Hi friend!
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It’s the holiday season. I am currently riding shotgun while my husband drives us home for the holidays. The puppies are in the backseat and here I am typing out this post… hoping you didn’t notice that it’s a little later than our usual 10AM EST.
But let’s face it, we are all busy. There’s so much to do. There are cookies to eat, shopping to do, merriment to ensue and what is a writer to do?
Year after year I always try and get “something” done during this time and I usually fall flat on my face. Whether it’s sneaking away to bang out a few words on my phone, scribbling out errant lines on the back of gift receipts, or laying awake at night, staring at the ceiling, kicking myself for not writing that day— without fail, I get the holiday writer blues.
Why didn’t I do enough?
How could I let myself get so far behind?
Am I lazy or am I just not that creative?
Round and round my inner critic goes.
So this year, I am letting myself off the hook. No obligations. No frantic writing to hit the arbitrary deadline of 2023.
I wrote this year and that’s enough. Now it’s time to be grateful, time to spend time with loved ones, time to fatten up and prepare for hibernation for the winter.
It’s time to rest.
My sincerest wish for you this season is to give yourself permission to just be, to not beat yourself up with deadlines, to not angst about word counts. And to rest— at least for now.
After the holidays? Go for it. Winter is built for writers, huddled over their keyboard while the freezing cold rages on outside.
If, however, you do not take my advice and you do feel the need to write to feel “on track”, then drop a line from your WIP in the comments. That totally counts!
Also if you are interested in starting your own substack, you can do so here with this referral button. (To be totally honest I don’t know what happens when you click this button, so let’s find out, shall we?)
Exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you!