Preventing Post-Holiday Writer’s Guilt

Christmas tree decorated by the kids.

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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Bah Humbug

Photo credit: Lori Twining

Bah Humbug (def’n):  An expression used when someone does not approve of or enjoy something that other people enjoy, especially a special occasion such as Christmas.  (Cambridge Dictionary) 

The BAH HUMBUG Christmas of 2020 is coming, steadily advancing, crawling along, daring us to disregard all the Public Health Warnings that bombard us daily with the dangers of Covid-19. Upwards of one half the population of Ontario is in the Grey Zone … locked down once again. We are all cautioned not to travel, not to shop except for essentials and to stay home to protect ourselves and others.

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Holiday Tasks & Seizing Opportunities

Dear writers,

The countdown is on! We have exactly two weeks until Christmas arrives… whether you’re ready or not, the day will still show up on December 25th, and so will all your company demanding your attention.

Therefore, you will need to prioritize your precious time and outline some kind of schedule to make sure you still get some writing time in over the last week of December (before the 2017 year is over).

If you are one of those writers who hold down one or two other jobs to pay the bills between small pockets of writing time, maybe you will get some much needed time off over the holidays?

Free hours? Free days? Free time?

What are you going to do with all this free time?

I have a few suggestions for you:

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Writing Life Events

I’m a pushover for stories revolving around weddings, funerals, birthdays and holidays. Everyone has experiences of these relatable events.

Life events can make the most of storytelling by giving us a recognizable backdrop along with the unique twists and turns of each story. This is what intrigues me; the combination of the familiar and somewhat predictable components and the inevitable unfolding surprises. There are endless possibilities of tears, laughter, intrigue and celebration, possibly all happening on the same occasion. Not to mention the fun of getting to know characters as mundane or bizarre as you can imagine. Read more

A Simple Thank You From A Stranger Can Change Everything

Raft - Sharks - Ocean - Lori
Image by Lori Twining (January 2016)

Being a writer is sometimes difficult. There are times when you sit at your writing desk and stare at your screen. No typing; just staring. The white blank page becomes a dark scary place with an evil black cursor blinking back at you, daring you to write something worth reading. It’s like being stuck on a raft in the middle of the ocean, with no paddles, hungry sharks are circling and no matter where your eyes focus, you see nothing. No land. No help. No words. Your inner voice is stalled. The fear envelopes you. You can’t think and you can’t write. Not one single word. And, if by some miracle you find it in yourself to write a sentence or two, five minutes later you are hitting the delete button. You are right back at the beginning: the blank screen, with criticizing readers circling, waiting to attack you with negative feedback. This is when you think about giving up. It would be so much easier. Maybe, you weren’t meant to be a writer?

And then, something like this happens…

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