Winter is Coming – Hurrah!

Don’t get me wrong. I love summer time. Strangely enough, I especially enjoyed it this year. It became a time to reconnect with friends in outside spaces, to play charades on the driveway under the stars, find new kayak paddles in crystal blue-green water and to weed my flourishing Covid-19 garden.  

But I’m kind of exhausted by summer. Like an excellent party – it’s great fun while it lasts but the clean up the next day is daunting. I’m canning my garden bounty (turns out that 40 tomatoes plants are too many), experimenting with a dozen ways to eat zucchini and discovering that not everyone loves cucumbers. Sadly, my writing got shelved during this time of outside merriment.  

Which brings me to a confession. For the first time ever in my life, I’m secretly looking forward to winter. It may be because I will be able to work part time from home and I’m thinking of how enjoyable it will be not to make the snowy drive through the valley each dark morning. But it’s more: winter snow brings a quiet to my home and I feel safe nestled in my warm house by the fire.  With all the noise in the world right now – from the US Election, to Covid, to the economy – I’m yearning for peace. Within that quiet, I hope to find the peace and quiet in my mind to return to my writing.  

Although I have not been writing this summer, I have been thinking a lot about my work-in-progress. Like many relationships, time apart can either strengthen or break it. I think about my novel weaknesses and where I want to take it next. I think about my characters while yanking weeds and mowing grass. Some days, I wonder if it is worth the time and effort.  After all, I’ve been working on this novel for years and years and I’ve had many rejections. Maybe its no good and I should keep it permanently shelved.    

But with winter coming, I find myself eager to return to my novel and to my characters and to see what they will do next–oh, I’ve missed them! And that tells me that I must have something golden. It may need a good polish and trimming but the core is still good.  

So I have a plan on the changes I want to make. I have even written them down in a list to keep me focused. This winter, I plan to do this: I will polish that novel following my list of changes and then I will send it out again in the world. 

Writing is teaching me persistence and hopefulness even during times of draught. Like my garden, I’ve had my failures (my cauliflower and Brussels sprouts got destroyed in during the attack of the cabbage beetles) but I’ve had successes too. Self doubt is part of this process as much as weeds are part of a garden.     

Prepare for winter and plan to write.