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| Jerusha Agen |
Time
for Christmas
It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. It’s
Christmas!
I love Christmas. It is by far my favorite holiday and time
of the year. But, if you’re like me, the holiday season can end up also being
the most stressful time of the year. I can easily get so caught up in my
must-be-done-by-Christmas task list that I miss enjoying the celebration of the
season. While this scenario probably sounds familiar to any average American, I
think the situation can be worse for writers.
Since we writers work at home and are well-known to have a
“flexible” schedule, we often need to battle the public’s false assumptions.
The idea that we don’t have a “real job” or actually work can be pervasive.
Even supportive family members and friends can unintentionally take advantage
of our variable work schedule and availability by expecting us to postpone our
writing time for their needs.
At Christmastime, this juggling act of balancing a flexible
writing schedule with the other demands of life can feel like I’ve added about
ten more balls. Inevitably, I end up dropping some of those balls, and, most
often, it’s the writing balls that go first. Perhaps more than the “normals”
with their office jobs, we writers get to add guilt and frustration to our
stress during the holidays, since our work time is so easily cut (by ourselves
or others) from the schedule of Christmas activities and preparations.
Yet, when I take a look at the non-writing balls I’m still
keeping up in the air at Christmastime, I wonder if they’re really the wrong
ones to hold on to. While we writers do important work and need to guard our
writing time if we are to complete our manuscripts and keep our careers healthy,
our jobs do give us certain advantages. One of them is the flexibility that can
get us in trouble, but can also be an invaluable gift.
No, we aren’t chained to an office away from home, and we
don’t have to punch the clock anywhere else. We can actually plan ahead, adjust
our schedules, work more on non-holiday occasions so that we can allow
ourselves time off during the holiday season. For you writers who have far more
energy than I can ever imagine and manage to write while holding down a different day job, cutting yourselves some
slack and lowering expectations for December writing productivity might be
advisable. Why, you may ask, should you be this flexible with your important
work?
Because your loved ones won’t cherish the memory of the
Christmas that you eked out your Pulitzer-winning novel or the holiday season
you sucked candy canes behind the computer while you pulled your hair out over
your work-in-progress. In all honesty, neither will you. We’ll all hold dear
the special moments of baking cookies, decorating the tree, Christmas shopping,
visiting with family, and celebrating our Savior’s birth with the world.
This Christmas season, let’s be guilt-free and embrace the
flexibility of our profession by making time to create those memories that will
carry even greater impact than our written words.
Do you have tips for stress-free holidays? Care to share a
favorite Christmas tradition or memory? Or maybe you know how to write and
enjoy Christmas at the same time? Please share!
Tweetables:
It is the best
of times, it is the worst of times. Time for Christmas by Jerusha Agen. Click to tweet.
Can you be
guilt-free and enjoy the holidays? Time for Christmas by Jerusha Agen. Click to tweet.
Embrace the
flexibility of your writing profession and create memories. Time for Christmas. Click to tweet.
EXTRA!
The chapter Jerusha wrote for the Christmas novella, A Ruby
Christmas, is posted (for free reading) on her publisher’s site: http://writeintegrity.blogspot.com/
(Book Two in the Sisters Redeemed Series)
She’s
famous for her upbeat outlook. Then the world goes black.
Oriana
Sanders is always happy. And why shouldn’t she be? She enjoys a close
relationship with God and a purpose-filled career teaching troubled kids. She
even has the potential for romance in her sister’s friend, Nicanor, whose dark
good looks and brooding manner make him an intriguing project for Oriana.
Oriana’s
attempts to reach Nicanor with the joy of the Lord are brought to a halt when a
confrontation with her student’s drug-dealing brother ends in tragedy. Facing
darkness she has never known, can Oriana learn to forgive the unforgivable and
find her way through the shadows to the light?
Jerusha Agen is a
lifelong lover of story—a passion that has led her to a B.A. in English and a
highly varied career. In addition to authoring the Sisters Redeemed Series,
Jerusha co-authored the novellas A Ruby Christmas and A Dozen Apologies
(releasing with Write Integrity Press, February 2014). Jerusha is also a
screenwriter, and several of her original scripts have been produced as films.
In addition, Jerusha is a film critic, with reviews featured at the website, www.RedeemerReviews.com.
To learn more or connect with Jerusha, please visit the
following sites:
www.SDGwords.com (my author website)
www.RedeemerReviews.com
(my film review website)
https://twitter.com/sdgwords
(to follow me on Twitter)
https://www.facebook.com/JerushaAgenSdgWords
(to follow me on Facebook: Jerusha Agen
– SDG Words)
