Carving Out Creative Time at Christmas

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It's almost the holidays and I'm on the threshold of that crucial pre-Christmas time where anything and everything feels possible. The world is all shiny and pretty (okay it is very dull and grey out there, but still) and in a few short days I'll have nothing but a beautiful holiday gleaming in front of me – a whole two weeks off. But what usually happens to all this time? The days just go poof and disappear. How can two weeks disappear into thin air? This year I'm determined not to let the days go by without carving out some creative time. So I need a plan, a simple plan, not too ambitious or too daunting. I need doable. And I need it to be fun. These are my holidays!

Reading poetry every night is a great way to stay inspired. I have one writing workshop planned – just to keep me focused, and every night from 7-9 p.m. I'm going to be doing poetry-related work – whether editing or sending off poems to magazines. (Exceptions: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve.)

Simply having a plan and allocating the exact time I'm going to work on my writing is going to be my method of keeping on track creatively this Christmas. I'll let you know how it goes.

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