Holidays! Holidaze. (LOL. Good one.)
First, let me remind you about the Write Without the Fight Office Party this week – Tuesday, Dec 22nd, 5-7pm PT. Hope you’re coming! RSVP here, and you’ll get the private, secret, magic ZOOM link to join in on all the fun. It’s free. There are door prizes, drinking games, hand dancing, a rapid writing prompt, a festive earring contest and more, way more.
Right after that, however, quit your partying, and let’s figure out how to find time to write this holiday season!
“What was I doing?” This is something I ask, three times a day, as I enter a room, open my computer, or turn on a burner on the stove. I stare blankly and can’t remember why I entered the room. In this season, we’re doing a thousand things at once. Wrapping, planning, cooking, baking, shopping, and working in doctor visits before the fiscal year ends. And of course, there’s writing.
Before I get my wisdom teeth pulled on New Year’s Eve day, I’m gonna drop some wisdom on you about how to find time to write.
Do you try to keep writing during the holidays?
There’s no “right” answer to that question. Some of us take the well-deserved vacation from writing. Some of us continue to write. Some us write more bec we get time off. Some of us intend to write, and then beat ourselves up afterward. Some of us need to write, so the holidays are no different, except inasmuch as they can generally tax our mental health, which makes writing more imperative.
The distractions and other obligations are many, and seemingly non-negotiable. How can you find your way to your desk, ready to write?
H2 find time to Write during the Busy Holiday
There is never enough time during the holidays – menues get pared down, presents get X’d off your list. Your holiday cards lie there, scorning you. Children are a delight and you hate to miss a minute of it. Children are a fright, and everything takes longer, is harder and more closely negotiated. In any given year, your vision for the holiday is delivered at 80%… maybe 70%.
And you look for that weird opportunity for the long-promised, long winter’s nap. Does it ever arrive? Perhaps, embarrassingly, during the kids’ Christmas concert or nativity pageant. Or as your husband tells a long story.
Does all this mean you can never find time to write? (I mean you already decided there wasn’t enough time to make gravy or two kinds of pie. Is it okay to take time to write?)
What if, this year, you delivered only 40% of your Holiday vision? Would the world end? Would anyone notice?
Last year, I had a broken arm, my dad had just died and we had moved into this new house on December 13th. Boxes were everywhere, and I was helpless to move them, or to realize anything close to the Christmas vision of years past. And you’re probably thinking – So, you were off the hook. No one expected you to do a big Christmas. And that’s true, but I needed a satisfying family holiday gathering. I wanted Christmas to magically soothe away the sadness and pain, frustration and change.
I delivered Christmas at about 40%. I bought a pre-lit tree, and didn’t even hang an ornament. We got the boxes moved to a part of the living room I didn’t have to see if I were looking at the tree. We had presents galore. Probably fewer than other years – but plenty of nice surprises. We got tamales and side dishes from a very cool Hispanic grocery store for Christmas Eve, and ordered Christmas dinner from a restaurant. And it was lovely. Gratifying.
And I learned there’s a nugget of need-to-haves amidst all the want-to-haves in any holiday plan. You can find the 40% that matters, and deliver that. And that, my friends, is how you can proactively find time in your busy seasonal schedule to write.
What can you shave, pare down, skip?
Schedule your writing time, and then plan your holiday preparation and celebrating time around it. Do less. Keep it fun and easy. This little phrase “fun and easy,” is life-altering. What might be fun? What might be easier?
And while you’re delivering your holiday in a sub-par – but perfectly sufficient and gratifying – way, consider doing the same for your writing. What writing might be more fun to undertake in this holiday season? You can pick up that draining scene in your memoir, a little later. In the New Year.
Yes! You got to your desk! No one saw you sneak off. Your spouse is asleep. Your mother-in-law is out, taking back the gifts you gave her. You could be snuggling with your kids who are watching the Trolls World Tour for the third time. But instead, you write.
You can write.You deserve time to write.
The holidays is a time that we care for and give to others. Our own needs often go unmet. Give yourself the gift of deserving the time and quiet you need to write.
For more tools, shared turbulence and trusted space, come to the Write Without the Fight FB group