Being a Professional Writer When Christmas is Coming
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The grand tradition of Thanksgiving has come and gone. If you’re like me, you probably ate about three times as much as was healthy. After which, you stared around in a gluttony stupor and vaguely wondered why you couldn’t find the energy to do anything. It’s been a few days, though, and most of us have probably shaken off the aftereffects of our collective gorging. Now we find ourselves at an interesting time of year.
Despite what retailers would have us think, Christmas isn’t here yet. This is that awkward, pre-Christmas period where everything seems to be on hold while we wait for the arrival of the holiday. As a writer, it can be easy to get a little lazy at this time of year.
You’re surrounded by food of a decidedly sugary persuasion. You’ve got a house or an apartment that needs decorating and maybe some kids who are lobbing Christmas lists at you; lists that they filled with this year’s must have (read deathmatch in the aisles) items. Your family starts calling you and visits must be planned or avoided.
It’s hectic.
It’s time consuming.
It seems more immediately important.
Bu the truth is…
It’s not more important than your writing, especially for those of you who write for a living.
This time of year is often a barren stretch for professional writers. Clients are going out of town. Budgets for things like buying freelance content are starting to wear thin. The people you work for are just plain distracted.
What that means for a professional writer is that early-mid December is a stretch where you need to be devoting more time and energy to writing and business, not less. You’re probably going to have put in extra time to pin down clients on work, send extra reminders about unpaid invoices, and work twice as hard to drum up new business.
This doesn’t mean you can neglect obligations to family and friends, but it does mean you’ll need to manage your time more efficiently and stick to your guns about your hours. Tell your extended family when you’re available to talk and make it clear that calls during working hours need to be emergencies/highly important. Remember, this is your job and the people around you should respect that fact as much as you respect the fact that they have working hours.
Why should you do all of this? While Christmas might be fun and festive, January is right around the corner. The last thing you want to be doing in early January is trying to drum up work or, worse, killing yourself trying to do all the work you flaked on in December.
