One of my favorite holiday traditions is the tradition of Christmas stories. I read “A Christmas Carol” every year. I love Frosty and Rudolph. I have The Grinch on CD and listen to it regularly. I also write stories. So one thing I really wanted to write this December is a Christmas story. I wrote one last year, but this year it didn’t work out.
I started two Christmas stories this year, but I couldn’t get either one to come together in any satisfactory way. One was about a guitarist who is about to get fired from a gig because he’s so bored playing Christmas carols. A spirit intervenes and teaches him how to embrace the holiday spirit and play better because of it. It’s a riff on “A Christmas Carol” because nothing is more traditional than riffing on “A Christmas Carol”. To do it right, though, it has to be a rather long story, and I just haven’t had the time to work on it.
I generally hate shopping. The one day a year that I actually like shopping is Christmas Eve. The other story was supposed to be about a Christmas Eve shopping trip. I was hoping to spread the feeling that I get when I’m out on Christmas Eve. I was never able to come up with an ending for the story, though. I can’t write a story without knowing how it’s going to end.
Those were the only two ideas I had. Every night when I sat down to write, I started by trying to come up with a story, but the ideas wouldn’t come. I don’t know why, but it’s frustrating. I guess I’ll keep tinkering with these two. Maybe I can get them ready for next year. Of course part of the difficulty in writing them might be because I’m not completely thrilled with either idea. Hopefully, a better idea will come to me during the year.
