I'm taking a busman's holiday
and making the most of the festive break!
Dear Writers, Readers and Creative Friends,
Until today I never really knew the meaning of a ‘busman’s holiday’. Apparently it comes from when British omnibus drivers (even the horse drawn kind) spent their days off taking long rides on their own omnibuses. How wonderful!
But isn’t that what writers do? Have you ever known a writer to not pack a plain paged notebook or two in their luggage when they are heading off on a holiday break? A break from what, you might ask?
Exactly!
Friends and family may object and you may have to squirrel away your notebooks or disguise them ingeniously as cigarette packets or toothpaste containers.
You may also have to go to great surrepticious lengths to sneak away for moments alone during the hustle and bustle of pre and post festive activities, but it can be done. Dads and granddads have been honing their disappearing skills for millenia. Here’s a few tricks we can learn from them to give us a little writing time amidst the holiday hustle and bustle.
Offer to go to the shops to get some last minute items, tell them you’ll take the scenic route home. Settle in at the lookout car park for a 20 min write.
Announce you’ll be down in the woodshed chopping some kindling. Unearth your notebook from the woodpile and free write. Lose track of time, forget to bring the kindling for the barbie, go back to get it and have another session.
Simply disappear, climb the highest tree in the garden (with notebook) and don’t answer when they call your name.
Tell them you’re off to the pub for ten minutes to shout the mates a Merry Christmas round —you’ll be back in no time. Skip the pub, go down the beach and write.
Text from the mall that you have to go last minute Christmas shopping. Go cafe writing instead and don’t come back for hours.
And my favourite — say you have to go and see a man about a dog.
All dad jokes aside, as a writer I always welcome the holiday period. In Australia it goes on forever. Summer has already rolled in and starting next week, schools break up for six weeks, businesses close or slow to a trickle and there’s no point trying to initiate projects, apply for grants or talk to publishers. No-one will be back in the office until Feb.
It’s a brilliant time for writers to retreat to their beach shacks or mountain cabins, for artists to sequester themselves away on a wilderness camp, for readers to find a pool to lounge around — or if none of these are possible, to stay put and conjure up your own creative den. Find out how in my April post Desk with a View!
Then once the obligatory festive day is done, you can pretty much skive off for the next month and write up a storm.
NEED A DEADLINE?
If you are one of those writers making use of holiday time to write and want a deadline, in early 2025 we are holding our annual Draft Swap. This is useful for those who have spent 2024 working hard on a manuscripts and gives a fresh start to the new working year. Writers prepare their draft (or partial draft) for our meeting on Zoom (Jan 31st) where they will read a half page synopsis and a one page excerpt. They then decide who they want to swap with and make arrangements to swap drafts and set a time for feedback sessions in a months time.
We will precede Draft Swap with a 2 week Draft Busters Intensive beginning Monday Jan 13 (meeting Mondays and Fridays 1.5 hrs) where we will revise synopsis writing, book proposal skills and draft preparation. Let me know if you want to join. See more details below!
GIVE YOURSELF THE GIFT OF TRAVEL
As we rush around buying, making, baking, Xmas gifts for others, don’t forget to think about the gift you would like to give YOUR SELF! Now is a perfect time to plan a writing getaway for 2025. We’ll be in Tasmania in April, Ischia Island in May and Japan in Nov/Dec. Have a look here at where we will stay on Ischia. Scroll down for all the details. How can you resist!!
THE JOY OF COLLABORATING ON SUBSTACK!
One of the joys of being on this platform is collaborating with other Substackers. Warm thanks to these fellow writers who invited me into their worlds in 2024. If you missed them have a read below…
Talking all things travel on Speedy Boarding with
here.Talking about money matters on The Ladybird Purse with
here.Telling you to ‘Marry Creativity’ on Creative Letters with
here.A wide ranging video interview with fellow theatre maker with
here.Two writers, across the world 5 o’clock somewhere with
and here.
WRITERS JOURNEY NEWS
DRAFT BUSTERS ONLINE — We finish up for the year this Friday Dec 13 with our Xmas Party on Zoom at 3. 30 pm AEST. All DB alumnni are invited to attend. Bring a silly hat, a champagne cocktail, some horses d’euvers and a short piece, poem, song or joke to read, to celebrate our literary achievements! Contact me for Zoom deets.
