Those of you who read my blog know that I went through a major agent-suggested rewrite of my latest novel. It was painful, I won't lie. And after I completed the revision and sent it to the agents waiting on it, I decided to take a break from writing. In fact, I decided to take a month off -- no querying, no writing, nothing. I felt just...exhausted. So my husband and I decided to take a trip to the very remote Cape San Blas. See photo below:
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By the third day of the trip, I was itching to write. I have three ideas swimming in my mind, and I'm trying to decide which to invest in. The first is a YA thriller with sci-fi elements. The second is a YA dark magical realism. And the third is something of a YA spooky ghost story. I was prepared to take my time deciding and researching, but by giving myself the freedom to step away, I allowed my love of writing to resurface. Now I'm dying to dig in. I'm a fast writer--too fast at times--but I plan to write out a summary paragraph for each and see where everything falls.
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How about you? Do you take breaks? If so, for how long? Does it help rekindle your love of writing?
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M.B.
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By the third day of the trip, I was itching to write. I have three ideas swimming in my mind, and I'm trying to decide which to invest in. The first is a YA thriller with sci-fi elements. The second is a YA dark magical realism. And the third is something of a YA spooky ghost story. I was prepared to take my time deciding and researching, but by giving myself the freedom to step away, I allowed my love of writing to resurface. Now I'm dying to dig in. I'm a fast writer--too fast at times--but I plan to write out a summary paragraph for each and see where everything falls.
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How about you? Do you take breaks? If so, for how long? Does it help rekindle your love of writing?
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M.B.
I plan on taking a break when I start my agent submission in January. It will probably last until maybe March-ish. We'll see!
ReplyDeleteBravo! I like that you included no querying in that, too. I think it's important to take a little break between every draft and an even larger break between every book. How fantastic that you were able to rekindle your love of writing.
ReplyDeleteKaren -- A three month break would be amazing. Good luck with your agent subs.
ReplyDeleteLena -- Thanks! I am just learning the importance of giving myself a break. I took only a three week break between my first book and this one. Not such a good thing for my sanity!
Hey Mel! I took most of August off. I just hated that feeling of forcing myself to churn out words for the sake of it and had so much going on that I just gave myself permission to not write til my 'vacation' was over. Now I'm back in Holland and itching to go too! So amazing you have three ideas! Can't wait to see what you've come up with next :-)
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