Saturday 24 December 2016

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

This time of year brings out so many different emotions and unfortunately one of them is usually stress as we try to create the perfect Christmas. So one of my favourite times of the year is that pause between Christmas and New Year. The mania of Christmas has passed and New Year hasn’t happened yet. I can put off the thought of making any resolutions and the rush of getting back into my stride which inevitably involves the school run and lunchboxes hasn’t yet landed in my lap.

This pause is just the time for long walks along deserted beaches and a chance to review and rethink and inevitably that means my writing. Am I writing what I want to? Am I enjoying what I’m writing? A year ago, the questions would have been very different with the focus of a publishing contract with Mills and Boon very much at the forefront of my mind and certainly the bar by which I measured my success. I can’t help but believe that writing in that way was restricting. Writing should be its own reward as an idea is created and perfected to my own standards.

So I’m going to enjoy this pause and let the winter wind blow away my preconceived ideas of what success means to me in my writing. The idea of just writing and letting my subconscious take me where it wants to go in the story, telling myself that my writing is just for me (unless I choose otherwise), is so appealing and freeing that I can feel the joy and enthusiasm returning just as warmth returns to cold fingers.

Sometimes life makes us pause and the pause can be good for us.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.