Rest Alone Doesn't Solve Burnout... But It's Still Important

If you're struggling with burnout, taking a break from writing can be really useful.

When you reach a point where the thought of writing feels genuinely exhausting, giving yourself a couple weeks (or more!) where you pause all writing tasks to rest and refill your creative well can be incredibly useful.

It can give you a "factory reset" as one of my clients recently put it. 

But taking time off won't end the burnout cycle if you don't also address the thought patterns that created burnout in the first place. 

It's like taking a vacation from a stressful job... only to return to all the same stressors when you get back. You may have a nice tan, but the overflowing pile of work and micromanaging boss haven't changed.

Burnout will come for you again unless you address the root cause of the burnout. 

Let's talk about how to take intentional rest from writing and build a sustainable, burnout-free writing practice when you get back to the page.

Rest Is Important

Rest is NOT optional. 

It's not something you have to earn. It's not tangential to the writing process.

Rest is required to perform at your best creatively. 

Creative breakthroughs happen when you balance time spent focused on your story with time away to let your brain wander while you focus on other tasks. (This is why great ideas often come in the shower, while driving, or doing something mundane like laundry or dishes.) 

It’s not just "okay" to step away and let the subconscious parts of your brain noodle on the story for you... It's where you'll find your best ideas.

The solutions you come up with may feel like magic, but it’s just what happens when you give your brain the blend of focus and rest that it needs.

So, what counts as rest? 

There are the biological basics (getting enough sleep, staying hydrated, etc.), but beyond that, anything that fills you up mentally, emotionally, or creatively can help keep you creatively rested.

Reading books you love. Watching tv or movies. Going for a walk. Calling up a friend to chat. Snuggling with your pets.

Household chores can even count as rest if you see those tasks as something nice you do for yourself. For example, whenever I mow the lawn, I feel such a lovely sense of accomplishment. It's just so nice to see physical evidence of "progress" when so much of my life revolves around super long-term projects (like novels). 

When you build these types of activities into your daily or weekly schedule, you won't need massive amounts of down time between projects because you don't let your creative well run dry. 

But Avoidance Isn't the Same as Rest

This is where a lot of writers go wrong with "rest."

Planning to write but then skipping your sessions every day for a week is NOT the same as intentionally taking a week off.

Instead of creating space to refill the well, you have to contend with feelings of guilt over skipping your sessions. You start to lose trust in your ability to write when you say you will (which can mess with your confidence in both your writing skills and the future career success that you want). Any thoughts that you're "running out of time" or "falling behind" get exacerbated when you tell yourself every day that you're going to write but then just ... don't. 

And if you follow up those skipped sessions with admonishments and promises to "write more tomorrow to catch up," you're likely to end up feeling so much pressure and resistance that you end up feeling frozen. 

Being in a freeze response is not exactly conducive to feeling creative. 

If you're trying to decide whether to take a break, don't lie to yourself and say you've been on a break simply because you've been avoiding your book. Avoidance and rest are not the same thing. 

Now, whether the best course of action is to set really small writing goals to ease yourself back into writing OR take an intentional break for a couple weeks depends on a lot of different factors. It's a nuanced discussion (and is the type of thing I talk my clients through in coaching). In general, though, taking an intentional week or two off from writing and then setting small goals to ease back in on a pre-determined date is a decent starting place. 

What Causes Burnout

One of the reasons that rest doesn't solve burnout is that it treats the symptoms, not the root cause. 

Taking a break from your book, going on vacation, or getting a massage won’t stop you from feeling anxious about your career.

While these things can feel good (and I want you to enjoy them!), they simply press pause on the thoughts that cause burnout. 

As soon as the break is over, those same thoughts return and the anxious feelings come back. And if you force yourself to push through anyway, you’ll fall right back into burnout.

The Real Cause of Burnout

A common misconception is that burnout is caused by what you DO.

We tend to think that burnout happens by working a certain number of hours. By juggling too many deadlines. Or otherwise working too hard for too long.

It's not. 

Burnout happens when we FUEL that work with depleting emotions. 

Writing for twelve hours on a Sunday feels terrible when you do that work while telling yourself shitty stories.

Stories like: If I don't get this book done on time, my editor is going to hate me. My book will get pushed a season. My readers will be so mad. I'll never get another book deal if I keep missing deadlines. I have to do this or else! 

You could spend the same amount of time and end the day tired (but not burnt out) when you tell stories like: I love this book so much! I'm so excited to get this to my agent. I'm so close to being done - I can taste it! Ooh, look at me! That plot solution was super clever.

The stories you tell create your emotional experience.

And when you fuel your writing sessions with emotions like stress, overwhelm, pressure, shame, and worry it's like trying to run a marathon while wearing a fifty-pound backpack. It's so much harder.

But when you fuel your writing sessions with emotions like desire, joy, and creative curiosity, you might still be tired, but it's a good tired. The kind of "I'm going to sleep really well tonight" tired that's full of pride. It's getting to ride a bike mostly downhill for your marathon instead of running uphill with that heavy backpack full of shame. 

Solving Burnout

In order to solve burnout -- permanently -- we have to learn how to fuel our writing sessions with useful emotions. And in order to do that, we have to take control of the stories we tell about our writing process and our overall author career. 

Common burnout-producing thoughts include: 

I’m so behind. I’ll never catch up. 

I have to do this. I don't have a choice. 

I’ll never figure this out - the book is too complicated. 

There’s so much riding on this. I’m under so much pressure. 

I can’t handle this. 

It's probably obvious now that simply going on vacation or taking a break from writing won't end burnout if you don't also address those stories. 

Here's the good news: As a novelist, you already have the skills you need to change those thoughts. You're already an incredible storyteller.

Solving burnout uses those same storytelling skills to craft better stories about yourself and your writing process.

When you instead believe things like:

Publishing is not a race. My readers will wait for me.

It's amazing that I get to do this for a living.

This book is challenging, but I'm up to the task.

This is just one book. My career will include dozens and dozens.

I am more capable than I give myself credit for. AND I can ask for help.

...you can write from a feeling of desire rather than shame. You get to write from a place of curiosity rather than pressure. 

And that is how we solve burnout for good.

Final Thoughts

If you're struggling to find joy in writing and you haven't given yourself intentional time off, take this as your permission slip to take a couple weeks off. Do things that bring you joy.

When you come back to writing, pay close attention to the types of stories you tell yourself. Keep an eye on the types of emotions that typically fuel your writing sessions. That will make all the difference.

Happy writing,
Isabel 

PS - If this topic resonated with you, I invite you to reach out for a free consultation. Just like an amazing editor can spot the plot holes in your novel, as your coach, I can pinpoint the plot holes in the stories you tell about your fiction career. Click here to schedule your confidential consultation.

PPS - Don't miss a single issue of Real Talk for Writers. CLICK HERE to sign up for the Real Talk email list. You'll receive an email every Monday morning with the newest issue plus notifications about upcoming workshops.