When life ramps up, writing is usually the first thing to slip through the cracks. Deadlines, family demands, celebrations, travel, and the general December swirl can leave you wondering if you should push harder, press pause, or feel guilty either way.
In this episode, we look at what it really means to stay connected to your story when time is scarce, and why your writing practice doesn’t have to fall apart just because your schedule does.
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Episode at a glance:
[07:17] Create a Story Bank
A story bank is where you collect raw material during the holidays or while you’re at the office, at a restaurant, family gatherings, etc.
These are observations, moments, details, emotions that you’ll use in your writing later, not necessarily for the work at hand, but maybe details you’ll include in a story that you work on later.
Think of yourself as a writer anthropologist during family gatherings, work and holiday events. You’re not trying to write scenes. You’re gathering the sensory details, emotional truths and human observations that make fiction and memoir come alive.
[13:05] Read
If you do only one thing for your writing during the holiday season or any fallow season, make it this: read.
This expands your sense of what’s possible on the page. Because you’re reading not just for enjoyment, but you’re asking: How did they do that?
Whether you’re writing full steam, or not, reading is always a great way to take a break and recharge your batteries. And it teaches you so much about the craft.
[16:30] Protect One Small Writing Container
If you do want to maintain some actual writing, and if it’s sustainable for you, protect one small, sacred container. Not your usual writing practice. Not your ambitious goals. One small, protected time that feels more like a gift than an obligation.
Maybe it’s Saturday morning from 8am to 9am. Everything else is negotiable. Schedule it. Put it on the calendar like any other appointment.
You don’t need to produce anything specific, but here are some options:
Maybe you reread your last chapter and make notes. Maybe you write one scene, even if it’s messy. Maybe you work through a story problem on paper. Maybe you free write about your characters. Maybe you revise a paragraph you’ve been thinking about. Maybe you just flesh out items from your story bank.
The point isn’t productivity, it’s maintaining contact with your writing, and in your identity as a writer actively working on a book.
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