Diary of a writing project. Day 164: when to stop writing

Writing goals.

More than often, it helps. However, sometimes, it does quite the opposite.

Learning to stop writing

These days, I need to write.
I need a somewhere to go to, a somewhere to stop overthinking about all the real-life big and small things constantly swirling in my brain.

Back in November of 2019, the situation was different. Whenever I would find the time to write, I was exhausted, drained, not functional.

Despite the clear signs screaming at me « take a break writer girl », I kept pushing, kept writing. It was not utter crap, but by the time the idea of working on the writing project depressed me to no end, it was not far from it.

Ok, but then, you took a break, right? Because you clearly needed it!

Nope, I didn’t. I kept pushing. Until it was no use no more. The second week of December, I crashed. I had a hard time even sending emails to potential clients.

After the Christmas (and in our case, Hannukah) holidays, which were, the worst I’ve ever experienced since I can remember my Christmases, I wanted to go back to the words, but I hold back.

Taking the time to take care of my mental health, look at what happened, what created my big bad writing/living blues. Before going back to writing in January, I did my research: what is creative burn out? what is feeding stress and anxiety?

I needed to take more break between writing session. I needed to go out more and take the sunshine in.

What also helped me work at a more reasonable pace in January and for the most part of February was being sick. Very sick. At some point in January, I spent four days in bed, not able to stand without leaning on walls.

So, it was good in a way. It forced me to take things slow.

But now…!

Why Slowing Down When It’s So MUCH Fun to Go Fast?

Now though, Spring is lurking is way back in our lives. Going outside is easy AND pleasant again. The day job is slowly slowing down, giving me more time to think about new projects, like self-publishing, like starting a reading Youtube channel.

As for the writing itself, it’s going very, very well. Which fires me up, up, up and too much!

It’s inevitable, that beautiful writing motivation will fade a little in the coming days.

To avoid looking blankly at a screen for three days straight, when I set myself up for big deadlines and new exciting projects I can’t wait to get working on, I feel like I need to take a small break, if not today, tomorrow.

I’m talking going outside a little longer than usual, and let myself read at lunchtime instead of writing.

A break/slow down on writing seems to always have positive effects on my writing moral anyway.

Writing is going well, I’m super energized. Too energized.
Like when you’re on a sugar rush, and you think it’s gonna last forever and all of a sudden, crash.
I feel like that this week. It is going well, I don’t wanna stop, but I know it cannot last and I have to save some energy if I wanna stay productive in the long run.

When to stop writing? Before the crash. Yes, of course, it make sense.

Funny thing is I really, really want to write, so by forcing myself to slow down, it’s making me looking forward to the writing session. Curious to see how that one will turned out.

All the best in your writing projects, and thank you so much for reading !