Writing A Book: End Of Draft Break Tasks

Recently, I’ve been working hard to complete the latest draft of my current work in progress, and because I’ve been so focused on my book, I’ve let other writer-related things slide.

They’ve been put aside for that mythical “one day” when we seem to think we’ll have all the time in the world to do everything we’ve been putting off.

While finishing a draft is a wonderful milestone to reach, we often want to jump right into the next project to keep the momentum going. While there’s nothing wrong with that, taking a break at the end of a big draft is good for you too.

Not only does a break let your tired writer brain rest (avoiding burn-out), but it also gives you that “one day” to get to that list of other writer things.

While this list will be unique to our own goals and lives, as fellow word-smiths, we share things in common that can be invoked when we have the time to work on them, such as the following…

Writing A Book: End Of Draft Break TasksSort Your Book Collection

If you’re a writer, it’s a given that you love books, which means you more than likely have a bookshelf or a place/room in your house that contains them.

As a writer, it’s also a given that you’ve spent so much time writing your own book, that you haven’t looked at your own bookshelves in a while. Luckily, you’re now on a draft break and can remedy that!

This task is on my break list because I’m currently re-reading the books of my favorite author, Christopher Pike. When I set out to do this goal, I realized there were books I was missing.

I try to collect both a hardcover and a paperback of Pike’s works, and when sorting them into a To Be Read Pile, I realized there were editions I’d always meant to buy, but hadn’t yet.

Thanks to eBay and Thrift Books, I added what was missing. And by added, I mean I got them out of the packages they were sent in and piled them onto my books/shelves to be dealt with another day.

Now that I’m on a draft break, that day is here, and one of my priorities was sorting my book collection.

I did this by pulling everything off the shelves, giving them a clean, arranging my books into hardbacks and paperbacks, and putting them back in chronological order.

My bookshelves! Before and after.

Pike books aren’t the only books I have, though, and I also organized everything else on my shelves and decided:

What to remove, I.e. books given to you that you know you won’t read, or have read and know you won’t read again, or books you have more than one copy of.Books to pass on to a relative or friend who you know will read them.Books to put in street libraries or to donate.

While re-arranging your books, it’s a good idea to start a running list of any you’re missing, such as book 3 from a 6-book series, or a special version or cover you always meant to buy but it slipped your mind.

Take your list and create a digital wish list at your favorite book retailers, or note it down somewhere that can be accessed by yourself or family/friends to cover future birthdays, Christmas, or random Tuesdays, because any day is a good day to buy a book!

Even digital collections can be curated and cleaned up. Fire up your Kindle and/or reading apps and clear out what you’ve read and then sort your digital books into categories or TBR collections so that when you’re looking for something to read, you can easily find it.

Digital Upkeep

While we’re organizing digital content, another task for your end-of-draft break can be sorting everything you definitely let slide while crafting your masterpiece.

The convenience of email and cloud storage means it’s easy to bury tasks in archived folders and not think about it for a while. Any writing email subscriptions with interesting posts I always intend to read when I’ve got a minute, sat in my inbox until opening my inbox gave me anxiety. I then marked all of those emails as “read later” and archived them in a folder that I didn’t see every time I opened my email.

It helped with my anxiety, but all those emails are still sitting there. I want to read them. I really do. And they are next to tick off on my break task to-do list.

I’ve also been getting notices about my cloud storage being almost full, and I know my laptop could also do with a big cleanup. Publishing 3 books in the last three years, 6 years’ worth of blogs, and a once-active newsletter means a lot of files, images, and graphics taking up space that can be cleared out via these steps:

Sort through files.Delete what’s not needed.Archive what needs saving, but isn’t something that’ll be accessed day-to-day, week-to-week, etc.Back up content, both digitally and physically, on a backup hard drive.

If you’re looking for more backup tips, the awesome Ari Meghlan recently penned a great blog called Declutter Your Digital Life: Tips And Tricks on this exact topic with some fantastic advice that I’ll also be using to get back on top of my backups.

Catch Up On Content

If you follow me on any of my social media profiles, you’ll know I regularly post content 5-6 days a week, and that I do quick check-ins. They need to be quick, otherwise, I spend all day on social media instead of writing.

This leads to bookmarked blogs sitting unread and more in-depth interactions not happening. While I am always working toward a writing routine that will allow time out of my day to be more present on social media, when I’m writing to a deadline, that falls away.

Writing is the priority in that case, as it should be, but it means missing out on supporting the wonderful writing community and the talented writers and friends I’ve met there. I have learned, though, that it’s never too late to like, comment, and share someone else’s content. So, an end-of-draft break is the perfect time to catch up on writing community feeds and do those exact things.

Read, interact, and share other writer’s blogs, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Threads, and Pinterest posts.

After catching up on other’s content, don’t forget to take a look at your own. Spend some of your break making new promo images, reviews, snippets, and content for your social media channels. You can even learn how to do other things, like make videos, or book trailers. Or just give your website, blog, social media headers, and images a freshen-up.

Get ahead by making evergreen graphics and content so you have things to post no matter how busy life gets.Plan out upcoming content, such as the blog topics you’ll cover for the next month, so you have some direction when you finish your break.If you don’t know already, learn how to schedule posts, which will save you time when you get back into your regular writing routine.Have A break

Lastly, after working through these end-of-draft tasks, don’t forget to take an actual break and use some of your time to recharge your creative batteries in your favorite way.

Refill your creative well with the TV, movies, and books that inspire you or that have been sitting on your watch/TBR list for the last year.

It’s also a good idea to take a break from social media and your phone for a day/weekend/week/month.

It can be hard when you feel as if you should always be doing “something.” Writing, editing, hustling, and working toward your writing dream all take dedicated effort, but taking time away from that effort, whether it’s long or short, can be just as beneficial, if not more so.

Don’t forget to include this last job in your end-of-draft break tasks and enjoy it! You’ve completed a book, something not all writers achieve. You’ve earned a good rest.

— K.M. Allan

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