Shed Blogging

Christmas is approaching fast. That’s fine, that’s great, but I’m feeling the dread already: When will I have the time to write? Where will I write?

We’re going to spend the holidays with relatives so for a week or so I won’t have access to “a room of my own” as Virginia Woolf put it. I will be in the “room of my mother-in-law’s” which I’m pretty confident Virginia would never have recommended.

There’s nothing wrong with the actual room, it’s just much more difficult to sneak off and tap away in peace. The kids will sleep in this same room (the sound you hear is that of Virginia groaning in her tomb) so I won’t be able to retire there peacefully once they’re down for the night. I have to sit at the kitchen table, practically begging for people to approach me.

Don’t get me wrong, I have lovely relatives and I’m glad to see them, but if I don’t get my writing time, I begin to turn green and my nails start growing. If people start talking to me while I write, ask me what I’m doing, or won’t I please come and decorate the Christmas tree instead, I will curl my upper body over the laptop, flash them my best Grinch grin and growl: “Leave me alone!” If they persist, I may throw apple cores at them, kick the Christmas tree and eat all the candy canes.

Well, that’s the fantasy anyway. I know I’m not going to do that. I’m going to go and decorate the damn tree and smile. I’m even going to enjoy it. But deep down inside I’ll be tearing myself apart because I just really want that time to write and I’m too blogsessed (blog-obsessed: is that a word? Shouldn’t it be?) to take a holiday and feel good about it like normal people.

So maybe I’ll try to whip up some preliminary blog posts before Christmas if I can, so it won’t take so long to post each day. Or maybe Christmas (and staying with relatives) will give me a lot to fume about so I won’t have any trouble coming up with material quickly. Or maybe the kids will get to spend a lot of daddy-time while mommy’s being antisocial. And then, once I’ve posted, maybe I’ll relax for a bit! Wouldn’t that be fun.

What about you? Any plans for Christmas blogging? Are you going to take a decent holiday from it, or blog even more than usual?

(By the way: I learned the other day that in spite of all her talk about rooms, Virginia Woolf actually wrote in a garden shed. If I get desperate, I’ll try that.)