Daily Discipline

I watched Julie & Julia last night, and it inspired me to start writing consistently in my blog. As you can see, I have 2 posts from September, and then completely dead air for the last 3 1/2 months. I am making a commitment to write something here every day until the end of February as part of the daily discipline of getting words on paper (or on the computer, which counts too, right?!).

Since November 08, I've been disciplined about working on my screenplay, writing a minimum of 3 pages per day, and I'm amazed at how much better I feel when I'm writing every day. With 2 small kids and a husband to feed and take care of, plus a part-time job, a home business, a university course on the weekend, volunteering at my daughter's school and my son's preschool and serving on the steering committee for a local mom's group, life is full, satisfying and busy. Squeezing in time for writing is challenging, but I came to realize it was essential for my mental health and well being. 3 pages per day seemed like a modest goal, but on the good days it was only a starting point, and on the bad days it felt like the worst form of torture but I still sat down and did my best to complete those pages.

A year and 2 months later, I am on draft 4 of that screenplay and have it out in the world to be read, an equally thrilling and stressful proposition. I'm at work on my newest script, a comedy this time, and the process of writing feels marginally easier this time around. I've also been asked to teach a creative writing class for adults at our local library this February, and I'm over the moon with excitement. Every day I have to resist the urge to call the library and see how many people are on the list, but with the class half full I know it's going to run and I can hardly wait for it to start. Finally it feels like a dream I can almost reach out and touch, this dream of writing consistently, getting it out there in the world, and with any luck finding out that it means something to people.

I invite you to come along on this journey as I blog each day for the next 6 weeks. I can't promise every post will be riveting, but I'll do my best to dig deep and write honestly about life. My hope is that we'll all be better for sharing in this journey, realizing that we are not alone, and can in fact learn a great deal from the daily struggles, laughter and frustration that are common to everyone.