I know I always say that autumn is my favorite time of year, and in many ways it is. I’m not a huge fan of the 100+ degree summer heat we get here in Southern Nevada, especially not the 100+ degree days that are also humid. However, I do get time off in the summer, so that makes it special indeed. 

During the summer, my hours aren’t defined by a clock and I can do what I want with those hours. I know there’s a version of summer that exists in my imagination that shows long afternoons, picnics, and reading by the beach. Unfortunately, there’s no beach here in the desert, and I haven’t traveled to the coast for a few years now. 

The truth is, it can be hard to concentrate when it’s hot. Even with the air conditioning on in my home, I can still feel the humidity pressing down on me like an oppressive wet blanket, as the heat feels like an unwanted guest. Over the years, I’ve noticed that my thinking is slower, not necessarily in a bad way, but in a way where sometimes I lose the thread more easily, and sometimes I’ll wander far away from my original thoughts and end up nowhere in particular.

For a long time I interpreted this lack of focus as a summer-related productivity problem. I’ve changed my mind about that as I’ve realized that my wandering thoughts sometimes come up with fantastical ideas that I never would have considered before. Allowing my imagination full range is often a very good thing. 

During the summer, there are so many distractions. People to see, swimming pools to visit, movies and theater to see, and new coffee shops or bookstores to try. Instead of distractions, I’ve come to see them as artist’s dates. If you’re not familiar with Julia Cameron’s instructions about artist’s dates in The Artist’s Way, an artist’s date is a solo expedition designed to nurture your creativity. Cameron describes it as “a block of time…especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness.” It’s a playful way to feed your inner artist and fill your creative well. Time spent refilling my creative well is time well spent.

Since I dislike the intense heat, I find it discourages any kind of sustained, focused work that feels like serious work, although I do work during the summer. Last summer, I made good progress on the second draft of The Professor of Eventide. I find that summer encourages the kind of loose, receptive attention that doesn’t feel like work in the moment but later proves important to my creative process. Some of my best ideas arrived during the summer. Often, those ideas felt like they came from nowhere, though I think they actually came from my heat-fueled, wandering mind. 

The summers when I do my best thinking are the ones where I protect some amount of stillness during my day when I can make sense of these summer meanderings. I’m not sure whether it’s the extreme heat, the longer hours of light, the different daily rhythms, or something else entirely, but over time I started to work with my summer days rather than against them. I know that some writers seem to come alive in summer in the ways the myth promises. Maybe they leave the city for the country, or maybe they go on a writer’s retreat to some fabulous location. Maybe they work by the beach. That’s not my experience, especially not living in the desert. Summer is the season when I can decide for myself how I’ll use my hours every day. The long, languid days are just what I need to refresh myself so that I’m ready to go again in the autumn. 

During the rest of the year, I write in the late afternoon or early evening. During the summer, I write earlier, and I’m usually done by early afternoon. When I catch myself staring out the window at the way the light reflects off the houses in the valley, I don’t stop myself. It’s summer. Now is the time to take in the brighter sky, the deep greens, and the longer days. 

One practice I’ve been doing for years is keeping a notebook specifically for summer. It’s just a personal journal, really, and not meant to serve as a writing or creative notebook. My summer notebooks are simply brain dumps where I write things down so that I can remember those languid days. Sometimes, it’s important to allow yourself time to lie fallow. I’m giving myself to do that this summer. I just finished a marathon three years where I jumped from project to project to project one right after the other. I’m very glad I did, and I’m proud of all three books that I produced during that time, but now it’s time to take a brain break so that I have time to reset as I consider what my next project will be. 

It would be too hard for me to begin a new project during the summer, I think. For some reason, I always begin my new projects in the autumn. In the summer, I find that my thoughts are less structured and I think more in ideas than specifics. Sparks of creativity arrive while walking, driving, or sitting outside on my little patio in the early morning before the air becomes too hot. Even though I have these long summer days to myself, I tend to spend my summer noticing my surroundings more and then writing those observations down in my notebooks. Later on, some of those observations might become fodder for new stories. 

I read differently during the summer as well. During the autumn, I love Dark Academia and mysteries and some of the darker classics. During the summer, I tend to like lighter fare. I began reading seasonally a few years ago, and I love it. I love matching the books I read to the time of year, and it helps me sit back and appreciate each season for its own reason. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump lately, for the first time in years. I think it was because I was so deeply immersed in the world of my novel that I wasn’t able to concentrate on anything else for a while. I know full well that summer is the perfect time for reading, so I’ve been breaking my reading slump this summer with some shorter, lighter books.

Summer, with its bright yellow sunlight, deep blue sky, blooming flowers, and hours to spend however I wish, is a wonderful season to simply exist and allow myself to be whatever I want. I can journal, read, create spreads for my reading journal, scrapbook, and cook healthy dinners. I can travel a bit to some of my favorite coffee shops. And I can just be, knowing how lucky I am to have this time to recharge my tired brain and refill my creative well.