I’m sorry, muse; I’m sorry, grand goals and dreams. Getting around to writing – even this blog post – seems so difficult at this time of year. Combine summer and Christmas (as we do here in Australia) and there are long daylight hours to spend socialising, catching up with people you may not see much during the rest of the year, spending far too long in the shops to do anything because half of the city’s population is there with you and trying to plan ahead for Christmas itself and in our case, the holiday that follows hot on its heels.

What I’m trying to say is I haven’t done much writing lately. I’d like to spread a bit of the blame to the great novels I’ve been reading lately, as well as blaming the season. ‘Tis the season to be jolly but for me at least, ’tis not the season to be writing much. I’m struggling just to get my paid work done and to be honest, the creative juice just isn’t there to do much more.

Solidarity: Do all writers struggle with the end-of-year can’t-write blues?

I hope that there are a few of you out there who just like me, can’t see the forest for the trees at the moment (or should that be – can’t see the Word files for the piles of Christmas presents?). It’s a frustrating time because I want to be well-prepared for the New Year. The turning of the calendar to January always gives me a big shove into action and I want to be ready to use this impetus for good, not boring stuff like getting my desk organised and figuring out a writing action plan. I want to have everything ready to go for 2009 – the year of submissions and agent-hunting and finishing another novel. (That’s the broad sweep of my writing goals, which I really want to sit down and flesh out soon, before it’s actually 2009).

Help! Please leave a comment if you’re feeling the same way. If you’re not then please stay silently smug and go off and finish your fantastic writing projects.