Keeping up with holidays (Read 212 times)

[Kpatch]

My stories sometimes have holidays in them but they rarely coincide with the real-life holidays on the calendar. Seems like it would take a lot of planning.

I'm always impressed by those of you who incorporate holidays into your story to correspond with the real holidays as they happen, such as André DiMera and heroicmuse who are including Halloween in their stories right now. How do you do it? Do you plan ahead? Or do you look at the calendar and say OMG and write something on the fly to crowbar into your story? 

[André DiMera]

I usually try to stay fairly cognizant of what time of the year it is, so (for example) in early October, I start planning for Halloween, and from there, I plan out the rest of the holiday season (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years). I always like writing big group scenes where lots of people get together, and holidays give me a chance to do that. So, yes, there is an element of planning ahead. From there, I usually try to pepper in a reference or two about a week or so before the holiday itself, just so it doesn't seem totally out of the blue. Good question, Kpatch!

[heroicmuse]

At the beginning of the year I look at the calendar and note when the holidays are. As I progress through the year, as each holiday approaches I decide how to incorporate it. This is the first year I've included Halloween; Thanksgiving and Christmas are a bit easier because they are holidays where family tends to get together.

[Kpatch]

I still don't know how you do it. I include holidays but they don't coincide. We had Father's Day and 4th of July and Labor Day. I've got Halloween and the fall holidays too, and they coincide with important events in the story, but not on the real-life calendar. Part of the "problem" may be that I write really far ahead. It's how I like to work.