In my early writing days I believed that it was just me and the words. No one else would ever be involved. I was totally alone.

I’ve since learned that writing doesn’t need to be so solitary. True, there are times when it should be just you and the keyboard, but there are many times when you should be around and involve other people. For example.

• critiquing and feedback of your work – I have heard the opinion that a writer must write a million words before they have anything worth sending out. I would argue that a million words without any outside scrutiny doesn’t improve one’s writing much at all. The feedback around what works and what needs work is more valuable than the actual wordcount itself.
• marketing and self-promotion – you might be surprised at how useful talking to editors, publishers, agents and other writers can be. A publisher who has a chance to get to know you might ask you to send your work to them because they like you and think you would be a good person to do business with (btw, if you didn’t know that writing is a business, it is). The same holds true for agents, editors and so on. It can also be useful to know other people doing similar things to you because then you can setup cross-promotion activities. The more ways people have to find you (unless you are trying to avoid notice), the better.
• collaboration opportunities – not every book or story should be written by one person. Some projects are simply too big for one person to tackle. Case in point, my first anthology (being worked on with Jeffrey Hite). I’ve never done it before and I don’t think I personally have enough time to do (or even think of) everything that needs doing. Jeffrey is a great partner and has skills I don’t have that will make this project even better. Another reason for a collaboration is to bring in additional point-of-view. My example for this: the YA Steampunk JRMurdock and I are writing. We each bring a unique perspective to the story that has made it a lot of fun for both of us to write and I think to read.
• shoulder to lean on – let’s face it, only writers really understand writers. Our fears and anxieties, our hopes. They tend to resonate with other writers. When we stumble, it’s nice to have someone there to help us back up. When we reach a  new height, it’s fantastic to share the news with people who can truly appreciate it.

There are other reasons, but trust me when I say, I owe much of my success to others. Yes, I’ve kept working at my writing but there have been times when I’ve needed that little kick in the butt to keep going. To not give up. Some of my best ideas have come from conversations with other writers and friends that I couldn’t have gotten on my own.

You owe it to yourself to get out there and talk to people. It will help you to make the key contacts that will push you to the next level.

Most of us have probably watched a holiday special of one kind or another. When I was a kid, that holiday special was always “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.

Okay, I’ll admit it, I still watch “Charlie Brown Christmas” every year, even now.

There are lots of other holiday specials out there too. “Star Wars Christmas” comes to mind as a particularly… well let’s just say memorable to be charitable. The Muppets have a couple and pretty much every cartoon out there has at least one. I even saw “Ice Age Christmas” in the stores the other day.

Yes, I bought it and it is pretty funny.

All these specials got me thinking about why their creators did them in the first place. Is it to revisit long-overdone themes? Is it to grab their share of the holiday viewing market? Or is it to get the chance to run their characters through yet another scenario to see how they act and react?

My ever (often/sometimes/seldom?) curious mind took me down the path of seeing how characters would handle the holiday setting. How would some of my characters handle a holiday like Christmas, for example? Would they greet it with joy and happiness or sadness and sorrow? Would they represent the best virtues of humanity or the worst sins?

How would I handle tropes that are familiar to us, but totally foreign to whatever place and time my characters actually represent?

I know, for example, that my character “Mik Murdoch” would approach Christmas with excitement and joy. He would do his very best to ensure that all of his friends and family had the best Christmas ever. He wouldn’t let anything get in the way. He is a pre-teen boy and a wannabe superhero. Picturing his reaction was easy.

But what about my apprentice wizard, Charlie, from my short story “Apprentice”? Does the concept of Christmas exist? Perhaps it does in another form such as Winter Solstice? How would it be celebrated? Would he celebrate or hide? Would he be happy or sad?

It can be both a fun and interesting exercise. Put your characters through their paces and see what comes out. The exercise is great for generating story ideas. I know I now have some ideas for a story featuring the characters from “GalaxyBillies”. I haven’t spent any time with them lately and it might be fun to write a holiday-themed story with them.

What do you think? Holiday stories with known characters to see what comes out or just a means to capitalize on another holiday?