Just Say No to Writing (When You Need to).

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

There are times in a writer’s life when writing needs to take a back seat to life. We have obligations, crises, or just too much on our plates to deal with and something has to give. Because writing is so important to us, we often feel guilty for setting our work aside, and push ourselves beyond what’s smart (or comfortable) to maintain our writer’s schedule.

For some, we’re up against hard deadlines and we have no choice but to struggle through it. An editor or agent needs our manuscripts, we have a release coming up, or we have events we must attend and prepare for. Or, writing is our main source of income. Much as we might wish we could, putting writing on hold is not an option.

But for the rest of us, there are no hard deadlines and our writing can wait until we’re better able to focus on it. Sure, we might want to keep writing, but it’s putting too much pressure on us and everything is suffering.

I’m in one of those times right now. It’s been a productive year and I have gotten a lot of work done, but it’s also been a year filed with scary family medical issues, multiple conferences and events, a tall stack of obligations (both personal and professional), and most recently, preparation to move to another state next month (Central Florida). I needed to set a few of my obligations aside before I lost my sanity.

So I turned in my last fiction project to my agent, and gave writing some time off.

Dealing With an Overly Full Schedule

When things get overwhelming, it’s okay to prioritize. Make a list of the things in your life that you need to do, want to do, and ought to do. List them in deadline order of “must do or else.” The stuff at the bottom? Ignore it unless you have time and everything else has been completed, or set aside a small chunk of your week to handle those items.

For me, social media is the first thing to go when I get swamped. I’m not a huge social media person to begin with, so letting it slide doesn’t make me feel guilty or like I’m falling behind. If you notice I’m not on Facebook much, or my Twitter links dwindle, you can be sure that I have a full to-do list on my hands. Email also gets triaged, and emails that aren’t timely or a priority might sit a few extra days until my designated “don’t forget these items” time once a week.

There are a lot of “writing” related tasks we can cut back on when we need to.

(Here’s more on cutting back while still getting things done)

Say No to Things You Don’t Have Time For

If you’re like me, it’s hard to say no when someone asks you for help, but you can’t do everything. If that favor is going to put added stress on you, it’s okay to say no. People understand when you’re too busy, because they’re busy too. Ask if that critique can wait, admit you can’t get to that blurb, skip that conference that you were iffy about anyway.

If the thing you don’t have time for is your novel, tell it no, too.

(Here’s more on taking a break from writing)

Scale Back Where You Can

There are some obligations we can’t ignore, but we can scale back a little and still maintain our sanity. Look for places where slowing down will help free up some time without abandoning something you really don’t want to put aside. And if that’s writing—let it be writing. There’s nothing wrong with cutting back on your weekly word count goals if you need some extra time elsewhere in your life.

I’ve temporarily cut back on the number of posts I do per week several times since I started this site, and you’ll notice quite a few more visits to the archives during October as packing and travel take priority in my life. The first week or two in November might be downright silent around here.

The Writing Can Wait

The writing will still be there after a break. That’s the beauty of writing, we can do it whenever and slide it into our schedules as we see fit. If we need to skip it for a month or two (or more), then it will happily sit in it’s box until we return.

I’ve not written a single word of fiction since I turned in my manuscript at the end of August. I did no writing beyond this site in September, and October will likely be a lot of re-runs. I have a few non-fiction projects I plan to finish by the end of the year, but (baring any unexpected edit requests from my agent) it’ll be January before I’m back to my novels. And that’s okay. Right now, fiction’s on holiday. Most of my writing is, actually.

Don't beat yourself up if you need a break from writing. Life happens. We get busy, we need time to deal with the unexpected, and most of all—we need a breather. If that has to come from your writing (and it’s not your main source of income), let it.

Have you ever taken a break from writing? Does a break sound good to you? 

For more help on plotting or writing a novel check out my Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure.

Go step-by-step through plotting and writing a novel. Learn how to find and develop ideas, brainstorm stories from that first spark of inspiration, develop the right characters, setting, plots and subplots, as well as teach you how to identify where your novel fits in the market, and if your idea has what it takes to be a series.

With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure offers ten self-guided workshops with more than 100 different exercises to help you craft a solid novel. Learn how to:

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Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure also helps you develop the critical elements for submitting and selling your novel once it’s finished. You’ll find exercises on how to:

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Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure is an easy-to-follow guide to writing your novel or fixing a novel that isn’t quite working. 

Available in paperback and ebook formats.

Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book.

She also writes the Grace Harper urban fantasy series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.

When she's not writing novels, she's teaching other writers how to improve their craft. She's the founder of Fiction University and has written multiple books on writing.

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