Should You Take a Break From Writing? 5 Red Flags

Writers are supposed to write. That’s just how it works. But should you ever take a break from writing? Is that just code for quitting? Is it a sign you’re copping to your own laziness or fear? Or that you’re really not a disciplined, “serious” writer?

The short answer: Who knows? Only you know.

The more general answer is that, at some point for almost all writers, taking a break from your writing becomes valuable and perhaps even necessary. At the date of my writing this post, I daresay more writers than usual have been asking this question. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I heard from many writers who just couldn’t quite find it in themselves to write. And in the months that followed, all the way through 2021, I started seeing more and more writers publicly talking about how taking a break from writing was something they were focusing on—perhaps even for the first time in their careers.

I was among those writers. As I’ve discussed elsewhere, for me the challenges of 2020 came on the heels of what was already a difficult writing period in my life. By the time 2021 rolled around, I made the decision to give myself a year-long “conscious sabbatical” from writing my fiction. It was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made. But I believe it was also one of the best decisions.

Toward the end of last year, I received an email from Labrava Altonia, which echoed the difficulties and concerns that I feel are quite prevalent write now. Labrava wrote eloquently of struggling with narrative fiction, including the guilt that so often (if so senselessly) dogs us when we’re experiencing writer’s block:

Recently, I’ve been taking a writing break which is ironic because when I look in my notebooks, I’ve doodled almost ten pages of words every day. It’s more so a break from writing narrative-driven fiction and writing towards dedicated WIPs because I’ve been having anxiety attacks in front of a computer. I’m returning to writing towards dedicated projects, with all the outlining and word count goals and exciting revisions, and I’m excited but I also have a sense of dread. I know it’s good to write scared but there’s SCARED and then there’s SCARED where you’re having panic attacks because you’re associating the natural difficulties of writing with your value as a person, a toxic self-doubt.

So mainly I wanted to ask how do you know when to take breaks and when to push forward? I’m trying to go slow but the line’s even fuzzier for me because my anxiety blurs the difference between a natural break vs. procrastination, and my pushing forward during a difficult passage can also lead to burnout, but if I don’t push forward it can lead to a lack of forward momentum.

As I’m writing this, I’m starting to realize a lot of my questions will be cleared as I go back to writing and naturally feel out my limits without anxiety clouding my mind. But I’m still interested in how you approach discipline vs. the spontaneity of just taking a break from writing one day because you feel like it. Basically, self-trust.

I responded with my own experience:

It’s interesting you should ask me this right now, because I am nearing the end of taking a year-long break from my fiction writing. I’ve called it a “conscious sabbatical,” but really it was a step back from writing due to writer’s block. It’s the first time I’ve ever had writer’s block, and the first time I’ve consciously taken a break from writing in almost two decades.

It’s been interesting. And scary.

I am hoping/planning to stick my toe back in the water next year at some point (I know I will be having some more big life changes to deal with, so also trying to work around that). And I don’t know quite what to expect.

I don’t have any profound answers for you, other than to perhaps normalize your experience some. I’ve heard from many writers in the past two years who are struggling with their writing in relationship to the more stressful world we’re all living in post-COVID.

For me, finally letting myself take a conscious break was something I did as an act of compassion and kindness for myself. It was a recognition that I am not what I do, even writing, and my worth is not defined by how many words I write every day. It was a recognition that my body and my nervous system are trying to talk to me, trying to tell me there are reasons writing has become so difficult, and that if I want to return to writing, I first need to acknowledge and address those reasons.

Humans—perhaps especially writers—are so hard on themselves. We expect ourselves to perform like machines. But I have come to believe, in the past year, that sometimes taking a break from the creating is one of the most creative things we can do.

So I would say this: Go with the flow. Look into your own fears. Hold yourself with compassion as your explore them. And trust life. Don’t resist what is here for you in this moment even if it is adamantly not writing. If you are meant to write again, you will. If not, you will find what you are meant to do next.

That is what I keep telling myself.

Because this is a topic that has been on my mind for so long and because it is one I feel so many other writers are working through in one way or another, today I’d like to take a specific look at this question. When should you take a break from writing? And once you’ve taken that step, what in heaven’s name are you going to do with yourself? Here are my thoughts.

