Isn't it Christmas yet?

Okay, so bear with me. I don't ever mean to start talking about Christmas at the end of the summer. I've done this the past few, especially, because the past few years I've been meaning to write a short Christmas story. I've started a few times; last year, I wrote one for my Adv. Fiction Writing class (taught by Ellie), but it wasn't the story I wanted to write. The one I've been planning for 2-3 years now is still tentatively titled "Noboddy Oughtta Be Alone On Christmas," and is more in the spirit of the sappy Christmas movies I loved as a kid (and, let's face it, the ones I still love to this day) while at the same time trying to transcend the genre.

The long delay is due mostly to that last part.

Anyway, when it gets to be this time of year, I start turning on the Christmas music for a number of reasons:

A). I love Christmas music.
B). To put me in the mood to write the story.

There are also a number of reasons I want to write the story. One big one is I think it would make a nice Christmas gift to give people as I'm generally poor come Christmastime. Now that I have a job, I'm hoping I'll be able to afford more this Christmas. Even so, I think writing a short story then giving away copies along with the gifts I buy would be a bit more personal.

Perhaps the biggest reason is simply because I love the Christmas season. It's something I'm actually passionate about and yet haven't tackled in my writing. Maybe it's because my feelings about it are more complicated and less black-and-white than most of the Christmas stories to which I'd like to pay homage. But I'm hoping those feelings will let me earn the cheesiness with which I'm sure the story will end. Less melodrama; more real.

The more I've tried to write it the more difficult writing a simple Christmas story seems to be. Which, in a sense, is good. With any luck, and a bit of talent (I hope), I can make something that only seems to be simple while being laced with intricacies. I also think I need to lay off some of the pop-culture references I tend to put in some stories - classmates apparently found them confusing in one of my stories.

I've got to find a way to post my short stories on here without posting them into a long-ass blog. Maybe I'll find a way of putting them up for download or something. If anyone ever becomes interested, that is.

Maybe I'm turning into Doogie after all.