Seasonal Patterns in the Writing Life

As there are seasonal patterns in daily life, there are seasonal patterns in the writing life. We have our dormant winters, our revitalizing springs, our steamy summers, and our colorful autumns. Each season inspires something different in writers. It's only natural that this would be the case. But, issues arise when our personal lives and our writing lives don't quite match up. We experience highs and lows at the most inconvenient times. This disrupts the equilibrium of our creative and our social scales. Our favorite seasons don't always line up with the favorite seasons of others. Some of us want summer all year long. Some of us crave the variety of four distinct, unique seasons. It's more than annoying when those seasons become blurred by ice-melting temperatures in January and snow flurries in May. The same is true for writers. We want our wool-sock, curl-up moments. We want our run-through-the-green-field days. We want a long-sun-soaking-heat. We want that first breath of crisp wind that casts leaves across our paths.

We don't always get what we want.

But, if we are good writers--if we write whether we feel like it not--we can imagine each of these seasons we crave. We can find ourselves in a blizzard in the middle of July or we can stave off a heat-wave by leaping in a cooling pool in mid-February. We have the imaginations to do this if we are struggling through the winter doldrums or suffering from stifling humidity. Spring may only last a week before summer begins, and autumn is as fickle as its wind. Yet, writers can escape to the tropics at daybreak and be on a expedition in the Arctic by dusk.

We just need our words, our creative minds, and our writing tools in order for next season to begin.