Whew! Hi there, if I'm still on anyone's radar.
Nanowrimo is over (see my new badge over there on the left?) and now I'm thinking about writing a Christmas letter.
Truthfully NaNoWriMo was a struggle this year. The goal, to be counted a "winner" is 50,000 words. I did 50,277. It's not a real story, although I managed to find the roots of a possible story within my dark subject matter. Mostly I was just writing to get out of my own head.
It was a unique process for me: ramble, ramble, stream-of-consciousness, then suddenly come upon a character, then rework the character with a different personality, then find that the secondary character is where the real story is, then find that I'm on a totally different tack than I'd started!
I deleted nothing, for the sake of the word count, so a lot of it is garbage, and this is not a story that will ever see the light of day. But I did it!
And now I want to write a Christmas letter. When I lived in the US, I did cards every year, with a letter inside. I no longer send them, but I would like to compose an appropriate Christmas letter to share. I'm just stumped for what to write.
"Nothing new. Traveled nowhere. Did nothing." Boom.
I don't do newsy letters. In the past, I tried to focus on some element of the original Christmas story and compare it to the modern world. But what? This year, my friends and family are divided between political beliefs and Covid perspectives, and I can't think of a single, universal message that won't piss off one side or the other. Or myself, as I write it.
Actually, I started this blog post hoping that an idea would come to me as I write about wanting to write. No dice.
Are you writing a holiday letter this year? Do you have a theme? Or do you have any ideas for me?
I'm jealous that you take time to write anything at all. I started 2 different books a long time ago and now they just sit there. I just can't motivate myself to go back to them. I'll tell myself, when I get home from work, go sit down and write for an hour. Then I end up working overtime and come home at supper time and then it's all blown out of the water.
ReplyDeleteYour Christmas letter sounds like my blog, I don't really do anything so it's pretty boring. The only thing I do is work and I won't post much about work because I don't want my job holding it against me.
Hope you two have a happy holiday season.
Yeah. And for me, we're safe and have fewer restrictions than a lot of my friends and family, so to even talk much about my real life seems like bragging.
Delete... how sad is that, that being safe feels like bragging?
The problem is that this year has made people prone to ranting, and ranting is decidedly not in the holiday spirit. For myself, I've tried to focus on the positive changes this year of introspection has made for me, but YMMV with that.
ReplyDeleteMaybe just cop-out with some form of, "It's been a difficult year, so I'm going to skip my usual letter and simply wish everyone peace, strength, and health in 2021."?
Whichever way you turn, holiday best to you both.
Exactly. I'm one of those prone to ranting. Which is why I dropped almost completely off facebook for two months. Still check in, but don't say much.
DeleteA letter has so many words that if I allow myself to ramble it'll go dark. And mean. Maybe I need to outline it first, like a high school essay.
Words are words....I tried, I really did. But some real life issues got in the way and I ended up spending a lot more time in research than I anticipated. But I still feel good about what I accomplished. I did get the first draft of my prequel for the next series done and a good start into book one. Life goes on!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I used to do an annual Christmas letter back in the late 80s through the 90s. That was before Facebook and all our family being active on social media. LOL!
ReplyDeleteI tried to do Christmas cards one year, but it was a major bust. I haven't since (and that was 20+ years ago). So, no letter or newsy anything. This would be the year to just send a drawing or cartoon of something innocuous, although, there's nothing wrong with pissing off idiots who still think the pandemic is a hoax. Because seriously. . .
ReplyDeletePicture/cartoon is a great idea! You're an idea monster!
DeleteI do care about pissing off pandemic deniers, because I lost one sibling this year, never talk to two of them, and the other one is (was?) a denier. I love him and really want to have at least ONE good sibling to talk to! Family is a minefield.
If the Christmas story and well wishes actually set someone off, then don't be bothered if they're pissed. Let them be.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is more with the words that I choose to say. I can't just recite the Christmas story and say "have a good one", and the way I choose to relate it to modern life is the problem.
DeleteI have a tendency to wax preachy.