Well, I just completed and submitted another article. It felt so good to lose myself in my writing for a couple of hours this afternoon. The last week or so has been so very full of doing for others (babysitting, family visits, concerts, Halloween events, veterinarian appointments) that the only writing I’ve done in the past week consisted of my midterm exam in my Graphic Design class and my graduate school admissions essays. The midterm exam was scantron, and the graduate school essays were, for me, fraught with peril–they only served to remind me of my failure to be accepted last year.

However, if I have learned anything these past few years of writing, it is that it is not a swift process nor for those who lack persistence. So, I did for others all last week and part of this; filled in the bubbles on my midterm; and painstakingly crafted what I thought were my best possible chances for grad school acceptance. (Just as with publishers, who often make writers wait three to six months before finding out their fates, the university will not be giving me any immediate gratification–I will not know until deep into the winter of 2010.)

So today, I finally sat back down and wrote something that was, sort of, just for me. It wasn’t work on my novel, but it was work on an article on a topic of my choosing (puppies). It was more fun to write than my essays, more challenging to research than my midterm, but not as thrilling as working on my own stuff.

Now that I’ve put at least one article to bed this week, after a long hiatus, perhaps next week, I’ll get back to the work of my dreams.