Pros and Cons of Taking Break from Writing,
Part 2
by Karen S. Wiesner
In the
final of a two-part article, I evaluate aging, progress, and momentum as well
as talk about the indisputable value breaks provide one in their particular
discipline along with the damage protracted absences from said discipline can
also do.
In the first part of
this article, I talked about my goals for 2023. I have two more series to wrap
up before I retire from writing. After that, I'm hoping to illustrate
children's books. I'd hoped I could finish writing the first drafts of my last
few novels in 2023. 2024 was my goal year for making the transition between the
two disciplines of writing and art.
For the month of July
2023, while I was intensely writing the first draft of my final Peaceful
Pilgrims story, I toyed with the prospect of going directly into writing the
second to the last novel in my Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series throughout the
months of August and September 2023. However, I was bordering on burnout. Without
a break, my writing would suffer, and that's simply not how I wanted to go into
any of my final writing projects. I want each of them to be my best work ever. I
was at a crossroads: I needed a break, but, if I took one, I absolutely
couldn't accomplish all I'd intended to in 2023. Retirement and beginning my
next career in illustration would have to be put on hold. Again.
My poor husband heard my
angst over this issue on a daily basis for the last two weeks in July, as I
tried to decide the best course of action concerning my dilemma. He surprised
me one morning when he told me about a weekly podcast he watches devoted to the
discipline of swimming. In this particular video, the host talked about the
pros and cons of taking a break from swimming. Although I've spent years
thinking I understood the indisputable value breaks provide in writing, as well
as the damage protracted absences can also do, I learned something as my
husband summarized the points the swimming instructor brought up.
For swimmers in
training, as my husband considered himself (though he really only competes with
himself--or his alter ego Frank who swims one kilometer a day every day like
clockwork), there are a lot of pros and cons to taking a short break or even a lengthy
one from daily discipline. A lot can happen to the body when a swimmer isn't in
the pool each day, and of course the longer the absence, the worse things can
get.
First, the longer an
individual has been swimming, the more natural it becomes for them. They
develop a "water feel". Being in the water becomes so natural, their
skills become honed and instinctive. Taking a break, that instinct is dulled,
and not surprisingly the longer they're away from the water, the more drastic
losing the "water feel" becomes. Once they come back, they'll have to
work harder to adjust to being and becoming like a fish again.
Second, when you're
swimming every day, you're building endurance and muscle, and your metabolism
is high. You can do more, expend less energy with the task, and in less time.
When you take a break, your tolerance for the activity lessens. While your
muscles enjoy and benefit from the initial rest, before long they begin to
atrophy if absence persists. Finally, while you're working out each and every
day, you may be able to eat more and still burn it off without penalty. If
you're not putting in the work every day and that stretches into even more time
away, you may still be hungry; however, eating the same amount you did sans the exercise, you'll gain weight in
a hurry.
Third, when a person
swims each day, the body becomes stronger. With the powerful muscles that being
fit provides, this person is better able to handle anything in life that
requires physical activity. Short periods of rest--a day or two--can be very
beneficial, allowing muscles to heal before being rebuilt even stronger. Just
as you'd expect, muscle that's not being worked breaks down, which will happen
if a rest carries on too long.
Creative pursuits aren't
all that different from a physical activity like swimming. For instance, the
longer you've been writing, the more you hone your writing craft--"word
feel", if you will. The process of writing becomes natural when it's done
often, every day, with proper discipline, and it can become instinctive. But
breaks, especially long ones, can make a writer lose that instinctual edge.
You'll work harder to produce the same results you got easily before you took
the extended break.
When you're writing each
day, you're building skills, endurance, and longevity in the pursuit of
excellence. Your enthusiasm and passion will be high. You'll be able to do
more, expend less energy, and produce quality results in less time. But take a
long break, and your tolerance wanes quickly. You tire easily and, inevitably,
your skills will begin to weaken and wither. You'll also find your ardor
cooling, your hunger tapering off. You may feel disinterested or even apathetic
about returning to the discipline you previously enjoyed.
Finally, when you're
writing every day, your material becomes far stronger. Your stories will
invariably be richer, deeper, and more powerful. Taking breaks between stages
in a project can almost certainly improve the quality and quantity of your work
as well as provide you with the refreshment and perspective necessary to
continuing the task through to its successful completion. You can read my
previous articles about the benefits of writing in stages on this blog here: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/search/label/writing%20in%20stages. However, long breaks
from writing can set you back instead of propel you forward. You need momentum
for long-term tasks, and that only comes from activity, not lethargy, which
saps physical, mental, and spiritual pursuits. Once gravity pulls you down,
you'll have to work harder to yank yourself back up again.
