Creative inspiration: Christmas is coming

I apologize for my absence here—I decided to take a little hiatus and shift my focus for a bit. Instead of blog writing, I’ve been doing another type of creative writing: last month, I tried my hand at the Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge—that is, writing 50,000 words in the month of November. Sadly, I fell well below the mark. That said, I still wrote much more than I think I would have otherwise. Silver lining!

This was not my first attempt at writing fiction. I’ve been working on an idea, a narrative, something that I’d like to call a novel someday for a while now.

When I signed up for Nanowrimo, what I wanted badly was momentum: my work-in-progress has been with me for a very long time. I’ve been thinking about it and working on it, in a very haphazard way, for several years now. Over that time, I’ve produced an approximately 56,000-word draft: unfinished, messy, unsure of its direction. Most of the time, I think my ambitions for the book I want to write far exceed my powers of execution. But there’s something that keeps nagging at me, something that prompts me to keep going with it. I feel guilty if I’m not working on it.

I desperately want to complete a draft—a rough draft—by my birthday. My goal is to write 100,000 words; that’s what I’m shooting for. And while I recognize that quantity doesn’t equal quality, I’ve found, in my limited experience, that pushing yourself to produce words and pages is the only way to get things that might be useable, might actually work. To make my goal (according to my Scrivener target/stats tool—gotta love Scrivener), I need to write 778 words a day for the next 57 days. I would like to think that I’m capable of doing this.

Wish me luck!

Of course, writing isn’t the only thing I’ve been up to. You might be surprised to learn that I’ve started baking in a quasi-serious way.

You see, I’m starting to think about Christmas. In fact, I’m kind of fixated on holiday preparations. This year, I really want to enjoy the season and do some of the simple things that I have always loved to do. I want to bake, I want to take my dog for walks in the snow, I want to sit in front of my Christmas tree. I love winter. I love Christmas.

So I’ve kicked off my own little Christmas countdown of sorts. I’ve planned some holiday activities, and I’m really kind of excited about it! Baking and decorating top my list. I found this excellent apple cinnamon chip scone recipe and whipped up a batch this weekend. They turned out beautifully. They’re delicious—a perfect winter comfort food. I highly recommend this recipe.

I hope to be updating you on my progress this month in creating, baking, decorating, celebrating—not necessarily in that order.

I hope you’re finding time for creative pursuits and for celebrating the season.

Anna xo