Plotting Through the Holidays

It all started innocently enough…our music director asked if I could direct the children’s Christmas play.

“Sure,” I said. “No problem.”

After all, it wasn’t like I had a million things to do this year. I’d learned to say no over the past twelve months, turning down committees and paring down my responsibilities until I felt confident that Christmas, 2006 would be an entirely different experience from years past.

Until…

Suddenly, obligations started flying out of the woodwork. A teacher who’d asked me to sub for him when needed suddenly…needed. A lot. The adult choir decided to put on a Christmas spectacular and I was given a solo. A dear friend thought it might be nice to have a holiday concert complete with musical acts and quartets and she asked me to open. Not to mention the parties—one at work; two, no, three, at church; my husband’s company Christmas…the list goes on.

Like a novel unfolding, the conflict rose. What happened to all that writing time I thought for sure I’d be enjoying? Where did all those extra hours I’d counted on having in order to meet my personal deadlines go? And WHERE does one go about finding a low priced IPod for their child??

Needless to say, I needed to get organized, quick. So I started plotting…er…scheduling each day, giving myself just enough time to do those last minute edits and still get some writing of my own done. Rather than let my writing time fall to the bottom of my to-do list, I moved it near the top and cut out a few of the extras, like canceling that Christmas special I’d planned to watch and stringing a few less lights on the eaves of my house. We’ll probably order pizza more often this month, but I figure the time I save staying out of the kitchen will be well worth it come January when I’ve added several chapters to my wip. Thankfully, I have an understanding husband and kids who love pizza. And we can all be a little merrier, knowing I won’t be playing catch-up over the holidays.