First Day of Spring (well, it was)

I’m writing this on the first day of spring, although you won’t see it until the season is a week old. My weekend was the perfect start to a seasonal change. Saturday hiking in the sun, a cool breeze, lots of green showing in grasses and trees, and even a few blooms here and there. Sunday, blizzard conditions and several inches of snow and slush, with mid-twenty-degree temps.

I don’t think I could live anywhere that didn’t have at least two seasons, because I need to have that change. It seems to jump-start my system. I’ve been indoors most of the winter, even though it was a pretty mild one. But with Daylight Savings Time giving me more warm, sunny hours to work outside, and the sun giving me more rays per day to convert more vitamin D, I’m starting to feel revived.

This, more than New Year’s resolutions, can be a time of year to jump-start all your life – including your writing. Conference season is approaching, with writers conferences all over the state and the country. You don’t have to find a noisy coffee shop to write in; you can go to the park and find shade or sun, whatever floats your boat or tickles your muse.

Instead of sitting in the house on the weekend, go to a writers workshop or pick up a new book in your genre (or outside it) at the library or local bookstore. Take some walks through an old part of town or the mall or university quads for research. Drive out to a ghost town, national park, or monument, and stop to read all the informational signs and walk the trails.

Then, when it’s cold again, or dark again, or you’ve goosed the muse enough to jump-start your writing, start.

Just. Start. Writing.

And then, write on. And on.