5 reasons time away from your writing could improve your work

In writing, there is often nothing better than simply sitting down and getting things done. Sometimes, however, we can benefit from a bit of time away from our work – and the break could even help to make things better. Here are five reasons why.

The benefit of hindsight

Sometimes things seem like a great idea at the time. With the benefit of hindsight, however, you can see them more clearly – and they’re not always so great. It might not be fun when you stumble onto the realisation that your brilliant-sounding subplot isn’t so brilliant in practice, but it’s an important realisation to have. That little bit of distance from our writing can help us to see it more clearly.

Time to think of fresh ideas

When you’ve been working on a writing project for a while, it can occasionally start to seem a bit stale, and the great ideas you had at the beginning don’t seem as wonderful. A bit of time away from your writing will give you the space you need to think of new ideas and angles that you can bring to your work, and will hopefully help keep the enthusiasm burning right through to the end.

A chance for others to read it

Just because you’re not currently working on your writing doesn’t mean someone else can’t be working on it. It’s fairly common for writers to take a break between finishing a draft and embarking on the editing process, and it makes sense to use that time to get a professional editor – or even just a friend with a critical eye – to go over your work so that by the time you go back to it, you’ll know exactly what you need to work on.

See if it stands up to the test of time

Another benefit of taking a break is to see if your writing stands up to the test of time. You might have thought that a scene was hilarious when you first wrote it, but is it still funny a couple of weeks later?

Absence can make the heart grow fonder

I think all writers have been there at some point – an idea you used to love has turned a bit sour, you’re fed up and still nowhere near finished. Maybe taking a break will be the jolt you need to make your mind up once and for all. This can be risky as you might decide not to go back to that particular idea at all, but the time apart could also remind you of the good things about it that made you want to write about in the first place.