Why you ask? Well, long story short: I've been out of the country dealing with family emergencies and now I'm back and...dealing with medical issues. Yes, life is entertaining at the moment. But fear not! It is wonderful writing fodder for the future.
This is why I'm talking about taking time out in this post. Writing is an obsessive career and passion. We can't help it. It's just who we are. We are curious, quirky, fascinated and tenacious little things and we dream big and don't let those dreams go.
And this is an amazing thing!
However, I'm also going to advise that now and then you take a little "time out". Whether this is for family, friends, stress, fun, holiday, etc, doesn't matter. What matters is that you can unplug. Don't worry, the sandcastle won't fall down if you step out for a moment.
Yes, we try our hardest to build our platform, go through the query trenches, write out next ms, polish our craft, work hard...everything we know we should be doing. However, that doesn't mean kill ourselves in the process.
It probably doesn't help that writing is such a competitive sport (you might mock, but how many writers ask you "how many queries did you send?" "Got a response on that full yet?" "Are you not on sub yet?"). With the best intentions, we also use it as a measure of our own success. Whether we like to admit it or not.
So I advocate to take some time out. But take it when you feel you need to. You won't destroy your career by having the occasional break. In fact, you might just re-energize it.
After all, fresh minds think fresh thoughts. For me, I can do this on one of the nearby beaches to my home (Lara Bay). I'd love to see where you do your relaxing!!
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