WRITING TIPS #4 ...Take a break....by Miriam Halahmy

I know that everyone says, To be a writer you need to write.

And I say exactly the same in my workshops all the time.

But at the end of last year I ground to a complete halt. I had written a book a year for five years, plus 19 scheduled blogposts each year and umpteen guest and extra blogs, I write on social media most days, I also review books and write occasional articles for books and journals and I write poetry.

That part of my brain and my body which is the writer bit of me rebelled.

So I stopped.

Completely.

For over two months.

I did other things like walking in the woods and seeing family, especially the new grandbaby, I visited friends and I went to my beloved Hayling Island and walked the route of the old railway line - the Hayling Billy.

Ah ha  you're thinking! But were you happy - that writer not writing?
No - I had all sorts of mixed feelings - I'm not writing a novel, will ever I ever write a novel again, will I want to, what will I do instead - etc., etc., etc.
So was my soul and my confidence and my creativity shot down in flames?

Sometimes it felt like that and a sort of numbness too.
But....
THEN.....

KERCHING!!!

It changed...

All those feelings inside me that come together to make me a writer.

I wrote a poem.

I wrote a picture book text and then I wrote another one. A whole shiny new genre for me and a flutter of excitement ( you know that feeling writers) began to blossom inside me again.

I wrote other things too.

.

If you feel stale, if you have no ideas, if you have been writing for a very long time and you feel drained, then I would thoroughly recommend a complete break from writing. I mean - DO NO WRITING AT ALL.

Because it works - just as your body needs a prolonged rest after illness or extreme stress,

so does your writing part.

It is a risk - I know it is.

You might be under enforced deadlines - I wasn't.

It is scary.

But I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

My batteries are recharged. I am writing new and fun and good and creative and more than anything else - I am enjoying all my writing again.

If you choose to give my writing tip a try - good luck and stick with it. The outcomes will amaze you.

www.miriamhalahmy.com