We took a vacation.
This doesn’t happen every year for us. Until 3 years ago, I had gone 6 years without a vacation. This time, the gap was only 3 years, so that’s not too shabby. With each passing year, we’re pushing for a summer vacation: Lara, and the kiddos and I, somewhere it is less than 100* F.
I had thought that I would maintain my writing schedule over the course of the vacation, but I walked away from everything but my tiny poetry that I like to write first thing each morning.
I gave myself permission to NOT power on the laptop, but instead to just be on vacation with my family.
What a lift! And how awesome that was for my energy, focus, and goals. I feel so bright and recharged now.
It doesn’t hurt that we went to Hawaii. It also doesn’t hurt that each day started with a run along the beach, followed by days of swimming and boogie boarding and kayaking and snorkeling. My parents had arrived a couple of weeks before we did, so they were ready for company and had started a list of activities to see what would be fun for us all to go do together.
All in all, a blissful time. We’re being teased that we took our honeymoon prior to our wedding. I like to think of it as a pre-Honeymoon.
Now, back in the saddle and fired up again. Sometimes, we need the rest more than we need to keep pushing.
Happy #Monday, and blessings to you all!
I know another author who went on vacation with his family and he took along his laptop and powered it up each morning to write on his next book. Then his two young boys protested saying that dad needed to turn off the laptop and be part of his family during the family vacation.
This led to some problem solving and creative thinking, and my author friend convinced his two young boys to join him and write a novel together during their vacation living out of a tent in a national park camp ground. Alon (first name) had already published three novels in a different genre that were not selling well, but then he wrote that first fantasy novel with his two boys (his sons picked the genre they liked to read)—his sons became some of the characters the family cooked up together and wrote all their parts.
They wrote in the mornings, and hiked/plotted in the afternoons and then wrote some more around the lantern at night before sleep.
That novel went on to win a distinguished award in its genre and sell a few thousand copies leading to Alon and his sons writing five more in this fantasy series.
Wow! That is a fantastic way to incorporate the novel writing into the vacation. My daughter currently asks when she can read the next one (no pressure there, haha), while my son asks if we can turn my books into graphic novels (this is an intriguing idea). Thank you for reading, Lloyd!