My last blog post was in January of this year and it was about recognizing that sometimes I need to give myself time to rest. But apparently the lesson didn’t stick, so I need to be a little more clear and a little more firm with myself. Consider this blog post more of a reminder to myself than anything else.
Take a break sometimes.
When life stress is hitting you over and over, sometimes writing through it can help you cope. Sometimes it does not. Sometimes trying to make yourself write while the stress waves are washing over you adds to the stress instead of letting you escape from it.
Take a break.
If you are sick and you need rest, waking up at 5 am for your morning writing time is not going to work out. You’re going to sit on the couch with tissues up your nose, breathing through your mouth and wincing every time you swallow when you sip your coffee, and you’re going to be thinking about feeling all gunky, and you’re not going to write any good words. Or any words at all. And you’re prolonging how long you’ll be sick for by not resting, perpetuating the shitty writing cycle.
Take a break.
It’s the school year, the viruses are coming. All of them, one after the other. If the kids are sick and you’re running yourself into the ground taking care of a pukey seven-year-old and a feverish three-year-old, trying to figure out what food they can keep down and trying to balance that against what food they’ll actually eat, your focus is where it needs to be. Writing probably won’t work. And you’ll be up three times in the night to empty a puke bowl or change some messy bedding, so waking up early to squeeze the words out before sunrise is probably also not going to work.
Take a break.
By the time you feel the burnout coming, the bad news is that it’s actually probably already here. It’s too late. You’re not going to make that project work no matter how much you love the idea.
Take a break.
If you’re finally having a really good time and you don’t want to think about stopping to do some work, or going to bed at a reasonable hour so that you can get up early enough to write, for god’s sake let yourself finally have a really good time.
Take a break.
It’s not going to kill you to go easy on yourself sometimes. It’s not going to kill your words. You won’t come back to writing after a break and realize that you’ve forgotten how to put a story together.
Take a break.
I’ve been stressed out for a couple of months (thanks, interstate move and minor family disasters) and I’ve also been sick for over two weeks (thanks, back-to-school germs) and I finally just gave in for a few days and slept through my alarm and took naps during the day and didn’t try to do anything, and today I’m feeling better than I have in ages. I got more writing done today than I have in any single day in months, sent more queries, and am at this very moment wrapping up writing my first blog post since just after the new year. (I also got more cleaning and chores done yesterday than I have in a couple of weeks.) I’m not back to 100%, but I feel like myself again.
Because I took a break.