'Tis the Season by Marnie Pohlmann

I long to be a writer enjoying the hazy days of summer like I did as a child; sitting with a scribbler in the shade of the cherry tree listening to the buzz of bees on clover, or exploring the rocky creek with bare feet to see where danger could lurk.

I want to be a writer tapping on a laptop while sipping iced tea on the deck.

I wish to take these sunny days to plot not just the perfect crime, but get to know the hero who proves the crime is not so perfect.

I dream of waxing eloquent with flowery verse that has ever-deepening layers of meaning.

I yearn to write an expository article sure to change how the church and the world, or maybe just myself, responds to current events.

However, this summer I am not sitting in the heat to write,
     or gathering story ideas while adventuring on the back of our motorcycle,
          or composing poetry while digging painted toes into warm beach sand,
               or treasuring memories of blowing bubbles with my grandson.

While I pray to feel the sunshine warming the world outside the air-conditioned staleness of my workplace, fluorescent lighting reflects the jaundice of my pale arms reaching for the keyboard. Brick walls painted yellow to give the impression of space are once again closing in. The past winter was long, driving to and from work in the dark to spend more years of my life in this basement cell. Spring gave a false promise of freedom, but I now, once again, feel chained to the desk, imprisoned in thick cinder block walls with no cell service and limited Internet. Summer finds me languishing, staring at a sky-blue computer screen that mocks, as though it truly was a window to the outside world.

Yet I believe God when He says,

For everything there is a season,

    a time for every activity under heaven

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT)

I do not find one season any busier than another season. I quite easily fill my time with both constructive and wasteful deeds no matter the weather. I find the change of seasons, though, to be most taxing. Winter routines have relaxed, but summer needs at work, church, and home crowd in to fill days and evenings. Until the past season is finished, the preparation for the coming season is complete, and the rhythm of the current season is found, I often feel overwhelmed.

This year during the change of seasons, I add a transition in writing. I’ve been writing for years, yet have only just begun to enter a Season of Writing. I have not yet established foundational disciplines for writing in the midst of these transitioning seasons. I am grateful for this month’s contributions from other writers, which share great ideas I may incorporate into my days.

I find my writing is based not so much on a season of weather,
     as on a season of whether:

• whether I write when I am depressed and when I am joyful.  
• whether I write fancies of imagination, forming and fading like the clouds as my pen-strokes breeze a story onto paper and write facts that may not be exciting but simply state truth. 
• whether I write when the writing is playful and when the words are difficult.  
• whether I write in times of boredom and when I have over-extended my energy.  

Whether I make the time to write and take the time to write. 

This summer, I am learning how God provides for me the time to write. It is said John Grisham was a lawyer who wrote his best-selling novels in the few moments between legal cases. The Apostle Paul wrote while imprisoned. Surely, I too can learn to write in the times and places God gives me in this season – whether a quiet basement office, in the midst of extroverts at home and church, or on warm summer insomniac nights.

Praise God for His faithfulness in giving us a time for every activity!

How is the “whether” in your Season of Writing?


photos © Marnie Pohlmann

Pop Goes The Summer by Vickie Stam

 
   "When they sprout leaves, you can see for    yourselves and know that summer is near."

                  Luke 21:30

                                   
Every summer I can't wait to expose my feet! I like to feel the sand between my toes and the cool water from the lake wash over them. I like to let my feet bask in the sun and you can be sure my toe nails will be sporting a bright colour nail polish; one that almost pops into the next county. I'm ready for my winter shoes to trade places with my favourite flip-flips. As soon as I slip them on, they feel so good! And yes, it's true.... I'm as "happy as a lark." Summer is here!

But not everyone feels the way I do. In fact, I have friends who clearly think I'm nuts. They don't appreciate the summer. "It's like an oven out there!" "I'm sweltering in this heat." "We need a good storm to break the humidity." Blah, blah, blah.

Good grief, can't they see the beauty of summer. It goes by so quickly! Don't they look forward to hauling out the lawn chairs, the table, the lounger or whatever it takes to get their deck looking ship-shape for summer. Don't they enjoy the sound of birds singing, the colours that pop when all the flowers are in full bloom or cutting the grass? Well maybe not cutting the grass.       

Yes, I know it's the hottest of Canada's four seasons. Still, I embrace it, especially the longer days. I love the early morning sunrise and late sunsets, the walks on the beach, the occasional day trips, playing a game or two of lawn bowling, spending time a the lake, camp fires and having friends pop over for a BBQ. My list could go on but I'll do my friends a favour and stop. I just can't understand what's not to like about it.

And now I guess your wondering where I find the time to write when I love summer so much and can't wait to fill it with so many wonderful things to do. 

For me, summer writing mainly happens between the pages of my journal. 

The writing classes I enjoy taking are on hiatus as are the bible study groups in my church. Schools and Universities wind down for the summer and people book holidays. 

Summer really is my favourite time of the year.



"Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers."
                                    ----Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

 






  

       

Summer Goals, Summer Guilt, or Summer? by Joylene M. Bailey

I’m really good at making goals.

But I’m not that great at keeping them.

I can't seem to figure that out. I’m not a lazy person; my life is full and busy. Maybe that’s part of the problem – I’m too busy.

I’m also a bit of a perfectionist, and that comes with its own procrastination issues… Add to that the fact that I don’t like people telling me what to do.

Not even myself.

I find I can get a LOT of work done when I don’t have any set goals.

