Christmas Lights and Reflections

We're going to look at Christmas lights this weekend! And it's going to be cold enough to stop for hot chocolate!! This is my favorite part of the holiday season. We're late on getting our lights up and the house decorated but I did manage to finish some of my wrapping today. I'm waiting for the little Elves of the Christmas Spirit to creep out of the woodwork and run around the house spreading joy and merriment and inspiration to get stuff done. In particular, I'd like the laundry elf to hurry up and spread some cheer...I'm putting off the last minute dash to the store for the last of the presents and supplies and enjoying my early Christmas present -- the new desk that James put together with better grace than I usually do anything.

As the year folds up toward the holidays, I realize that I'm becoming better and better at tossing plans into the new year. It's the handiest basket for things such as "work on your latest short story" and "make a monthly submission plan for existing pieces." This year was such a productive year in terms of working on things in the writer's group that next year should be the year that I start putting a toe in the water in terms of gathering rejection slips. This year, I made a few online submissions, but those rarely come with rejection slips. Instead, they fall into the giant hole of received and ignored e-mail. At least a rejection slip puts a period onto the hope that maybe this time...but no.

This is new territory for me, because it's only recently that publication has come to seem like a goal. Although I've been writing on and off for years, for me, there was so much ground to cover (and still needing to be covered) encompassing learning how to flesh out a story arc, learning how to tell the story instead of describing the image of the story, etc., that this is still a learning process.

As the new year skates closer and I'm driving around in the dark looking at houses outlined for the season, I'm going to be letting the wonder recharge the batteries that fuel my creativity and thinking about how to flesh out the outlines I have in my mind into structures that can also withstand the light of day.

Best wishes,
Chrissa