Have a Summer Romance - with Your Writing

When I was a child, summer meant popsicles, fireflies, and stacks of library books. But by the time I was an adolescent and teen, summer meant summer romance. Not that I ever had one. Still, I read about summer romances (Seventeenth Summer), watched movies about them (Summer of '42), and listened to songs about them ("See You in September").

This summer I think I might finally have a summer romance - with my writing. In Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert advises us to have an affair with our writing: "Let yourself fall in love with your creativity. . . and see what happens." She provides plenty of juicy details: "Even if you have only fifteen minutes a day in a stairwell alone with your creativity, take it. . . .Lie to everyone about where you're actually going on your lunch break. Pretend you're traveling on a business trip when secretly you're retreating in order to paint, or to write poetry. . . "

I'm planning to take illicit assignations with my writing even further. I'll be teaching for six blissful weeks, starting tomorrow, in the Graduate Program in Children's Literature at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. It's a magical program in a magical place. The teaching is intense, but there's so much creative energy in the air that there will be plenty of time for writing, too. And - this is the illicit part - I've decided I'm going to cheat on the book I have under contract and instead indulge in a six-week fling, writing just for kicks, just for thrills, just for fun, just for me.

I'm going to crank up John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John singing "Summer Nights" and write my little heart out.