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Hiatus during the holidays? I think not!

Leave it to me to take a hiatus from my writing world during the holiday season!

After writing 151,000 words during NaNoWriMo, I made what I thought was a good decision and declared that I'd not write a word during December. Brilliant, right?

Well, considering that I'm writing this blog post right now and I send out daily tweets, Facebook posts, emails, a bi-weekly newsletter and write countless notes to myself and my children, I do believe I've failed. That's not to mention the book descriptions I'm constantly tweaking or writing for others or the notebooks full of outlines I've written this month.

You see, I simply cannot stop writing, regardless of what I've promised myself. A writer writes. All. The. Time. We can't help ourselves. Even if I'm not physically writing -- either on paper or on my Alphasmart or my laptop -- I am writing in my head or in my dreams.

Admitting I have a problem (sort of) is the first step to...

I think it's time to rethink what my goal is for this month. Here's what I've come up with:

Write for pleasure, not to meet a deadline.

Read because reading makes me happy.

Finish buying Christmas gifts because, whether I like it or not, Christmas will come.

Stop eating holiday goodies because adding an extra 30 minutes a day to my daily run may kill me.

Share some fun holiday surprises from my writer friends. Wait till you see what we have planned for you for the 12 days before Christmas.

Finally, remember to live in the moment and breathe.

 For the love of books & chocolate,

 Ava Mallory

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