The delightful writer Reina Laaman has very kindly agreed to guest post on my blog. We're thrilled to have you, Rain! Check out her blog at reinalaaman.blogspot.com. Comments welcome!
The Writer’s Refresh Button
When I am drafting a
novel, I experience this weird adrenaline rush that lasts about a month. I call
it Writer’s Craze or Draft Fever or There’s Something Wrong With Me. What
happens is I can go to bed late and get up really early and not run out of
energy.
It’s pretty cool.
But then Normalness
kicks back in. And as many of you know, Normalness wears steel-toed boots. It
hurts. The Draft Fever dissipates and my progress starts to lag. So now I’ve
got to finish the story or rewrite a draft or edit a manuscript and I don’t
have There’s Something Wrong With Me to help. Once I reach this lagging period,
writing isn’t as fun or aerodynamic anymore. But I’ve discovered something that
helps.
Take a day off. At least once a week, but probably not more.
(Because once you get out of your writing groove, it’s hard to fall back in. That’s
a different topic.)
Maybe a writer’s
Sabbath is totally obvious to you and you’re like, Duh. Or maybe you have 12-hour
shifts at work and you can’t write during one or two or three or four or five
days of the week. So then you want to cram in as much writing as possible on the
days you can. That’s great!
However, some of us
have the opportunity to write every day. And so we just keep forcing it, and
just keep forcing it, because it seems like a HUGE delay to take a break. Like
the whole universe will stop and glare at us because we’re not writing.
Well, let me tell you a
story. While writing my last draft—after the Writer’s Craze ended—I was determined
to write every single day. As the weeks wore on, my writing kept trickling out
slower and slower. Finally I took a day off. I returned to my story the day
after, and it was like a waterfall session. (Meaning the writing came a lot
freer again.) During the dormant period, my brain had time to regenerate and
think of new ideas.
I realized that if I
just rested one day a week, I could usually write more on the other days. After all, God created the world in 6 days
and rested on the 7th. He knew what He was doing.
Here are some ideas of
things to do on your day off:
1.
Read.
Try a new genre. Like biographies or poetry or comic books. Writers aren’t like
cars that use the same sort of fuel every time. We need a different kind of firepower
once in a while.
2.
Go sky
diving. That will restore your
adrenaline rush. But I guess some other form of exercise would do just as well.
Like gardening.
3.
Do some
research on pillowcases—or something you’re interested in. Could be for the
story you’re writing now or the next one.
4.
Blog.
Now is a good time to catch up and not feel like you should be working on your
story instead. =)
5.
Sit on the sidewalk and watch people with binoculars. Okay, maybe without the binoculars. And
try not to be creepy about it. But we write about people, so we have to know
how they behave.
6.
Clean and
reorganize your work space. Draw smiley faces around your desk. (That’s
optional.)
Anyway, to recap. I
don’t know if you need to take a break during the adrenaline stage. I think I’d
explode if I tried. But once your writing starts to drag, try taking a break
and see if it helps you.
So, other ideas on how to hit your metaphorical “refresh” button? What would
you like to do on your day off?
