Cold Weather and My Sense of Humor

Winter is beautiful. Winter is eventful. Winter is also slump season for me.

November to March has plenty of excuses for the procrastinating writer...

SADs, stress, hay fever and flu season, the holiday marathon, stress, the muse killing earworms from Christmas carols, fingers aching from the cold, and of course more STRESS.

Now, some writers avoid these traps by focusing on their word count. There's a large support system out there, Write a Novel in One Month or other winter bootcamps. Unfortunately, my problem isn't just time management. (Look, look everyone! I got another blog out on time.)

During slump season, my muse turns morbid. Not Grendel's Mum ripping off arms morbid. More like, “Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.” My wit becomes gallows humor. Needless to say, this tone doesn't match Tales of Mundus at all.

As a teenager, I saw my peers writing angst filled stories and dark poetry, and I hated it. I didn't want to marinaded my brain in gloom and doom. A storyteller's job is to enrich life, to inspire and entertain.

The shorter days and cool weather bring out melancholy feelings and thoughts. I do still write during a slump. I just don't have anything I want to make public.

Unlike laughter which spreads freely, pain and sadness are more personal. I have multitude of trials and struggles in my history. However, I don't want to be known for my bad health, weird childhood, etc. Those stories are not for entertainment – they are for uniting and giving hope to individuals.

I also don't think it's polite to leave my battle scars and sharp edges out where an unsuspecting reader can trip over them. You came there to be entertained, not get a Reader's Digest special ;p

However, I don't want to just go silent for weeks at a time. I am trying to take my writing to the next step (I am currently somewhere between hobbyist and starving author.) That means learning to write through a slump and keep on topic. That means pushing and, ugh, working instead of hibernating until next summer.

This winter will be interesting – hopefully it will be entertaining and fit to print.