What Month is This?

                As I sit writing this, a Christmas tree is twinkling in my living room, and a hearty stew is simmering in a slow cooker.  But, mentally, I need to be thinking of summertime: travel, Father’s Day, June weddings, and graduation.      

                For years I’ve written articles—more than a hundred of them-- for national women’s magazines.  And they work with a 6-month lead time.  So while you’re reading about clever ways to decorate for the holidays (and I may as well plug one of my YouTube videos about that here), editors of some magazines are arranging photo shoots that show women what kind of swimsuit flatters which kind of body, and how to make cool salads for summer dining.  Their winter coats and scarves may be hanging on a peg nearby, but their meetings are about easy hairdos for the beach, and the importance of sunscreen.

                Years ago a music executive told me the story of a famous singer who was trying to record an album of Christmas songs in July.  She couldn’t get into the spirit of it, and in typical Hollywood fashion, her minions began scurrying all over to find a Christmas tree, then cover it with lights and ornaments so she could get “in the mood.” 

                As a writer, you don’t have that luxury.  And, whether you’re writing magazine articles, books, stage plays, or screenplays, you have to immerse yourself in the setting you’ve chosen.  If you have a character climbing Mt. Everest, but you’re writing about it in August, you have to ignore your surroundings and get lost in the icy winds and dwindling oxygen of high altitudes.  The reader has to be transported to that climate, entirely unaware that you may have been writing it in Florida.  And if you have a soldier sweltering through a blistering war in a humid land, your reader has to taste the salty sweat, not suspect that you’re writing it in January, in a Colorado cabin.

                Living in another time period, or in another land, is part of the joy of writing.  We escape the real world for one of our own creation.  For deadline publications, it’s a challenge to stay a jump ahead of current life, and deliver information for people to read months down the road.  But then, at night, it’s fun to walk back into the present tense and enjoy a bowl of delicious stew, listen to some Christmas music, and wonder when it was recorded…