One piece of advice I’ve often heard from established writers is to stop writing when things get gnarly.
Go for a walk, garden, read, do anything BUT work on that project causing you grief.
By gnarly, I mean when the ideas stop because I’m spent from having immersed myself in a client’s copywriting project - not a one-off blog post - but 7-8 pages of writing/rewriting website copy across 8 weeks or preparing for and delivering a 1.5 hour web copywriting workshop for an in-house marketing team.
I followed that week up with socialising+ a teen birthday party that last 5 hours at the world’s noisiest and on-steroids venue - Timezone.
By the time Monday of this week rolled around, I was spent - mentally and physically - from writing, talking and socialising.
So, I switched focus this week to think about and write my novel - Finding Aisha.
I’d neglected it horribly in favour of client work and because it had some gnarly plot issues that weren’t being resolved.
I managed to write two good chapters, start a third and resolved a few tricky plot issues like how would a nurse actually talk with a patient with a mental health condition?
I researched my topic, came across some insightful mental health resources and videos from the UK that gave me a deeper insight into my character’s condition, read a memoir and watched some Netflix. I tried to stay off social media too. The digital noise is NOT conducive to finding my mojo. It just makes me anxious.
In the past, I used to be guilt-ridden when taking time off from my business. Since I wrote and published my first novel, Life after Ali, I realised taking time off and doing other things was essential to my thinking, productivity and energy levels.
I don’t know about you, but I find it hard to do the thing I love most in the world, if my brain is telling me it needs a rest and a break from thinking about SEO.
I’ve realised my creativity isn’t like a well with no bottom. It is like a small tank storing brain juice that gets used up fast. And if I’m not consciously refilling it by reading books or thinking or exercising, then the words dry up.
I need to be able to do justice to my ideas, and for that a break is essential.
So, if you’re someone who’s constantly on the go, doing all the things, this is permission to take a break.
Take it from someone who’s been through burnout. It ain’t pretty and does nothing for that essential brain juice.
Happy Friday xx