The takeaway here
becomes clear when you consider that in nearly aspect of life, finding the
thing that you're good at, the thing you love and are willing to work hard to
gain or achieve success in requires that you juggle times of disciplined
activity and short periods of revitalizing rest. Both are crucial to
maintaining, sustaining, and ensuring progress. Just as overtraining can cause
injuries, refusing to allow yourself to step away for a bit to recover
physical, mental, and spiritual energy can lead to burnout or worse.
Another factor is the
length of time you've been working on any certain discipline. Anything you've
been doing for a long time and consistently over the course of presumed years will
provide you with a healthy foundation for instinct, endurance, and strength.
Each of these components will remain in place for longer, requiring more hardship
to whittle the three cornerstones down. Core aspects drop away slower, because
you can fall back on the basics you've been cultivating for a considerable number
of years. Someone who's new to a discipline will see key competencies drop off
much faster when they take short or long breaks from it. Conversely, if you've
been training hard and you come to a full stop abruptly, your overall
performance is likely to plummet just as suddenly. But if you're doing
something almost casually, you probably won't notice a significant change in
your functioning.
I've been writing for
almost 35 years. If I had to compare my career to a physical activity, for most
of it I was easily competing to be an Olympic athlete. Between getting old, the
COVID isolation hitting me hard, and the life upheavals I experienced a few
years back (more about that in my "Reflections of Life" article
series, which you'll find posted here: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/search/label/reflections%20of%20life), I came to an almost
full stop very suddenly. I've been dealing with the fallout ever since…
Such as the fact that
I'm now facing that the goals I made for myself at the end of 2022 probably
can't happen the way I planned. I can't write two novels back to back anymore,
like I used to, even if one of them is drastically less complicated than the
other. I'll need to take a break from writing for the next several weeks after
finishing the first novel I've written this year in late July 2023. I'll have
things to do to fill the downtime, just a little each day while I take a
refreshing break from the hard work of writing. Additionally, I can get in some
of the art practice that will eventually help me when I'm settling into the new
career as an illustrator. I'll be ahead of the game there since I'll have spent
several years in advance honing the new craft I intend to put my all into once
I retire from writing. Between September and October of 2023, I'll write the
next, more complex novel that I'm working on this year. That will leave me just
enough time the final two months of 2023 to at least outline the very last
offerings in my Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series. It's not everything I hoped for.
But, hey, it's still good.
It's very easy for me to
get discouraged when I compare the "myself of today" with
"myself of yesterday". I'm practically at a standstill when I look
back at what I used to be able to accomplish every given year. I think I need
to stop hitting the same brick wall of being disappointed with my output, of
wanting to push myself harder. I may want to do more, but I've found over the
course of the last two years that I simply can't anymore. I'm older, I have
less stamina, and it just takes longer to make the magic happen. Even still,
when I do get things done, I've found myself very proud of what I've managed to
produce.
Instead of letting this
same dejection knock me down over and over again, it may help me to compare
myself to other writers. Most authors produce one novel a year and consider
themselves productive. So, even if I only write two this year (perhaps pathetic
in comparison to my previous five novels and five long novellas), I'm still
doing double the norm. That's something. (If you write one a year, don't think
you haven't accomplished much. You have. I just used to be a superhero and now
I'm normal. It's a brand new world for me, one that's lacking the furious glow
of the previous.)
So what if I'll only able
to write two novels instead of the three I'd hoped to complete in 2023? So what
I won't be able to retire from writing until 2024, at which point I can avidly
begin my next career in illustration? Let's face it, I'm kicking and screaming
every second, even as I accept this "downgrade". I imagine I'll fight
against compromise in this regard the rest of my life.
Still, I'm not running a
sprint here. My writing career has been a marathon, one I'm coming to the end
of, and therefore it's even more necessary that I allow myself to slow down,
catch my breath, and conserve my vigor so, when it's time to make that final
push toward the finish line, I'll be in possession of 3 1/2 decades of
instincts, endurance, and strength to help me complete the race. I call that
success, even if I didn't get there with as much under my belt or anywhere near
as fast as I intended.
Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre
author of over 150 titles and 16 series.
Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/
and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog
Find out more about her books and see her art
here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor
Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/
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