Read Around the Rainbow | Seasonal Productivity

ReadAroundTheRainbow

It’s Read Around the Rainbow time! On the last Friday of every month, we’re a group of authors who get together and blog on the same topic. This month, we’re talking about productivity linked to season.

There are, of course, a lot of things playing a part in how productive you are, but I always find it easier to write in the autumn than in any other season.

autumn-mood In the winter, everything is cold and dark. I’m constantly tired, and I think we should hibernate. For me, there is a spark of excitement at New Year, but it has more to do with me drawing up new things in my bullet journal, new future logs and yearly spreads. I write down my goals for the coming year and so on.

In the spring, life happens. The garden comes to life, the chickens are everywhere, and there are a lot of things to do. It’s hard to feel excited about sitting by the desk then.

In the summer, the kids are off school, and I have no time for myself. I find myself poking around in the garden when I should be writing, and getting myself to sit down and do more than the bare minimum is hard. Summer is normally the time I’m the least inspired. Producing stories doesn’t seem as important when the sun is shining.

But then comes autumn. This marvellous season is when it’s okay to sit by the desk because it’s grey and windy outside and no one wants to be outside anyway. By this point, all the plans I drew up back in January are done or cancelled, and it’s time to start over.

This is my season! I’m only a few days away from submitting the first story of 2024, and the world is my oyster. I can write whatever I want to write. I haven’t signed up for anything, haven’t cleared my deadlines with my publisher, I haven’t even decided which days Holly is gonna write stories for. Freedom!!!

That doesn’t mean that I don’t want to stay in bed some days. I do, and the darkness is starting to wear me down, but this is the season when I’m excited about writing. I get to make new plans, get to think about what next year will entail, and come up with new ideas.

Since I started Holly, my writing is much more consistent than it was before since monthly releases don’t allow you to slack. So, these days, I’m pushing through. I do my words in the summer too, but looking back, autumn has always been my most productive season.

And I realise this post makes it sound as if I don’t like writing LOL. I love writing, it’s the getting to the desk that sometimes can be a bit troublesome. Once I’m there, I’m off to worlds with dragons and werewolves and vampires and whatnot.