Lightning Flash Writing

Adult Allison has never liked Christmas. My first job was working as a graphic designer for a company that made Christmas gift wrap. We were talking about wrapping paper and gift bags year-round. Santas and snowmen and jingle bells were always on my computer screen, and even though our deadlines were in August for the next year’s Christmas, there was never a break, so by the time the real Christmas came around, I couldn’t stand it. I’d see gift wrap I designed on packages friends and family wrapped – even now, I still spot some of my designs on social media posts.

I didn’t have a tree or decorations in my own place until I had a kid. I didn’t want to be Scrooge-y and steal magic from his childhood. Now decorating is his favorite thing to do, so I let him take the lead. And honestly, I like how it looks. I don’t feel festive, but I like the colored lights and sparkly ornaments.

Even leaving that graphic design company didn’t make me love Christmas. Mostly because December is always a month of limbo for me. Waiting for this year to wrap up, ready for the new year to start, but so much is jam-packed into just 31 days. Working from home when your kid is out of school and bouncing off the walls with holiday excitement can be tough, so I always try to take a bit of time off in December. Try being the key word. Anyone who’s ever freelanced knows how hard it is to say no to work. But this year, I planned ahead and scheduled projects so there’s a natural break over the last two weeks of the year. I’ll still have work, but no deadlines, which is as close to a break as I’m likely to get.

But I’ve been slowing down in other ways, and that’s also enough to feel like a break. I went with friends to see Brantley Ellzey’s art exhibit at Crosstown Concourse – I always forget how much witnessing others’ creativity can also feel like an outlet for me. I also focused heavily on my own writing, specifically finishing a draft of my March Sadness essay after a month of writing a flash piece daily for Nancy Stohlman’s Flash Nano. I’m now shaping those stories into a collection.

I’ve also given myself the gift of not constantly thinking of my To Do list. When I sit in carline these days, I let my mind wander to story ideas or read a book instead of feeling anxiety pulse through my body as I think of the items still stacked on my list, waiting for me to mark them off before tomorrow begins.

My reading life has been a bit lackluster this month. Nothing has been holding my attention, so I have way too many books active at once, which only compounds the problem. Then, finally, my hold on Lily King’s Heart the Lover came in. I finished it in two days and immediately pulled Writers & Lovers off my shelf to re-read. I first read it as a Book of the Month pick in April 2020. I don’t even have to hint at how I was feeling back then, but the book brought me out of a major funk. I re-read it the next year and still loved it, comparing it to comfort food.

King captures that feeling perfectly: “You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you’re reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule.”

So now it’s time to crawl inside that world and let those feelings wash over me as I ride out the end of 2025 and hope for something different in the new year.

In the spirit of the Lily King books I recommended, write a story about a writer. Use the phrase “Heart the Lover” in some way. Limit yourself to 200 words.