I just completed writing an article for the magazine on which my daughter is the editor. That means my daughter is my boss. Now, as a Literature / Composition/ Writing adjunct professor, I've written everything from long academic papers to marginalia. I've written short stories, poems, letters to penpals, Facebook status lines, Tweets, condolence notes, and newsletter blurbs. I've written blogs and had articles published in the U.S. and in Poland. I've written on deadline, needed to submit first drafts because I was on short time, and never gave it a thought....until I was asked by my daughter to write an article for her magazine.
There's something about working for your child that just takes the natural order of things and upends it. Suddenly you're the one looking for the approval, not giving it. Like an eager puppy with a damp chew toy and a wagging tail, you are hoping for a pat on the head and an indication that you did a "good job." The task itself was, for me, an easy assignment. I was going to be writing an article about a young woman - a former student of mine - whom I admire greatly. I know her fairly well, and we get along fine, so that I knew it would be easy for me to get the information I needed to flesh out a 2000 word article.
It was the longest 2000 words I've ever written.
Sentence by sentence, I kept wondering if the article would be good enough, if it is what her readership will want and find relevant, if it was reportorial and unbiased, if the sentence structure and language usage is appropriate, if all the facts are accurate, if my daughter will like it, if it will embarrass her in any way, if I will live up to the standards she might have for me. I procrastinated for a month before I even started to put material together. Prior to writing a single word, I spent more than one morning letting the shower water run out as I tried to construct in my mind a suitable outline. I tried to remember everything I try to teach my writing students about article writing, but blanked on what that really is. I nearly drove myself crazy.
But, as the deadline was approaching, I opened up my word processing program and wrote the first paragraph - at least five times. By the end of the first 200-300 words, I was hitting my stride. My usual writing method regarding things of this nature is to write the first draft complete one day, sleep on it, shower on it, and then make some revisions. I'm a pretty strong first-draft writer, so I don't often make major revisions in a short piece, and I didn't this time. I did have some additional information I needed to get from my source, but once that was done, it was a quick brush up and conclusion.
Then it was time to upload the article to my editor. It wasn't easy hitting that "enter" key after attaching the document to an e-mail. But I took a deep breath and did it. Of course, I sent it at the end of the week and had to wait three days for a reply, but when the reply came it came by Facebook message: "I love your story." That was all I had to read. It made my day. I've just pleased the most important audience in my life.
