As of last Friday, I've been on my Christmas holidays from college. In previous years, this has meant a month off, usually getting to relax, watch too many movies and a whole season of a TV show, or something to that effect. This year, I'm the most available part-timer in the bookshop, so I've been given a lot of hours. There are some pros and cons to this. Obvious pros include keeping myself in a rhythm and not having to re-adjust my sleep pattern come January, and actually having money after buying Christmas presents.
The cons include losing any chance to have a "lie in", and not being able to do other work that might appeal to me at this time of the year.
I don't think I can really complain. I can grumble, and I will, because it won't feel like Christmas is coming for a very long time, but all in all I'm happy to have a lot of hours. Truth be told, it'll be better for me than if I were just staying at home 4-5 days of the week for a month. I remember what that was like in the summer months. By and large, the productivity levels dropped to a standstill after a week or so. Now, I'll value all the time I have off.
I had wanted to use that time in specific ways, but there have been some delays with my teaching placement material. I'm hoping that can all be resolved shortly, so I don't have to worry and I can just get on with the extra curricular work I want to do.
Part of that includes writing the sequel to Balor Reborn, because it's been a long time coming. However, I can make no guarantees on that front. It's likely it'll take a longer period of time to produce the finished book than it took me to write Balor Reborn, because I had a lot more time to work with in July. Not to worry. It's on the list, and that's what matters.
It's also alongside a number of other projects, including an attempt to share more poetry. Taking a page from my own (e)book - Writing Gifts on a Shoestring - I'll be taking some initiative and sharing some poems that were written for fun. I'll probably use the same method on pre-existing poems on my website, just to get them all shared in a similar manner, but then the rest will be rarely seen pieces. It'll be a bit of craic, anyway.
In the meantime, though, I have to write a comedy journal. It's college work like that that have prevented me from updating this blog in a while. That, and Drama. In the space of a month, I wrote and directed a nativity play, falling into what I hope to be a series of plays surrounding The Jerry Davidson Show, in which all manner of overtly religious individuals from the Bible appear on his show to solve their relationship problems. It was a hoot, but time consuming, and not something I'd advise anyone else to do in their final year of college!
Anyway, this blog post is part of what I hope to make a schedule from. Monday: blog post. Wednesday: poem. Friday: flash story. If I can't produce three items per week, there's something wrong. I'm also hoping that, time allowing, I'll be able to add an article to my website every weekend, too. That'll be decided by how much time and energy I have at the end of the college week. With teaching placement in January, and full time hours in the bookshop before that, too, it's not likely I'll get a start on that until February. We'll see, anyway.
What about you? How are you getting yourself to write more?
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