THE WRITER'S CALENDAR OF MONTHS
THE WRITER’S CALENDAR OF MONTHS
I was overjoyed as
the biblical shepherd who found his lost sheep when I found my notes on Paul
Karensa’s ‘Calendar pattern’. It’s designed
to plan a story plot by fitting in characters, locations, conflict, climax and
resolution around the 12 months. It gave me the idea to imagine what each month
offered Christian writers like us. A
kind of best fit. So here we go!!
January: The month of
New Year/ new beginning. You see yourself in a new light; You mentally make new resolutions with God; Life
happens but, ‘The One who calls you is
faithful’ gives you resilience; Time to
declutter stuff ; You begin to think of your new/existing writing projects; Put
in sight your writing paraphernalia…
February: The month of Valentine. You share love and prayers
to loved ones; You do your writer duties
around social media, ACW, work, family, etc; You give off time to be you
but Life happens; ‘The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy still
continue’ and strengthens you; You plan to
start goals not achieved in January; You
write ideas …
March: The month of the year’s first quarter; You reassess
yourself ; You feel imposter syndrome;
The season of Spring offers a fresh start and inspiration; You work on edits,
blogs, reviews, newsletters, book launches etc; Word counts begin to swell;
Life happens but ‘your soul rises and praises the Lord’…
April: The month ushers Easter; You self-rebirth ; You are inspired from the bloom of new life in nature;
You introduce humour in your writing ; You write to commemorate the Easter
season; Life happens in the midst of your family, work and personal stuff
committments; You are reminded ‘to be of good cheer’…
May: The month brings
warmer days; Your chapters may have started or increased; Your word count may
look healthy or still discouraging; You encourage yourself in the Lord for
feelings of discouragement, writers block or not being on the writing board; It
is proper spring; You may spring to a big or little action; ‘Peace be within
you’…
June: The month that is half year; You are jolted by the
Holy Spirit; ‘You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you’; You
are inspired to make huge strides of progress in your writing career; You update
your blogs, Get active on marketing, ACW posts, decrease your ‘to be read pile’;
You enjoy success/ good news on publishing/review
July: The month of
vacations, sunshine and school holidays; You are inspired to write a romance, historical,
adventure or a thriller; Your word count is healthy. You go on holidays; You
are refreshed to engage in career exploits, podcasts, audio books, author
interviews; You share your author skills on social media; You taste the Lord
and He is sweet…
August: The month of the long hot summer; Your energy is
breathing hot sparks which you pour into your writing; You call on Him and He tells you hidden things;
You may consider professional service / publishing routes; You may revisit social
media /writing classes; You may go on a retreat or make a start on your writing
and finally crucify procrastinations…
September: The month
of the last quarter; You have been busy with life and writing; You write
despite when life happens; ‘In this world you have tribulations’; You fall
seven times but rise to write;’ Those who will rebuild you are coming soon’;
You have reached an impressive word count; You are encouraged…
October: The month of perfection is true for you; You ‘encourage
yourself in the Lord’; You acknowledge God called you to write; You overcome writer’s block and imposter syndrome; You finish your draft; You
begin to slow down and think of Christmas, family and life outside being a
writer…
November: The month of winter; You are inspired to write for
advent; You make publishing decisions; Your writing goes on a low key; You do a cover reveal; Life
happens and you say, ‘Father take this cup from me’; He says He has ‘armed you
with strength for every battle’. You experience some writing miracles…
December: The month of Christmas and the year’s end; You
wonder where time went; You join in the yuletide celebrations; You deserve a break;
Your birthing a book[s] intoxicates you; You spoil yourself; Or was the birth
wishful thinking all along? You ‘encourage yourself in the Lord’ for the new
year…
Sophia Anyanwu lives in SE London with her loving
husband. She’s an educationist,
encourager, reviewer, author and poet. She’s an active grandmother to 7
grandchildren when not writing! She is
a member of the Association of Christian Writers, UK. She has published 16
books , which are available on her website: www.olusolasophiaanyanwuauthor.com
and Amazon. You can subscribe to her
YouTube channel here: https://bit.ly/3j0oPuy
and follow her on all social media here: https://bit.ly/3UG36Kx
Ooo, I love this! Thank you for sharing! That's such a lovely overview! I will have to look at this often. Thank you for blessing us this way!
ReplyDeleteThanks Maressa! Blessings.
DeleteGreat post. Interesting and encouraging, although I haven't found the first two months of the year that great I should take heart from your assessment of them.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sheila! There is always hope after 'Life happens'. Blessings.
DeleteOh Sophia, I think this might be your best blog post yet! I loved this. And what a wonderful phrase 'You are jolted by the Holy Spirit'. You've reminded me of the novel I started writing, which was structured around 12 months. If only I had the details of Paul's Calendar Pattern, it would be good to revisit and try to complete it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Liz! You have encouraged me too! God's favour on the book you are writing. Will look for the Paul's Calendar pattern and send to you. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteSophia, this was such fun! A great post. The only problem for me was I need another year to edit that “impressive word count”. Ha ha. Thanks for the encouragement not to think February defines the year – such a temptation.
ReplyDeleteThanks Natasha! Thank God it's a kind of best fit and you can pace yourself to God's glory and to your own satisfaction. Blessings.
ReplyDeleteLovely post Sophia, you are always such an inspiration and a light for the Lord. God bless.
ReplyDeleteThis is fantastic Sophia, a great read. Thanks for sharing it with us.
ReplyDelete