After a writing whirlwind of a November with a couple of virtual events, my Highlights Foundation writing retreat, and successfully completing NaNoWriMo (you can read about that in my post “The Magic of Highlights Foundation Writing Retreat”), I had planned to take a bit of a breather in December. November left me feeling a bit burnt out, so my plan was to watch some lighthearted movies, catch up on pleasure reading, and maybe bake a little with the kiddos. I also wanted to play around creatively with painting my playing guitar, things that had been put aside last month.
Overall, I’m doing pretty well on those goals. I have just one article due this month, so things are quiet on the freelance side. I haven’t done any fiction writing except for tooling around with one picture book and jotting down a few notes for when I gear up to revise the young adult novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo.
I’ve watched a bunch of movies, done some reading but I’d like to do more, and a little bit of baking with more planned for once the kiddos are on their school break. The painting and guitar playing I’ve been less successful on, but I’m trying to keep those things low-key, so I’m okay with that.
So I seem to be doing well on my goal, except…I got an idea on how to develop one of my writing projects and I kind of ran with it. (I know I’m being annoyingly vague here, but more details will be coming on this.) It’s stretching me in new ways on the business side of things and it’s hit a few bumps along the way, adding some stress to my life. Which wasn’t in the plan for December, and maybe all of this could have waited until after the New Year.
But I also didn’t want to wait on it, so I’m just decided to go for it. It hasn’t really been time-consuming so much as uncomfortable as I do things that are new to me. It’s made me feel unbalanced when I was striving for more balance this month. In the end, I think it’s going to be really good. So while it has put a wrench in my relaxing plans for this month, it always feels good to move feel like I’m making progress.
I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m very good at taking a full break. We’ll call it a break-ish. What are you all doing/celebrating as we close out this year and look forward to a new one?
I am spending the month on short-form work, trying each day to begin something new that I’ve had in mind for a while and couldn’t get to or work on something different that I’d already started and couldn’t do anything more about. I often am pushing to finish something big in December, or at least keep working on it, and between that and DECEMBER, the month is usually a lot of pressure. Not so this year. These little projects, and even submitting some of them, are both more relaxing and making me feel as if I’m getting something done.
I’m glad you’re getting some downtime this month, Gail! I love working on shorter projects to feel productive without making a huge commitment to a large project.
Happy holidays!
Good for you for taking this break!
I always take the last two weeks off in December, and I try to make the first two weeks of this month as non-hectic as possible, too.
Resting is so important.
Thanks, Lydia!
I usually try have as non-hectic as possible Decembers. Enjoy your time off and rest!