I hope that everyone had a great long weekend. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how to balance family and writing during the holiday season, in a culture where we are already so often overworked. This happens to be a year when I was at a good stopping point with my book project so I was able to spend Thanksgiving without doing any writing, but that’s actually an unusual year for me.
I remember spending the holiday season of 2017 frantically finishing my proposal for Fairest, and how I ended up staying at a hotel between Christmas and New Year’s to finish because it was the only time I had off from work until the following summer. That’s of course an extreme example and, in retrospect, not a healthy one, though American work culture often puts us in these types of situations. In a world where so many people have jobs they don’t find fulfilling, I think it’s fair for those of us who want to write to take time to do that, and hopefully our loved ones understand.
This year I plan to definitely take it easy and prioritize spending time with the people I love, while also maintaining a line with my long projects so it won’t be so hard to get back into them after the holidays. One of the habits I’ve acquired is to always do a short outline of what’s next to write after each writing session, so I don’t have to ask myself what I’m doing next when I get back. If I’m going to be gone for a while, I usually try to write a more detailed outline.
I find that it gets harder and harder to get back to long projects the longer I’m away from them, so I try to sneak in some time even when I’m really busy; I find that even fifteen minutes of dedicated time makes a difference just in terms of keeping the flame alive for a particular project. The other thing I’ve started doing when I’m away from my book is to keep a small reporter’s notebook with me where I jot down ideas or even short passages (I can’t do it on my phone because I just get lost in apps), just to not forget the book completely even when I’m away.
Happy holiday writing,
Meredith