Christmas crazies

I love Christmas – and I hate it. This year has been manic, with full-on work butting up to Silly Season celebrations and sending me crazy. But I’m ‘officially’ on holidays now and, for once, everyone has scattered and I have the house to myself.

If you’ve lived with a houseful of teenagers and their passing parade of friends, you’ll know what I mean. It’s all relative, of course. One or two little balls of energy falling asleep at the same time have a similar effect. Silence. Delicious silence and all-mine space…

So I’ve opened my latest draft of The Novel, and for the first time in too long I’m about to start writing again (as soon as I stop being distracted…). I confess, I’ve chucked the almost-finished first novel in the too-hard basket temporarily. I’ve got too many blanks to fill in and it’s so long since I’ve written I’ve completely lost the plot!

I’ve started writing a first-person novel and it’s much more fun. Perhaps that’s why so many first-time novelists do it - it’s so much easier to find your ‘voice’. Of course, first-person is probably overused in novels these days, but it’s pretty useful as writing practice – and anything that gets me to the desk (apart from work!) is a good thing.

 Well, I can’t hang around chatting all day – this silence is bound to disintegrate in spectacular fashion very soon. To all of you out there in cyberspace, fellow writers, mad mums and friends… have a cool yule.

cheers reindeers

Elle

christmas holiday resolutions

The Christmas holiday has begun.

I haven’t finished my first draft. I have two short stories to finish. I have a cold – it’s going well so far.

Today I sat my children down and explained to them how things would work over the next two months. I will be working (hopefully on the writing and not improving my mahjong time) from 9am till 11am each morning. During that time they will amuse themselves with play, not come into the office to ask for food or drinks, try not to kill each other, and generally ‘be good’. They responded with a blank stare (the four year old) and a dinosaur roar (the seven year old – we’re hoping it’s a phase).

So that’s my Christmas holiday resolution – get tough with children (I used to amuse myself for hours with only twigs, dirt and a younger brother don’t you know!) and get tough with myself (I will resist the urge to have ‘just one warm up game of mahjong’).

Wish me luck.

Sash.