The Trick To Working In The Summer

Taking notes on Bocce ball at the beach.

So it’s July and the sun is hot and the water’s cool and the beach reads are calling my name. But I’m a professional writer, and writers don’t get paid unless they work, so of course, I’m deep into…uh…goofing off.

I can’t help it, y’all. From my earliest school days, summer meant freedom. Free to sleep late and to stay outside till dark, to play hard or to plop on the grass, daydreaming. When I was doing the stay-at-home mom thing, I made sure to keep our summers schedule-free. And even when I had a regular paycheck, I taught so I’d have my summers off. Working in June, July, and August just feels wrong. And so I have to find a way to sort of "trick" my summertime brain into working. Honestly, it's not that difficult with a brain like mine:

READING

I love to read in the summer, probably because I associate that reading with long, lazy afternoons, gobbling up all the stories I wanted to read (rather than long, dreary months of schoolbook and homework reading). And so this is the time of year that I gobble up all the books I’ve been itching to read. It’s also a great time of year to catch up on all the best-sellers from the previous year that I never quite got around to reading. But mostly, I read the award-winning books from the genre I’m writing. And because I’m a writer, I notice things like tension and pacing and exceptionally good word choices. I’ll pick apart a plot or dissect a character. I’m learning while I read and loving every minute of it—and when I do get around to writing, my brain takes what I’ve learned and applies it. Brilliant, right?

RESEARCH

All work and no play make Cathy—and you—a dull writer. We need experiences, the stuff that sparks ideas and informs our writing. Why, right now, I’ve got a book with a setting taken directly from a museum I visited a couple summers ago. And I have a character based on a girl that struck my fancy on a June tour of an antebellum mansion. The more details gathered, the more authentic the writing will be. So go have fun on your vacation—and don’t forget to grab bunches of brochures!

WRITING

So, as much as I read and research, I still must get my writing in; I’ve learned from past experience that if I put the writing aside, it takes forever to get back into the groove. And so in the early morning when sunbeams and birds interrupt my snoozing (I have no idea how I managed, way, way back in the day, to sleep until noon with all that racket and glare), I’m off to my desk, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I tackle my writing projects, whatever they might be, before lunch because that’s when my concentration is as good as it gets. But for you, it might be late afternoons or even evenings. The bottom line is to get some work in—even if it’s just 30 minutes—so your writing stays in shape and those creative juices keep flowing.

I mean, it takes creativity to find a way to goof off and work, but if I can do it, so can you. (Happy summer, y’all!)

~Cathy C. Hall