The Unplanned Writing Hiatus: What I’ve Learned from this Brief Break
I took a few days off from writing. No big deal in the grand scheme of things.
But it felt like a very unproductive time for me. Writing gives me purpose. It’s difficult to crank out article after article, but it is rewarding.
Taking a break from your writing can sometimes be the best thing for your creativity. Sometimes you need to step away from your work in order to gain a fresh perspective and come back with new ideas. Or so I’ve heard.
Writing is a lifelong process. A broken streak amounts to a very small portion of your writing.
Here’s what I’ve learned by taking about a week off:
Writing begets writing.
The more I write, the easier it is to write. The longer the break, the harder it is to write. I have found this to be true during this week off.
Your radar for writing ideas improves.
It’s not that I didn’t have any ideas. I had too many ideas, and it was hard to focus on just one. I need to be in the right mindset to write. This week has been a busy one, and my mind has been elsewhere. It’s difficult to sit down and focus on writing when other things are going on. I also developed a habit of writing down 10 headlines every day during this off week. I had tons of ideas. The problem was sitting down to write out a full article.
Writing is the cure for overthinking.
When you choose a topic to write about, your attention converges to the task at hand. The other distractions that had your attention before writing are no longer bothering you.
It’s amazing how much better I feel after writing an article. This week has been a good reminder that breaks are important, even for writers. We all need to recharge our batteries from time to time. It’s when we come back from these brief hiatuses that we often have our best ideas. So don’t be afraid to take breaks. Just try not to let those breaks last too long. You will be fine.