5 Signs You Should Take a Break From Writing1. You (Really) Don’t Want to Write

I’m not talking about that feeling you get every day when you sit down at the keyboard and suddenly experience the desperate urge to go fold laundry or something. I’m not talking about the resistance we all feel to the undeniably hard work of writing. I’m not even talking about those periods where you hate your story, hate your words, hate your characters—and just want to flush the whole thing down the toilet.

What I’m talking about here is a deep true knowing within you that writing is not what you want to be doing with your time right now. It could be that this feeling does indeed grow out of the those daily-grind type of resistances mentioned above. If you keep hammering away at a story you don’t like or that isn’t working long enough, you will need a break sooner or later if only to regroup. There is certainly a fine line sometimes between the kind of resistance you need to work through and the kind of resistance you need to listen to.

But deep down, you know. For me, there finally came a point when I knew that to keep trying would only be self-defeating. Instead of writing my way back into writing, I was more likely to force myself to a point from which I would never be able to return to writing with the same joy and passion I once had. So I listened to that, and I took a (long) break.

2. You Feel Exhausted, Drained, or Burned Out

The really-don’t-want-to-write feeling can come on for many reasons. Perhaps one of the most prevalent is simply that you’re tired. This exhaustion might be induced partly or wholly by life factors unrelated to writing (like, um, a pandemic). But it might also simply emerge because you’ve been writing for a really long time—years and years, decades even. Or maybe it’s more to do with a concerted amount of effort over a comparatively shorter amount of time, as when you’re pushing for a deadline. Just finishing a big project is usually reason enough to give yourself at least a short break.

Burnout is not something to be taken lightly. It’s not just a word for “really-tired-but-if-I-just-take-a-nap-I’ll-get-over-it.” Burnout is a physiological fact that, when serious, creates depletion on any number of levels including the physical (which needless to say affects everything else). You can think of serious burnout for a writer as if it were a major injury for a pro athlete. You might be able to come back from it, but it takes a lot of rehab. Even if you do come back, you may not be able to function at the same (probably impossibly high) level you used to demand from yourself.

The best solution is to catch burnout before it starts or its very early stages, which are usually precipitated not just by physical exhaustion but that very real inner resistance telling you, “I don’t want to do this; please stop.” If you can heed that early enough, take a break, and regroup, you can stave off the worst of the damage before it happens. And let me tell you: it is worth it.

3. You’re Experiencing Fear or Other “Life-Based” Blocks

I believe there are two different types of writer’s block: “plot blocks,” which have to do with story-specific issues in which something just isn’t working or making sense, and “life blocks.” Plot blocks are relatively easy to work through with time, patience, discipline, and continuing education. Life blocks, on the other hand, are often largely unrelated to the writing itself and require deeper work while they follow a timeline all their own.

If you find yourself resisting your writing out of a deep sense of fear, dread, anger, or another similar emotion, what you’re experiencing may well have less to do with the story and more to do with a larger issue in your life. This might be anything from trauma, grief, illness, stress, or even that burnout mentioned above. In some cases like this, continuing with the writing might be the single best thing you can do for yourself in helping you work through your issues and find catharsis. But in other cases, the added pressure of forcing yourself to meet a certain word-count goal every day only adds to the problem.

Only you can determine which is true for you, and just because staying with the writing may feel like the scarier or harder choice does not mean it’s not the right one. But it’s important not to beat yourself up for being a “bad writer” if what you’re dealing with is really something much bigger and perhaps even something entirely out of your control.

4. You Don’t Know What to Write

I used to think I’d never run out of stories to tell. And I haven’t. I have several ideas I love stored away in my files right now. And yet, for the past few years, none of them have seemed the right ones to tell. They seem out of sync with my current self, my evolving perspectives, and even my interests. In short, they’re just not the stories I want to tell right now.

And sometimes it be like that.

Sometimes we can sit down at the page, freewrite, and end up with something that at least makes us curious enough to keep pulling the thread. Other times, we absolutely know what we want to write. We have an idea in our heads that is bursting with our own passion to tell it. And sometimes the reason we don’t feel like writing is because we don’t currently have something to write.

