I hope everyone is having a restful holiday week. We’ve begun our descent into that slippery in-between phase of year’s end when time loses all meaning.

At a Friendsgiving dinner earlier this week, I saw friends I hadn’t seen since the previous year’s get together. We marveled at how quickly time passes. This astonishment has become a common refrain as I get older, and it appears the phenomenon only accelerates. As a counterweight to all those hours ticking away, I have been obnoxiously sharing my new favorite phrase (probably from the internet) whenever I find myself in this conversation: Time flies, but you’re the pilot.

As writers, we wrestle with time in multiple senses. We eke out words on our projects in between life’s other demands of us. In a story, you might fast forward through unimportant periods of your protagonist’s story through a few sentences of summary OR s l o w i t d o w n by giving us each exquisite, juicy detail in scene.

P.S. I will be taking a holiday break from Creative Juice from mid-Dec thru mid-Jan. Last letter of 2024 on December 15. First letter of 2025 on January 19th!

Jamie

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