Taking a Writing Hiatus: My Thoughts and Tips

Taking breaks in important in life. If you're always going, then you're going to burn out, physically or creatively. That's why I think it's important to take breaks in your creative life as well as in your personal life. Today we're going to be talking about taking writing hiatuses, how to do that, and how to re-charge yourself afterwards.

Taking a Break

The first step for taking a writing hiatus is deciding when you are going to do it. If you're in the middle of drafting a novel, or working on a round of editing, you probably won't want to drop it and take time off. The best time I suggest would be between rounds of editing, or in between projects.

The second question you should ask yourself, after you've decided the when, is how long a break you should take. A week or two is great if you need a quick recharge. A month or more is better if you feel like you need more time away from your projects. And in extreme cases, you might want to take off writing for six months or a year.

I can't tell you what will work best for you. That's up to you to decide. You know how much time your brain needs to rest and get your creative spark back. Maybe you need to take a break for other reasons, like for school or other life problems. That's fine too.

Tips for Your Break

• Don't write. The whole point of this is to do a brain re-set, so avoid the temptation to work on any new or shiny story ideas you have. Don't open that Word document or Scrivener, no matter how hard it calls to you.

• But maybe try some other forms of writing. Sometimes you may want to ignore the previous point and experiment around a little, if that what helps you recharge. Try writing a poem, a chose your own ending story, or start a journal. Get your brain out of it's creative ruts and back onto the wide road full of possibility.

• Read. My favorite thing about taking a writing break was that I had time to focus on reading. You can use this time to catch up on book, absorbing them into your mind so that way you have fertile soil for planting writing seeds later.

• Take some time for yourself. Check some stuff off your yearly bucket list. Learn a new skill. Go someplace you've never been before. Take a guided tour of an art museum. Visit the beach. Get away from your computer and live life. That's where you'll gain the inspiration for your stories.

• Learn more about your craft. This is also an excellent time to focus on learning more about writing, even if you're not actually doing it. Watch some YouTube videos on story structure. Take a Masterclass. Pick up two new books on writing and take notes as you read.

Coming Back Strong

The hardest part of any break or vacation is coming back and having to get back into your routine. One thing you can do to help yourself is ease yourself back into writing. Don't have a two hour session the first day. Maybe start by writing a hundred words, or applying something you learned on your hiatus to whatever project you're working on.

Another thing that can help is having something you're excited about to come back to. It could be starting a new project or getting editing on your latest masterpiece. If you're looking forward to something, you'll be much more likely to want to start it again.

Don't worry if it takes you some time to get back into the swing of things. It can be hard at first. But be patient with yourself and you'll be back to writing your new book in no time.

Have you ever taken a writing hiatus? Do you have any tips? Tell me in the comments.

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