As I prepare for and anticipate winter, I look forward to a return to novel writing and other long projects. In my mind, summer is for short writing and winter is for long writing.

I guess summer has more distractions. I’m busier. Even when I carve out writing time, my brain can’t seem to handle the focus necessary for big projects. I find a novel requires more dedicated head space than a picture book text, puzzle, or verse. It’s not as easy to pick up and put down. I need longer stretches of concentration to find the groove and produce. I need to be sitting at the computer to generate text.

With puzzles, poems, and picture books, I can be in the garden, walking to the mailbox, or canoeing and simultaneously compose a line or verse. I can sit down for two minutes, type a few lines, then move on to something else while I contemplate the next ones.

I know busy writers who craft novels piecemeal, from stolen moments, train commutes, and while the kids’ hotdogs boil. I don’t know how they do it.

I’m wrapping up a collection of short ditties that I composed while moving dirt and picking berries this summer and looking forward to getting back to work on a novel during the quiet, dark mornings of winter.