I am currently spending some time at my family home, with mom and brothers (and husby, of course). And…I have no motivation to write. AT ALL.
This doesn’t sound like a big deal. But since I started on Storytellers on Jan 1st, 2017 I haven’t stopped writing for longer than 2-3 days when my health issues made it impossible. This is my first actual “vacation” from writing in two years. Brain’s all like “we are on holiday, bugger off, I refuse to do gramer en spelink”.
I forgot how it feels to actually take some rest. I always told people writing relaxes me. Which it does, but perhaps after two years of going nearly non-stop a week off might be a good idea…? It’s not burnout, although had I gone at this pace further I might have reached one. Brain is just not interested. There’s snow, there’s my mom’s food, my brother’s kids (send help – 7-year-old twin boys), a new tattoo tomorrow. Even when we were in Iceland I kept writing, in fact being there gave me extra motivation. Right now? Nope. I do absolutely nothing useful, don’t bother getting dressed before noon, eat tons of sweets. (Note to self: you WILL do extra workouts when you come back home.) I don’t even read anything more serious than music magazines.
Do you find it easy to take an actual break? A real holiday without either feeling guilty about not doing Things And Stuff? I’m new to this and need pointers…
I think it’s really important to cut yourself some slack and take some time out to recharge, Bjorn, so I’m really glad you have what sounds like a very relaxing break lined up there! One of the great things about writing is that you can do it anywhere, anytime – but the flipside of that is that it makes it very difficult to stop. Being in a habit of daily writing can be a good thing, as the words soon mount up – but it’s too easy to feel guilty if you decide to take a day (or more) off. I hope you might find the thoughts in this post useful: https://selfpublishingadvice.org/take-a-break-indie-authors/ And in the meantime, have a wonderful break – your writing will be all the better when you get back to it!