By Michelle Griep, @MichelleGriep
It’s that turkey time of year when we hold hands around the table, lift prayers of Thanksgiving, and then proceed to stuff ourselves right into a food coma. And following on the tail of that is Christmas shopping, decorating, parties galore, relatives and festivities and…whew! I’m making myself tired just writing that.
So how are you to maintain your writing motivation during this time of high stress? Never fear, my writerly friends, I’ve got a few tricks to share.
Don’t flip out over word count.
If you don’t make your word goal one day, don’t flip out. Make it up the next or the next. It’s kind of like a diet. If you blow it one day, that’s not a free ticket to bury your face in a chocolate cake each and every day thereafter. Hop back on the bandwagon the next day. And if you’re really on a roll one day, write extra and bank those words for days you’re not so prolific.
Take risks in your writing.
A lot of the words you write during the season are going to get edited or changed later on, so type like mad and write whatever’s on your heart. Don’t worry about “doing it wrong.” At this stage of the game, there is no wrong. You’re capturing ideas, not spit shining them to a fine sheen.
Save and back-up.
If you’re going to the effort of grinding out gobs of magical word crafting, then back it up, Hoss. Jesus saves. So should you. Trust me, it will be an ugly weepfest if you don’t save those glorious words and your computer crashes.
Write whether you feel like it or not.
Chances are there’s going to be a day or two when you just don’t feel like being creative. In fact, you’ll have days when you’re pretty sure a drunk clown could create something more exciting than what’s in your feeble brain. It’s a lie that you can’t write unless your muse shows up. Suck it up and write anyway.
Unplug.
The interwebs are a wonderful thing — and way too distracting. Shut off your internet so you don’t fall down the rabbit hole of Hallmark Christmas movies.
And there you have it. All the best to you and your writing during this holiday season. I shall eat many cookies in your honor all month and cheer for you at the finish line on New Year’s Day!
Vampires are alive and well in North Yorkshire, leastwise in the minds of the uneducated. Librarian Rosa Edwards intends to drive a stake through the heart of such superstitions. But gossip flies when the mysterious Sir James Morgan returns to his shadowy manor. The townsfolk say he is cursed.
James hates everything about England. The weather. The rumours. The scorn. Yet he must stay. His mother is dying of a disease for which he’s desperately trying to find a cure—an illness that will eventually take his own life.
When Rosa sets out to prove the dark gossip about James is wrong, she discovers more questions than answers. How can she accept what she can’t explain—especially the strong allure of the enigmatic man? James must battle a town steeped in fear as well as the unsettling attraction he feels for the no-nonsense librarian.
Can love prevail in a town filled with fear and doubt?
Michelle Griep’s been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. She is the Christy Award-winning author of historical romances that both intrigue and evoke a smile. An Anglophile at heart, you’ll most often find her partaking of a proper cream tea while scheming up her next novel…but it’s probably easier to find her at www.michellegriep.com or on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
And guess what? She loves to hear from readers! Feel free to drop her a note at michelle@michellegriep.com