July 3, 2010

Writing Every Day vs. Everything Else

Fourth of July is like Christmas with my family, so I'm... preoccupied. Actually, I've been distracted from my writing all week. Knowing I most likely won't finish finish the first draft of my WIP before the baby is born has lulled me into complacency. I've been doing other things with my time. Mostly reading. (I'm also developing an addiction to couponing. Is that sad?)

In all seriousness, I'm a little afraid of burnout if I push myself to much. I want to be excited to return to my book when the baby learns to sleep (or maybe before).

So, in your world, when is okay to not "write every day"?

3 comments:

Rabia said...

When my husband is out of town for a week and I'm single-parenting my 5, 4 and 1 yr olds. :D

Yeah, that just happened to me. I revised faithfully every day for the first three days, then fell of the wagon from sheer exhaustion. And you know what? I don't feel bad about it at all!

Unknown said...

I know. It's such a delicate balance. Sometimes you need to push through, other times it's better to take a break so you can bounce back faster.

Liz said...

I've been reading more, writing less lately and it's because I got stuck in my WIP and was feeling too lazy to put in the work I needed to in order to keep going. But I think it's okay to take a step back every now and then. When I'm reading, I'll jot down notes about things I need to work on or I'll get ideas about how to work through plot issues, etc. So I would say don't be too hard on yourself--reading is a great way to learn the craft of writing.

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