For me, the hardest thing about writing is NOT writing. You know, the necessary breaks we take between drafts, or chapters, or difficult revisions.
And they are necessary. We'd go insane if we didn't take them, and get overwhelmed with our own stories. Space is necessary.
But, at the same time, breaks drive me insane, because I feel like I'm not DOING anything productive. Even when I am. I read, I critique, I work on my query and/or my synopsis, I compile my list of agents I want to query, I map out my next steps for the novel, and other things.
None of that stuff compares to actually writing--none of it gives me the same feeling of working proactively towards my dream.
Here's my goal: think of not writing as sleeping during finals week.
Everyone remembers the urge to cram all night during finals in college, right? (Or maybe not, if you were super smart or super didn't care.) It seemed like those extra 6-8 hours of studying would do you more good than actually getting sleep.
Not so! I've never pulled an all-nighter, because I realized the importance of sleep early on. The couple nights I stayed up several hours later than I ought to have, the next day I was a zombie. Zombies don't take tests very well. Zombies also don't retain information very well at 4 AM.
So I began to consider getting a good night's sleep as part of studying. I started my studying early--days before the final. And on the night before the final, I began my review early, and then I went to bed NO LATER than a certain time. Because sleep is necessary. Even when it feels like that time could be better spent doing something else--the sleep lets us all wake up on the morning of the final feeling physically ready to take the test. And if the prep-work is done, then we are also mentally ready.
Finishing a complete first draft? That's studying early. Get some sleep.
Working really really hard to get a difficult revision just right and finally finally getting through that last page? Also studying early. Get some sleep.
Killing yourself to fix something that just doesn't work, and you keep making it worse instead of improving it? You're trying to pull an all-nighter. Sleep, and see how it looks in the morning.
So now I just have to convince myself that not writing is as necessary as sleep during finals week.
I wonder if this will change if/when I ever have deadlines... ;)
Not writing IS necessary. But be careful you don't NOT WRITE for too long, because then it's really hard to get back into it. After the chaos of trying to meet deadlines and be creative (it's hard) I burned out. So I gave myself a couple months off. Those couple months turned into NINE. Yep. Was so so difficult to get back into it. So yeah, give yourself breaks, but don't let yourself get carried away :)
ReplyDeleteThat is absolutely true! I'm talking about not writing for a week or two as a break, because I've done the not writing for longer and it sucks, and it's easy to let life eat you up.
DeleteThis is so important! I find myself sleeping less in general when I'm hot in a project because my brain won't slow down and I end up dreaming about the book anyway. But then I kind of collapse afterwards while I catch up on all the things I've neglected during my creative fit. I really admire writers who are more balanced. (And yes, I probably mean that in every possible way :D) Great things to think about.
ReplyDeleteThanks for a lovely post, and I hope you get some R & R.
Martina
Haha, I admire people who are more balanced in all ways. It's something I can never seem to get right. :)
DeleteI hate not writing! Even though I know I need to take breaks, to let the manuscript breathe and all that...I just like to always be doing something. Usually to the point where I get sick of looking at it. So, actually, more breaks would be good :)
ReplyDeleteEven when I break from one ms, I have to be working on SOMETHING - brainstorming, revising, shiny new stuff...I fear my left side will overtake the right side of my brain if I don't!
ReplyDeleteBut glad you're taking a break. I know I've already told you this, but let that subconscious have its turn!
This is so true, Alexandra. For me, though, even harder than the break is finding my momentum again when it's over. It's such a challenge to jump from being fully immersed in a project, finishing and breaking, and then returning to it for revisions/edits. A necessary part of the process, I suppose!
ReplyDeleteGreat way to put it. I am stuck in that zone right now. So antsy to write something new, but there are other things that need to be done first!
ReplyDeleteYES. It is amazing to me how differently I see my work after I've taken some time off from it. Completely and totally essential!
ReplyDelete