If you’re dealing with any level of burnout or stress, this could simply be because your creative well is empty. If so, taking a break from the actual writing in order to refill the well is the single most responsible thing you can do as a writer. More than that, sometimes we do just have to wait for the inspiration to find us. In this era of “fast fiction,” when writers are expected to always be churning out a new story, it can be easy to forget that the inspiration doesn’t always follow the writing—but the writing does always follows the inspiration.

5. You Need to Prioritize Other Commitments Right Now

Put simply, sometimes writing is the most important thing we can possibly be doing. And sometimes it’s not. For people who claim an identity as writers or who have a great dream of making writing their life, it can be difficult to realize that sometimes other parts of life are just as important—if not more so.

This realization may be as simple as accepting that you’re pushing yourself too hard and you need to take a break for your own health. But it could also be thrust upon you through no choice of your own. It might be something big, like the illness or death of a loved one. It might be a global situation, like the pandemic. It might be a positive but still energy-consumptive life transition like graduating, moving, getting married, having a baby. It might be that writing isn’t your money-making job, and you need to concentrate more time on whatever does keep the lights on and the cupboards filled.

Or it could just be that you want to focus on another passion for a while—travelling, painting, going back to school, farming, whatever it may be. Writing is so important. I believe this with all my heart. But it is not the only important thing in life, even for writers. Not even close. Without doubt, there will be times when it is the least important thing in your life.

4 Beneficial Things to Do During a Writing Break

So you’ve decided to take a break from writing. Maybe it’s a month-long break. Maybe it’s a year-long break, like mine. Maybe it’s indeterminate. Now what? What do you do with yourself during that time, and how can you take full advantage of your break to come back to the writing even stronger?

1. Write… Other Stuff

Just because you feel the need to take the break from one kind of writing doesn’t mean you have to ditch the words altogether. For me, my “conscious sabbatical” was specifically from writing fiction. But in that same year, I wrote the rough draft for a book about archetypal character arcs, over forty blog posts, and hundreds of journal entries. Although you may decide that a cold-turkey break from your writing is best, you may also find that nurturing your word-brain in other ways is most restorative while you rest the burned-out part.

2. Take Care of Yourself

Regardless the reason behind taking a writing break, the whole point is that you’re doing this for yourself. You’re doing this because you realize that being “on push” with your writing right now is not helping. So take that even further. Ditch any guilt and decide to offer yourself all the support, compassion, and healthy decisions you can during this time. This is even more crucial if your reason for taking a break from writing has to do with other stresses or pressures in your life.

3. Fill Your Well

To the best of your ability, try to consciously use your break to refill your creative and energetic well in whatever way you most need.

Maybe you just need some chill time in front of a cozy fire.

Or maybe you need to focus on your physical well-being.

Or maybe you need to read and watch whatever most inspires you.

Or maybe you need to branch out and explore new subjects or mediums of art.

This isn’t about self-indulgence (per se); rather, it’s about finding your sweet spot and absolutely bathing in it for at least a short period of every day.

4. Examine Your Resistance to Writing

You may know exactly why you’re taking a break (e.g., you’re in between projects and want some proactive me time). But if you’re facing serious resistance, burnout, or life blocks, you may be uncertain exactly what’s going on. Don’t ignore that. Take it as slow as you need, but discipline yourself to consistently examine why you’re feeling this overwhelming resistance to your writing. Why is something you presumably love so much filling you with so many difficult feelings? What you find may be easy enough to recognize and correct. But it may also turn into a long and twisting quest into the underground of your own soul. Stay with it. At the very least, you’ll come back out with some great fodder for your writing when you decide to return to it.

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The kind of writing break I’m discussing in this post is the kind you don’t take lightly. It’s the kind you resist, probably for a long while, for many deeper reasons. If making the decision to take a serious break from your writing were easy, there would be no need for this discussion. I can attest, from my own lived experience and from the many conversations I’ve had with other writers, that confronting this aspect of the writing life is often filled with deep angst.

And so I would close simply with the reminder that if you’re facing this angst, it is almost certainly pointing to something deep and ultimately valuable within your life. You’re being challenged to try different tactics, to take care of yourself, and perhaps to take a deep look at yourself, your motivations, your habits, and your priorities. This is a good thing. If you can do all that as faithfully as you’ve pursued your writing, you will emerge from your “conscious sabbatical” with some amazing treasures.

Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Have you ever felt the need to take a break from writing? Tell me in the comments!

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