In 2025 we start again on Mon Jan 13, 10 am, with a two week intensive on how to prepare your draft MS for submission, culminating in Draft Swap on Frid Jan 31. Motivation Mondays: 10 - 11.30 am AEST, set your goals for the week, discussion on various aspects of writer’s craft plus a meditative writing exercise. Feedback Fridays: 3.30 - 5.30 pm AEST, readings and feedback on up to 1000 words of your writing project. Workshops are held on Zoom. Contact Jan if you would like to join.
FREE ONLINE WORKSHOP — On the third Sunday of the month at 4pm AEST we meet to introduce our writing projects and do a meditative writing exercise. Open to all— beginners, experienced, published, non published. Next one, Feb 16. Contact Jan if you would like to join.
MENTORING — I have a number of mentoring packages available which can be tailored to your current needs. If you need a procrastination coach, someone to look over your manuscript or set ongoing deadlines, see here for what’s possible.
DESPERATE DEBRIEF — for paid subscribers, a free 45 minute chat about any aspect of your work, by Zoom or Whats App. Contact me to arrange.
HEADING OUT IN 2025
NEW!! The Healing Journey, South East Tasmania, April 3-8, 2025.
A seaside residential retreat with cancer navigator and researcher Grace Gawler and me. The first three days with Grace offers a safe space for women to explore, discuss and integrate their physical, emotional and psychological experiences with cancer. Followed by three days with Jan on transforming the healing journey into powerful writing. Find all info here. Send expression of interest and request booking form here.
Creative Immersion in Ischia, Italy, May 3-10, 2025 for writers and artists.
7 nights, 8 days. Five nights staying at the extraordinary Castello Aragonese of Ischia! We’ll be in Elena Ferrante territory, catching a ferry from the Port of Naples across to the volcanic island of Ischia to arrive at our accomodation. Don’t go any further without checking it out here! A most extraordinary environment in which to write and make art. Daily deep dive workshops designed to envigorate your creative process and rapidly progress your work. In collaboration with the Create Escape. Booking fast, don’t miss out! All info here.
Haiku Walking in Japan, The Tokaido Way, Autumn, December 3 - 8, 2025.
For writers, poets and artists, 6 days, 5-nights, starting in Hakone-Yumoto and finishing in Kurami Onsen near Kakegawa.Daily workshops on the art of haiku, haibun and haiga. A gently-paced haiku walking tour through forests, Pacific coastline and post towns along Japan’s greatest ancient highway between Edo (Tokyo) and Kyoto. Once walked by the famed haiku poet Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), featured in Records of a Well Worn Satchel, and artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) for his iconic Fifty-Three Stages of the Tokaido series of woodblock prints. Staying at local inns and hotels, each evening after our walk we’ll feast on local cuisine and soak in the onsen. My idea of heaven! Send expression of interest by email or DM.
Check out 20 years of Writers Journey international journeys and retreats, which many of you tookpart in. See where we went, what we did here.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU for supporting Writers Journey on Substack for a second year!! And what a year it has been. Dramatic yes? How did your 2024 pan out? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
I’m still on a bit of a go slow after my bout with breast cancer in March/April/May — read all about it in my cancer journal Letters to Leftie Bestie (My Left Breast).
Cancer demands a life change, and I have definitely slowed down and adopted a more chill approach to pretty much everything. I hope to write more about this in 2025, but if I don’t get around to it this will serve as a perfect example of exactly what I’m talking about..
Nothing is worth the hype, not even Substack, which seems to be in overdrive lately. There are so many great writers on here, but it’s near impossible to keep up. I tend to save them up for a long train trip or long wait in the doctors waiting room. Shout out to my old favourites whose posts I greet like old friends:
and so many more…In the meantime I’m keeping my steps up and working out at the gym in a bid to strengthen the ageing bones and bod. A big thank you especially to paid and founding members for your support in 2023/24. My gym membership is where your $$ go!!
Wishing you all the best in health, creativity and happiness for the holiday break. If you are going to lie by the pool for a bit, allow me to recommend a wonderfully insightful podcast to stimulate your creative juices in preparation for a creative new year. Are You Still Working podcast host, author Courtney Collins interviews a range of brilliant creative makers, movers and shakers and will leave you filled to the brim with creative wisdom and inspiration. My top podcast pick for 2024!
See you in 2025!!!
Much love
Jan
Enjoy your break, Jan. Thanks for being inspiring and wonderful.
Go Jan. You're so inspiring!. Looking forward to a short break to have a play with words.