Over the last few years, Friday nights have become date night for my husband and his favourite writer… That would be me.
We are both book lovers that challenge each other to find books that have been adapted into movies. We read the books, watch the movies, and then we discuss the differences between the literary version versus the cinematic version. We discuss things such as:
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Over the Christmas holidays, I decided to declutter my basement office. The task had been on my To-Do List for far too long. I procrastinated because it was a BIG job, which ultimately took me seven days to complete. Sad, but true.
While sifting through the stacks of papers, books, and file folders, I found some personal notes full of secret information. Information that I don’t need or want anyone else to know about. What if someone else had seen them? What would they think? What would they say?
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Don’t panic, but there are only six days until Christmas arrives and only 12 days until the year ends. Holidays are approaching fast, and I realized I still haven’t achieved everything I wanted to this year. Now, I am worried about all the things I won’t get done over the holidays.
Instead of stressing about the post-holiday writer’s guilt already, I decided to take a deep breath and plan to keep writing a couple of hours each day despite all the festive Christmas parties littering my calendar with work, family, and friends. My holidays will be packed full, but I have ten days off, and it would be great to make some progress on a writing project or two. Therefore, I need to figure out how to juggle the schedule to make sufficient time for work, family, exercise, writing, and a little bit of sleep.
Connecting with family and friends at this time of year is important, and fitting in the job stuff is required to pay all the bills, which is why making room for writing feels difficult and complicated.
So, if you are reading this and would like to prevent the post-holiday writer’s guilt, then check out my suggestions to help us achieve our writing goals together.
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Lately, I have become obsessed with pre-ordering my favourite author’s upcoming releases. I get excited about receiving the book on publication day (or close to it, depending on my delivery choice). There are some authors I love so much that they become an automatic buy for me, which means I pre-order the book the minute I know it is available to do so. It arrives several months later on my doorstep and ends up being a bit of a surprise (because I know it is coming, I just don’t know exactly when it will arrive). This is what makes me happy.
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Last week, I scheduled some time away from work and my every day responsibilities to attend a seven-day writing retreat in the middle of the woods in Haliburton County. I hoped to review and revise my current novel by taking my characters deeper and solving a few lingering issues I had with plot holes.
The weeks leading up to this retreat stressed me out. Lists needed to be made for everything I required to accomplish at work before I could leave. I had lists of food that I must shop for and pack. I also had a weekend wedding in Hamilton to get ready for that followed the writing retreat with only a one-hour break between them. My brain was fried when I finally arrived at the retreat, and I didn’t have a plan of exactly what I would be working on. Poor planning.
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While attending the Thrillerfest conference in June, I couldn’t help but notice the frequent use of the word “wheelhouse” in conversations about reading and writing books. The word became the newest buzzword of the year. It is a term that has slowly made its way into many writers’ vocabulary, including my own.
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In June, I had the opportunity to attend the Thrillerfest Conference in New York City for the first time in three years. At this point in the pandemic game, I don’t have to tell you that booking the hotel and airfare were scary enough, but traveling via plane and subway with thousands of other people rubbing up against your ribs would be a nightmare. So, I will skip the conversation about risking my health and tell you that it was time to be brave. With three vaccinations in my arm and over a dozen N95 masks in my book bag, I knew I would be well protected while traveling to the U.S. conference for a week.
I, like most writers, am considered an introvert. So, attending a writing conference to start conversations with strangers face-to-face is not only intimidating but also terrifying. So, to appear like the extrovert that I wanted to be, I decided to take it easy, relax and be stress-free. I only concentrated on one goal for the conference: To make new friends and connect again with my old ones.
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Sometimes, life is hard.
Your typical day can get so hectic that you barely have enough time to change out of pajamas in the morning before it is already bedtime again. You are so busy juggling responsibilities that you can’t find the time to finish that short story, complete the novel edits, or even take a few minutes to write a four-line poem.
So, maybe you need a solo writing retreat?
I will admit that I won the lottery a few months ago. I didn’t win a cash prize or a prestigious award; instead, I won a writing residency opportunity to spend almost two weeks on a private island in the middle of a quiet lake. It is the perfect place for me to focus on three things: Eating, sleeping, and writing.
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