Marx D.

Summary

The author stopped writing for a month and experienced a refreshed outlook on writing.

Abstract

The author, a writer, decided to take a break from writing for over a month due to burnout and other commitments. This resulted in a significant decrease in writing income and views. However, the author feels more refreshed and has a new goal for the new year - to have fun with their work. They plan to write on their own terms and not feel pressured to be consistent.

Opinions

The author feels that the writing process can be stressful and create a negative environment.
The author is tired of feeling the pressure to be consistent with their work.
The author believes that writing should be enjoyable and plans to enjoy the writing process.
The author plans to write on their own terms and not be bound by demanding clients or word count goals.
The author plans to write less frequently but with more enjoyment.

I Stopped Writing For an Entire Month. Here’s What Happened Next

Not my wisest decision

Over a month ago, I published a story about burning out and stepping away from writing.

Apparently, I didn’t step away long enough and it caused me to fall right back into a slump.

Couple that with my reselling business taking off at the beginning of Q4 and catching a nasty cold. The result: Spending more than a month away from writing.

I’m not here to talk about how my writing income and views didn’t die while I was away. That would be a major lie — both plummeted.

It’s bad, like really bad.

But I do feel more refreshed than I have in YEARS and it’s because I haven’t been hunching over a keyboard for hours every day.

I didn’t think about writing a story for more than a month and I’m very happy about it.

Even as I type this, I’m not sure if I ever want to start writing consistently again.

It’s draining.

As writers, we’re always:

Coming up with ideas.
Writing drafts.
Getting disappointed if the finished product doesn’t perform like we thought it would.
Restarting the process.

It can create a stressful environment for a craft that should be enjoyable.

So I have a new writing goal for the new year. It doesn’t include making more money, writing more words or trying to get more views.

A new outlook on writing

My writing goal for next year is to have fun with my work.

Maybe I’ll publish once a day or maybe it’ll be once a month. But when I do decide to publish a story, I’m going to enjoy the writing process.

I’m tired of feeling the pressure to be consistent with my work. I figure if I’m enjoying myself, maybe I’ll naturally want to write more?

The same goes for my newsletter. It’s an awesome, super-amazing group over there, but I’m not going to hold myself to publishing a new post every week.

I’m writing on my own terms from now on and it’s going to stay that way. No more demanding clients, no more trying to hit a word count and definitely no more self-published books.

Just me, you (the reader) and some unique thoughts. We’ll see how it turns out.