Draft, Edit, Submit #02: & On The Seventh Day, We Rest
Most of us writers have other commitments: family, occupation, education, etc. Because of this, we often end up using our ‘free time’ to work on our creative projects. Between drafting, editing and finding appropriate markets for each piece (or planning a goal, e.g. preparing a manuscript), we end up always having something to do. Unfortunately, we may keep on doing our utmost while forgetting to take a break.
Resting is essential. I’m not referring to the incubation period in which you let a poem or a story rest before you take a look at it. Yes, that’s important. But we also must rest and take care of ourselves as writers individuals. It’s not unheard of that writers experience frequent burnouts, so we should be aware and attempt to avoid exhausting ourselves.
I have been unwell for the past two weeks, and I was ‘forced’ to rest. Having an excuse to postpone working on university assignments, I felt tempted to use the time to edit some WIPs. When trying to do so, I met severe brain fog and headaches, and it ended up being counter-productive, so I banned myself from writing related activities for a couple of days.
The results? I recovered very quickly from my first illness (the second was an allergic reaction, so it wasn’t due to poor well-being) — I think that should always be the priority. Moreover, when I was feeling well, I was quite rejuvenated and came into the edit sessions with vibrant energy and a clear head.
The difference is that when I usually prescribe myself rest, I end up feeling guilty for losing time and not being as productive as I could be. I realise that this is a harmful attitude as writing can end up being exhaustive, and we need to take care of our minds — the source of creativity. Perhaps we should be making it a goal to take sufficient rest, to spend time enjoying leisure activities and feeling good about it. I’ve come across several writers who end up feeling guilty over taking rest — especially when we’re set to arbitrary goals about manuscripts and also feel the compulsory need to be active in online communities. In hindsight, we all know we could tone down our goals, so let’s make sure we have plenty of rest for our bodies and minds to thrive.
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