Getting The Most From Those End Of Year Festivities by David Little
As we get closer to the end of year ritual overindulgence (where we are bound to consume more food, alcohol, chocolate and television than anyone really has any right to, while at the same time wading through piles of socks* and hoping beyond hope for the Georgio Moroder Presents Metropolis Blu Ray) its easy to understand why many people don’t look forward to this time.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way; at least not for those of us who form part of the #amwriting community.
Over the course of the next week or so, many of us will either be hosting dinners for relatives, friends or casual acquaintances or visiting said groups of people. These are often times of stress and even now you may be feeling nervous wondering whether you’ve ordered enough food, have picked the right wine (or that bottle of sweet Martini that has been sitting untouched and unloved in your drinks cabinet for four years) to bring over to the party or even whether you’ve go enough time to visit the shops to pick up those all important last minute gifts which you really should have purchased weeks ago. It can all seem too much can’t it?
But don’t worry because help is at hand and you can navigate through the festive season by simply remembering two very important pieces of information:
- You are a writer
- Events such as these are brilliant fodder for your work
Just think about those statements for a moment and ask yourself, when else in your life do you get the opportunity of some quality people watching at such close quarters? Think of the conversations, the tantrums, the burnt offerings, the recriminations, the matching reindeer sweaters. If there is such a thing as life’s rich tapestry, then imagine the festive partygoers and alcohol as the threads and the party as the loom.
Here are just a few select samples of what you can take from such an event:
- Amaze at the facial expressions Dad manages to pull when confronted with socks* from Aunt Nessie
- Recoil as Mum suddenly remembers that the turkey should have been defrosting overnight and hands cooking over to your younger brother who somehow can manage to burn water
- Gasp as your best friends Billy and Shane decide that this is the day to sort out their decades old feud over who was better for Charlene
- Chuckle as Charlene announces they are both as bad as each other and she should have chosen Wendy
- Wince at the caterwauling of Grandma as she sings-a-long to karaoke Christina Aguilera, now with added wiggling and unfeasible and unwelcome thrusting
The opportunities don’t end there though.
If you moonlight from your writing career in an office or similar place, then you could have the added bonus of a work’s night out where all manner of shenanigans are the order of the day. Drinking, flirting, carousing, embarrassing speeches, drunken dares, fights, lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my! What an amazing opportunity for some in depth character studies and emotional drama.
Of course, you’ll need your trusty notebook to:
- Record all of the real life fisticuffs that can help you crack that tricky action sequence
- Scribble down notes as the drunken tearful secretary tells you how his boss will never leave her husband for the unrequited love scene
- Copiously document how the emergency services act as they descend on the event to break up fights, put out fires or treat the wounded who really shouldn’t have consumed so much punch so that you can make your prose work as authentic as possible
In summary, don’t be put off by the often fear inducing events at this time of the year. Instead, embrace them for what they actually are: a wealth of opportunity and experience that will at best enrich your writing, and at worst give you some entertainment.
No matter what your plans over the next few weeks, I hope you get a little time to relax because there’s a busy year of writing ahead.
* I would like to point out that I like to get socks as presents, just in case anyone has any and would like to send them over to me, I also confess to a potentially unnatural love of Brussel Sprouts, but may destroy any packages which arrive containing rotting mini cabbages.
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David Little likes to write and tends to do so sporadically between long bouts of procrastination. He blogs about progress of various projects and partakes in near-daily drabbles at his website http://davidlittlepresents.co.uk. There are recipes there too.
He will get something published next year. He's pretty sure about that.
Other ramblings can be found on Twitter @macguffinit
