be able to do a cartwheel or stand on one foot. Now wouldn’t that be something.

Love&hugs, Meg♥