Time, where did you go?

December 14, 2019 by Julie Holmes, author 23 Comments

Image by Ronny Overhate from Pixabay

Have you looked at the calendar lately? I thought we just finished Halloween, and now, in a week and a half, it will be Christmas.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Granted, Turkey Day was late this year, but still. I have to keep reminding myself there’s only one more week before Christmas. And guess what? I haven’t even started my shopping, much less finished it.

I’m almost finished with my draft of Book 2, but with the kids coming home for winter break, I’ll have to adjust my expectations of writing time and energy.

I know a lot of writers put their writing on “pause” during this time of year because let’s face it, there’s a hella lot of stuff going on between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Trees to trim, lights to string, cookies to bake (erm, I think I missed that on my list), cards to send (damn, another thing I forgot on my list), gifts to buy (ugh), families to gather, you get the picture.

Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

I’ve had a lot of excuses to put my writing on pause over the past year or so (hey, legit struggles with the plot, y’all). I finally took a writing class to counter my procrastination, and it worked! I even managed to hack out 50k words (added up across multiple projects) during NaNo.

But now what? How do I keep up the momentum I built during NaNoWriMo? That’s the whole reason I do NaNo to begin with. Now with the annual holiday slump that seems to get worse every year, I struggle to make progress.

Wait! That’s it! The cure for the holiday slump, which in some circles is called “being a Grinch”, and in other circles is called “bah, Humbug!” Heh, let me try this out:

Sorry I didn’t get a gift for the exchange (the gifts-in-a-pile-then-random-selection game), I was working on the climax for Book 2.

Not bad. Here’s another one: Oh, sorry, I didn’t have time to make cookies this year. I had to write the big reveal for Book 2.

Hmm. I kinda like this. I could go places with this: Hey, I know I was supposed to bring the figgy pudding and mulled cider for the family Christmas, but my characters said if I didn’t get their big conflict scene written, they were going to stop talking to me for their New Year’s resolution. 😀

I’ve had it wrong all this time! Brilliant! Good thing the kids are in college so they won’t be so bummed when they realize I didn’t get them anything this year.

Despite the hustle and bustle of the season (wasn’t that part of a Christmas song?), give a bit of attention to your writing. Hey, what could be more theraputic than writing a little revenge short story starring Great-aunt Edith and her blood-red lipstick (that you still haven’t gotten out of last year’s cashmire sweater), or the stench of the perfume she bathes in? What about Great-uncle Horace who hasn’t cleaned his dentures for, yeesh, that long.

Next week is the solstice! Yippee! Finally, the days start getting longer. After that, I’ll be taking a break until after the new year.

As Dory would say:

And of course, can’t forget Zoey …