Writing In the Winter

Well since my son has now been learning in our local library until he gets a secondary school place, I have been writing a lot. It is writing by hand, but it really is helping me to get in touch with my feelings and been such a realisation that there are things I am doing that I am not really enjoying, when I should be. 

It is mainly fear. Doubting my capabilities and is how I feel this time of year that my endorphins are low. I fear what if it all goes wrong? But then I realised and Mel Robbins is right. The mind gets confused with excitement and fear. You do get the same feelings and I fear commitments. Part of that is because I am a homebody and fear the expectation. 

It has also helped with my creativity and writing my first Christmas book, which I have kept saying I want to write and not getting round to it. So the wet and windy days have helped and it has saved me money. It has made me read a lot more and doing another BBC Maestro course which I am really enjoying. Fully recommend them. 

I find it hard to write when it is cold so will put the heating on, have a tea or a coffee and good set of comfy clothing. My son and I go for a coffee before his schooling at the Library and so some practicing on what he has been learning and helps me to relax and listen to some soft music to write and when it is not super cold, go for a walk to break up the morning and then go home to have a nice lunch. 

If you are writing it is important to come away from it to allow your mind to wonder. 

It is good to have some essentials in the winter and these are mine, listening to music, a drink of some kind mainly non alcoholic and walking. So to write in the winter what are your essentials? It is good to have good things around you. There are certain crystals, a blanket, a fish tank or somewhere, where you can watch the world go by.

I love writing in the Winter time, because I get so much inspiration. 

It is good to have a Christmas snack. Not everyday but as a reward for getting words written and letting the story go and visioning scenes and what my characters will do. Do they like Winter and will the book suit the season. 

Bridget Jones was based on mainly around winter, except in the sequel, The Edge Of Reason and why it is a popular film for Winter and Harry Potter and love Christmas Carole by Charles Dickens. I love creating a playlist for my writing in the winter and help the juices of creativity come through my body on to the page and visiting a library can really help with the motivation and ideas of books to read, to help me write. 

It helps develop ideas and seeing different types of people I can use in one of my books. 

Building inspiration is important and the most grumpiest person can make a brilliant character and you don't need, learning from Lee Child, like your character and make them nice. They can be opposite to you and I like books that are different and written in a different styles, to one another. 

It is what the character is doing and why are they in your book. Gloria in Mum&Me is not a nice person and in realising Amandaland is similar which was not intended, but is different in some ways too. 

I like to create people who are total opposites and I love writing about Elizabeth and her relationship with her mum and the rivalry with Gloria and how she tries to in book 1, wants to become friends with Elizabeth when it suits her and so if your characters aren't giving you any joy then you need to figure why and what season would be best to be included in your book, that suits your character and what turbulent's will they experience.

I love the book called The Incurious Incident and it is about a boy who is severely autistic and runs away from is dad to find his mum. He has real issues with crowded platforms as he runs away and it is raining and cold. So a winter setting can be good to include in a book depending on what it is about. 

There is so much to add and if they like Christmas. Scrooge started off hating Christmas but then he is visited by ghosts and he changes. So Winter is a great season to write a book or base a book around. It's what suits to story. 

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X