How To Focus on Your Writing Projects Over the Festive Period #WritingTips

How to Focus on Your Writing Projects Over the Festive Period

December is upon us, and you’re either excited about the prospect of wearing your Christmas jumper and attending all the glittering parties, or you’re in a blind panic about how much you’ve got left to do. It’s the same with our writing projects. We can enjoy any time off from work by allocating some creative time, or we can struggle to fit in a single sentence as the chaos of Christmas unfolds.

How can you focus on your writing then? Here are my top 5 tips for staying motivated over the festive period.

1. Leave all your expectations under the tree! Don’t commit to writing 5000 words in December or telling yourself you’ll batch write five blog posts before 1^st January. If your festive season is usually jam-packed, then why is this year going to be any different? Give yourself a break.
2. Get up early and take advantage of a dedicated writing hour before the household wakes up. There’s something quite magical about switching on the Christmas tree lights, making yourself a coffee or tea, and writing in the silence of an early morning.
3. Organise yourself beforehand. Having your blog planner pinned to the fridge, or your novel outline to hand means you can dip in and out of your projects if time allows.
4. Don’t underestimate the power of rewards. Yes, you might be squirrelling away selection boxes for the kids, scarves and gloves for the grandparents, and trying to disguise oddly shaped parcels in your wardrobe so inquisitive eyes don’t find them, but take time to reward yourself for every blog post you write and every chapter you finish. Even if that treat is something simple like a hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows as you juggle your writing and shopping sprees.
5. Establish a routine. It’s well documented that routines help manage stress and anxiety. Creating a writing schedule at any time of year is a great way to motivate yourself for the long term. Setting aside just twenty minutes a day to write can be enough to get you over any busy times during the year.

Do you have another way of coping with your writing projects over the festive season? Or perhaps you prefer to take a wordy break and enjoy some time off. I’d love to hear from you, so feel free to leave me a comment or share any advice to my Writing Mentor Facebook page.