Yeah, this is the time of year I would guess most creatives spend the least amount of time working on their craft only because there tend to be a lot of other pulls on your time. At least for me, most of the time it’s true.
Between the actual holidays, shopping, parties, other get togethers and so on, it just seems to leave less time for writing.
Is that important? I don’t know–it’s up to you actually. For my own self, I often don’t write much during the holidays. Because of all of the above factors. However, that doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything. It just means it’s an ebb to my usual schedule.
Having said that, when I wrote most of my Project Threshold stories, I wrote them all between October and the end of January. Stacked against the other years, it was an anomaly. However, the situation was unique and I was really really into those stories. Each story led to another and I just squeezed in time to write them.
I think the other key was that Project Threshold represents a short story collection in a manner of speaking. Yes, it has an overall arc and everything builds to a climax just like a novel. However, instead of writing chapters and having a cohesive continual story, it breaks down into three sets of team’s stories leading to the finale. There are mini themes within each team’s stories so in effect, they are complete within each book. You could stop with one, despite a cliffhanger at the end of each book set.
Berger’s stories are self contained as are Talise’s. Riker’s stories beg the need to read to the finale but aside from that, the team stories really work like novellas. I think it’s what made it easy to write them. I had small blocks of time available during the holiday season and it was easier to get in, write a 3-6000 word story and then walk away.
For me, it was a perfect format and I think that’s why it worked.
So–I don’t know what your persuasion is on short story writing but if you haven’t tried it and find time limited during the next couple of months, give it shot. Writing a couple of shorts over the holidays will give you some writing time, and if you do get a couple or even a few written, you can pat yourself on the back and have something to send out for the coming year.
😉 Craig