It’s weird, asking for vacation time when you’re your own boss.

I promised myself a few weeks ago to always write more each week than the week before. Last week I was up to 8046 words. Not horrible, if nothing to be impressed by. This week I was determined to hit 9K, even with Christmas shopping to do and appointments to keep and a house to clean before guests arrived.

I was on schedule until Thursday, when I essentially finished the last section of the current story arc I was working on, and was left unsure of where to start next. Keep working on the same character? Go back to a different one and examine what I’ve already written? Start a new POV?

There are so many threads to a novel, I feel like a juggler trying to keep up with them sometimes. Usually, it means I need to step back and get some perspective.

So I did. I spent most of the day on Thursday looking at the book as a whole. I moved chapters around to give rhythm to the POV shifts, and integrated some ideas more fully into the plot. I cut some plot points that were no longer needed, and added some better ones. I spent hours working, but at the end of the day, I had added a measly 410 words. Less than a third of my already modest daily quota. Not to mention that I had friends coming over for several days, and relatives to visit for the holidays next week, when I would need to produce OVER 9000 words.

I realized then that I was being insane. I was invalidating a day’s work because it didn’t adhere to some arbitrary measurement. More than that, I was about to cast a pall on my own holidays because I refused to let myself have time off.

If I were still working my day job, I would have fully expected the company to close early on Friday, and stay that way until after Christmas. I probably would have taken a few vacation days, too. If my boss suggested otherwise, or tried to deny my vacation, I would have taken it amiss.

And yet, here I was, perfectly willing to do that same thing to myself. Why?

So I’m giving myself a few days off. If I feel the writing bug, I’ll squash it here, on Peephole, and let the book sit and rest a bit. It’s not going anywhere. maybe I’ll keep importing old articles into the archives.

Happy holidays!