But I sometimes get NO work done when I don’t have any set goals.

I could come up with any number of excuses why my summer writing goals don’t seem to pan out.

Last summer the list I set to accomplish was so long that I decided to follow the example of a friend in my writers group, and see if I could get 3 – any 3 – items on that list completed.

I did, but I recall it being a scramble towards the end of the summer.

At the beginning of this summer I made only one goal: to write a little bit on my novel every day. 

No time limit, no word count goal. Just write on it every day.

I’m failing miserably.

What?! You mean I can’t set aside 17 minutes a day to write something – anything - on my novel? What is up with that?

And then the guilt sets in.

Frankly, goals stress me out.

Deadlines are a good thing. And one of the things I LOVE about my writing group is the accountability aspect of it. But the goals themselves … they scare me.

I've come up with some new summer writing goals that are not quite so scary and maybe they will help in finding that balance between goals and guilt that I seem to need.

Here they are:

1 - Remember that what I can do is what I can do, and what I can do is enough.

2 - Remember that I will feel God’s pleasure even when I don’t write. (Thank you Marnie)

3 - Take time to enjoy the summer!

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/21606330@N08/10519774073">Checklist Chalkboard</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/">(license)</a>

Joylene is enjoying summer from her home in Edmonton where she lives with the Cowboy, Babe, and a cat named Calvin. You can find her joy-infused perspective on her blog at joyousmi.blogspot.ca and maybe someday in that novel she is trying to work on every day.

Summer Writing - by Loretta Bouillon

Summer is not my best writing season for producing possible publishable material. I’m okay with that. Periods of the summer are crazy busy, like the grad season we just experienced for my daughter. A memorable time full of family, friends and celebrations consumed our month of June. Having three teens, two years apart, graduations happen every other summer for six years. 

My kids are lifeguards at our outdoor pool and my vehicle is a constant shuttle bus. The garden, outdoor aquafit, the  Ontario family trip, moving my son to university in the late summer combined with just trying to find time to slow down and enjoy the lovely weather.....adds up to very little time on my laptop. I suppose I could make it a priority, and I can see that happening someday, but for now I am happy to give myself permission to put the “serious” writing on hold. If I am inspired to work on my projects, I do, however I am certainly not as disciplined as the other seasons of the year.

I will make time every morning on my porch with my bible and my journal. This indispensable hour contributes to pages and pages of talking to God through my pen. I will take my journal on my travels, and if I feel inspired, I may write a poem, jot down ideas for my novel or just write about what is going on around me. I will keep up the Inscribe blog as well as my own blog.

Summer is when I actually find writing most enjoyable because I have no agenda. Life is not any busier at this time, but there is something about summer that gives me permission to relax a little. Perhaps that is the key to creativity? We’ll see!

A Jane Austen-style Summer - Ramona Heikel

Ahh, it's finally summer!  Warm enough to be outside for some hikes and picnics, and time enough to catch up on all the projects half-started during the past nine months of working.

Wait, what was that?  Did you say "all"?  All of your projects?  

Well...I'd like to get them all done...

What do you think God is saying about that? 

Oh.  Well, Lord, we've mainly been talking about slowing down and focusing, right?  Kind of the opposite of getting everything done, actually.

Yes, you're right.  I want you to re-learn how to rest.  Don't be in a hurry, don't make a load of writing plans.  Focus, and don't rush when you write.  Make a point to listen for my voice.  And don't insist on revising and resubmitting, because I might want you to work on something new.

But I have so much writing I want to do, and so little time!  How can I just...what was that intriguing word you used?

Oh, you mean the word "rest"?

Yes, you'll have to remind me how to do that again.  Anyway the point is, I can't be a successful writer by only writing a little during the school year and by "resting" during the summer, can I?  If I start a new project now, it will only just get drafted and then have to be dropped in September, when it will be added to my towering "half-finished" pile.  It's not like I'm a real writer whose entire life is one writing day after another.  The clock is ticking, summer holiday will be over before we know it!  I've got to get these children's pieces submitted and that story finished and review the novel now, or another year will go by and they'll still be sitting around!  It's not like I'm Jane Austen, an unmarried young woman supported by a well-off, creative family, with one long unending holiday from an outside job.

Why not?  It would do you good to get in the mindset of Jane Austen.  Of having a mind calm and uncluttered, a quiet routine; knowing you have a servant to shop and prepare food for you and your family, a sister to share chores with, a desk with paper and ink beckoning.  Not just for the summer, indefinitely.  Do it.  Get into that mode.

What?  You're kidding me.

Not at all.  In fact, since I've called you to write, you can count on me, can't you?  I give you what you need, like a calm, focused writing mind.  And I give you the time you need.

Really?

Of course.  Oh, you're such a child, when will you learn?

I don't know.  But at least I'm your child.

True that.

You'd really do my grocery shopping and make meals?

No, sorry, that part was just a metaphor.  Which reminds me...you'd better work on those, too.

Summer Writing By T. L. Wiens

I love summer but must admit it’s not a very productive writing time for me. This year I took on some projects that have proved to be more of a struggle than usual—personal stories.

I don’t know why I would take this on in the summer when it’s hard to find a moment alone to blubber as I struggle to find words to describe past life events. But sometimes it doesn’t have to make sense—just be what you’re directed by the Holy Spirit to be doing.

So, to the rest of you, I wish you a wonderful summer. If you’re not writing, I hope you’re at least collecting thoughts to be put on paper later—like winter.