breaks, length of

[hopewrites]

I have taken a break from my WiP to prevent forcing the story, and maybe do some more research.
but today I wonder, how long of a break is too long?
Yes, I know, I'm probably over thinking it; and I do want to follow the advice I have forwarded to so many others "just write it, it will be ok"
but I feel I ought to be doing something, and just haven't yet put my finger on what.

So I'm asking; how do you gauge your breaks, and what do you do to come back from them?

[Warren_Paul]

Long enough to feel refreshed and keen to have a go again, but not so long that you start to lose motivation and forget all about the writing.

Some people take a break of several months, but if I personally did that I'd likely get caught up in doing something else and never come back to it.

I take 1-2 weeks at the most off, but everyone is different, which brings me back to the first thing I said.

I find the point were I start feeling bored and get that itch to do something constructive with my time is a good indication to get back into it. Sometimes it might be only a couple days later, which is what the case was with me going from my first book to my second.

[Hex]

Several months to a year. Otherwise I'm still hearing what I intended, not what's actually there.

But I tend to take breaks only once I've written the whole thing (or most of it) and edited until I'm sick of it.

[springs]

Yep, me too, obsessive about getting it down, obsessive about editing it, and can only really let go when I'm onto something else. I'm hoping to leave mine about 4 months before another review. The very thought of what I'll think of it is frightening me...

[Christian Nash]

If I take a break for too long, even a month, I forget what I've done or what's going on. Good for looking at things a different way, but bad because I have re-learn everything e.g. world building and history etc.

It just depends on your own brain... how long does it take for you to reset? Are you one of those people that needs a holiday? Maybe you could plan it like that... so you tell yourself you're going to do it after a holiday, or after someones birthday, so that your brain knows it has a break and you yourself know when it's time to kick on.

[digs]

When I'm in a decent writing groove I try not to take any breaks, because I know it'll take me forever to get back into it. I do get sick of it, and I do find that sometimes I'm just writing anything to get to my word limit, but I figure that's something to worry about when I'm editing.

My future self is going to hate my present self.

[RJM Corbet]

Originally Posted by hopewrites

... So I'm asking; how do you gauge your breaks, and what do you do to come back from them?

Surely you'll just know?

I understand completely, there are times you just can't touch it. I've had breaks for years! It would just lie there and one day I'd pick it up and scan it and think: Oh, perhaps it's not so bad, there are some good parts ... then it picks up momentum and you write like a nutter for a while until it fizzles out again.

Or else there's something you know you have to do, and you're just gathering the energy to tackle it?

Long and lonely road, hey?

But Hemmingway's advice: Stop while it's still going good.

[Interference]

If after leaving a book alone I start to feel I need to say something more, then I know the break is over.

If I don't, then the book is over.

[Coragem]

I find it really helpful to take my time and am lucky to have the luxury to do so. I think a lot of books are badly written (e.g., plot holes, silly tangents) because the author is going too fast and not stopping to think.

So, I often take breaks from the writing to focus on gently thinking things through, tweaking my plotting, brain-storming further ideas for world-building. If I'm doing that I find I go back the the writing and if anything it proceeds better because I know better what I'm doing.

In terms of holidays (from writing, or generally) we obviously all need them to prevent burn out. Yes, I find it takes me a few days to get back into things after a holiday (for me rarely more than a week). But it's worth it.

Coragem.

[Weird Era]

I think you should take a break for as long as needed to get 'creative' again. Because thats sometimes the problem for me; where I find that the ideas I'm getting just arent as good as they were/ could be and therefore the story just isnt progressing in the way i want.

So I take a while, usually a week or so, (more/ less depending on the situation) then get re-acquainted with everything. And because I've let it sit for a while, I go "Oh yeah, I know what I can do..."

Also, another thing that sometimes work for me, is to leave the writing and attempt a completely random point in the story that has nothing to do with the area I'm struggling with, so you can clear you mind, refresh it, yet still stay foccussed on the whole premise of the story your working on.

On the whole though, it really does come down to personal preference for how long a break you'll need. I often find a week or so does it. Era

[Glen]

I took a week recently, feeling I needed just to get a bit of space in my head, get away from the story, do something different for a week, and I found it hard to get back in. It's taken me a few weeks to get back into the rhythm and habit, and to enjoying the writing.

I'm not saying I shouldn't have taken the break, but I'll be a bit more reserved about doing this in the future.

But the decision is always going to be personal and contingent on so many factors, like energy levels, how well the story is going, how well it is planned etc.

[Menion]

I make sure I have all ideas for future chapters, or things to mention later on written down. And I leave it for months ( I left mine for a full year, just spending my time studying grammer and medievil history) I just made sure to take a notepad with me where ever I went incase I get some inspiration for something I could just jot it down and leave it.
After the year I went back to my novel and saw it with fresh eyes, ( having forgotten bits of it, it was like reading someone elses writing). It helped me alot.

[Mouse]

I took a break of several years with one of mine. I think it helped, really, because I was too young when I started it.

[Biskit]

I took a break of three(ish) years - not a choice to stop writing, but a new job which proved to be a bit 24x7. I have no desire to repeat the experience, but it did give me some clarity - mostly highlighting things which were not as good as I thought.

[James Coote]

Originally Posted by Warren_Paul

but if I personally did that I'd likely get caught up in doing something else and never come back to it.

This. Everyone needs a holiday where you don't think about work (or writing as the case may be) for a bit, so that you come back refreshed. However you need to be able to not get distracted with some new idea in the meantime