Writing and the Crazy Month of December

Tip of the day: Powell's has NEW copies of CHASING BROOKLYN on sale for only $6.98! What a deal! In case you have any teen girls on your shopping list. :)

I think December is a hard month to be a writer. The publishing business pretty much shuts down for the month. The chance of hearing back on a submission now is pretty much slim to none. Everyone is just so busy.

And we, the writers, feel pulled in a million directions, which means the ability to sit down and write and keep the distractions at bay is very, VERY hard.

I also tend to feel really blue with the shorter days and all of the focus on STUFF and SHOP and BUY, BUY, BUY. My checkbook doesn't *want* to buy, thank you very much. But I try to keep up with my exercise, my sleep, my vitamin D, and tell myself this too shall pass.

My plan is to try and finish the draft of this book I've been working on by Sunday. I have a lot of words left to go, so not sure I can do it. But I really want to get it done so it can rest for the month of December and I can get on with my holiday to-do list! If I leave it unfinished, I'm afraid I'll come back and be unable to get back into it. Right now I'm in the groove of writing everyday. I have a pretty good sense of what needs to happen. I just need to get the words written down!

But... I may not finish. And that's okay. One thing I've learned over the years, since I've been doing this a long time now, is this: writing should never trump life. Well, the good part of life anyway. Laundry, absolutely!!!!

Yes, I love writing (most of the time). Yes, I'd love to have more books published. Yes it's important to write regularly. BUT, it's also important to enjoy life. To step away and say, okay, enough work for a while, it's time to do something else. Decorate the house. Spend time with loved ones. Bake cookies. Eat cookies!! Writing may be fun, but it's still work. And as they say, I won't be on my deathbed wishing I'd worked more.

It's time to finish up the work and put it away. It may be a completed draft, but it might not be. And whatever it is will have to be okay. It'll be there come January either way. But the cookies? They'll be long gone.

Happy Holidays!

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career