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Well, Thanksgiving
has come and gone and Christmas will be here before we know it. The
holiday season brings with it a cramped schedule. We’re running
here and there shopping for food and gifts and trying to deliver
those gifts. We’re trying to write and mail off those holiday cards
in time. Then we have family to cater to, including those who come
from out of town and stay with us. On top of that there’s our jobs
and other everyday, year-round duties such as paying bills. This
cramped holiday schedule makes us writers’ writing time even more
cramped. This is especially so if, like me, you’re working a day
job.
It’s even tougher
when you have family to cater to who stay with you during a holiday
week or weekend. You can’t just ditch them to go write. After all,
they are our family, our blood, so we should show them appreciation
and love. That’s what the holidays are all about, or should be at
least. But still, an artist needs his/her own space where they only
work on their art and won’t be sidetracked. That’s often a
challenge when family from over three hundred miles comes to stay
with me during a holiday week, especially when I live in a small
apartment and there’s really no private space suitable for writing.
When I write
fiction, I have to, or more like prefer to, be alone in my house to
connect to that other world that I’m creating and to “journey”
through it with my pen as my walking staff or, in the case of sci fi,
as my rocket ship. My most honest work comes out when I am writing
alone. But sometimes that just can’t happen, such as in the case of
family or friends from afar who stay with you, or even just everyday
intermediate family or roommates year-round. So during the
Thanksgiving week when my parents were staying with me, I told them
that I would see them when I get back from my day job and my errands.
Those errands mostly consisted of my writing. This was especially the
writing of my novella that I’m presently working on that was
started during NaNoWriMo and, though I started it late in the month,
I was trying to use that time to focus on just that. So I had to find
an alternative central control for my writing. Everyone has their own
alternative writing space that works best for them since we all work
differently. Some people will use the library, some will rent a hotel
room if they can afford it (which is not quite in my budget). My
alternative writing space for fiction? The fast food joint.
I already write best
at fast food places and cafes when I’m working on non-fiction such
as articles and movie reviews (or this blog post). Unless there’s
someone there who I know, I often don’t heavily converse with other
customers at these places and so can focus on my work without being
distracted by other customers. And so if I don’t know the majority
of the people in a restaurant, including fast food, I can more easily
write fiction than I can around people who I know. Why? When I’m
around friends or family there’s an air of expectation that I won’t
get when I’m writing around strangers. I also feel forced to write
more quickly because I know I can’t just take my own sweet time and
leave my parents hanging at home and making them think I’m trying
to avoid them.
So maybe the holiday
rush can make us writers work more quickly and even productively
since we know we’ll have lesser time to write. Maybe that can even
be the greatest gift Life can give us each Holiday season. At least
aside from that new fantasy anthology or space battle video game you
asked St. Nick to bring you.
Do you have an
alternative writing space for when friends or relatives stay with
you? If so, where is it? Feel free to leave your answers in the box
below.
Until next time . .
.
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