Falling Leaves and Word Sprints

by Catherine Dilts

Why am I surprised every fall when my schedule suddenly fills? It happens this way year after year.

The leaves turn color. They slip gracefully from branches swiftly going bare. My farmer brain completes the backyard garden harvest in preparation for holing up for the long winter.

Instead, activities clutter the calendar. Holiday events and gatherings.

So many birthdays. What was in the water nine months prior that our kids and grandkids all have fall and winter birthdays? Even my husband is a November baby.

Part of me longs for peace and quiet. Leave me alone so I can hide from the declining sunlight. I just want to read good books and, hopefully, write good stories. Until the sun comes back. (I have a mild propensity for SAD – Seasonal Affective Disorder.)

Although part of me wants to hibernate, I am not seriously pursuing that option. My co-author and I have ambitious plans for a brand-new series. Book one will release - God willing and the creek don’t rise – this December. The entire series is outlined. Writing each installment according to plan will be daunting, but possible.

If that were all we were doing, I would not feel stressed. But books three and four of my Rose Creek Mystery series are in the works. Coming soon! Plus a close-to-my-heart standalone that is based on childhood memories of the early seventies, blended with a modern murder mystery. I’m in no hurry to push it to publication, but I need to do revisions, and run it through critique group.

I used to participate in the now-defunct NaNoWriMo writing challenge. 50,000 words written during the month of November. I needed that space, before I was published, to carve out leave-me-alone time. A month devoted to writing! With the interruptions of Thanksgiving and birthdays, which couldn’t be avoided.

There are alternatives to NaNoWriMo. Reedsy is offering their version: Novel Sprint. I don’t know how this operates, but it might be worth checking out. I’ve heard of a few other events out there.

I am motivated enough, and my family understands my need to write, that I don’t need to join a challenge. But maybe I need to do a better job of tracking my writing. I already log my hours and projects. Logging words written is difficult when you’re editing projects.

Word sprints. This writing technique, or trick, encourages the writer to slam down as many words as possible during a set time. Five minutes? Thirty? The object is to silence your inner editor and just get the story onto the paper or screen. You can find groups doing them in a friendly, mildly competitive environment, or go solo.

This might be the season for me to experiment with pushing my output. Once the words are on the page, revising and editing will clean up the mess.

Do you embrace the fast-approaching, busy holiday season? Or do you long for a quiet corner, to read, journal, or write?