Why taking a REAL break is good for your mind and soul
I haven’t written anything in three full months. Not a single word. And that’s OK. Let me explain to you why I even think it’s a good thing.
On the one hand, as human beings, we need breaks. That is why as employees we need holidays every now and then, to come back with renewed energy. My husband, who teaches alternative learning methods (you can read his articles in French here if you’re interested) encourages his students to apply the famous Pomodoro technique — which consists of taking a 5 minute break every 25 minutes when acquiring knowledge to increase productivity. And I have already experienced on many occasions how my brain reaches peaks of creativity when I’m most relaxed — usually before I fall asleep (which is not very convenient by the way), or when I go outside for a walk. Markham Heid explains it very nicely in his article “The Science Behind Eureka Moments”
On the other, I don’t want my writing to feel like an obligation. I know that the most successful writers in the world have a strict writing routine (Ernest Hemingway, Haruki Murakami, Khaled Hosseini…) and while I do believe that it is necessary to establish a timetable and “get to it” even when you don’t really feel like it, I also think I need to feel a thrill, some kind of excitement, when I sit down and start typing. This year has been particularly challenging with the covid-19 pandemic hitting us from nowhere and shaking the foundations of everything we had taken for granted. I spent six full months with my kids at home, which meant almost zero time for myself. At some point I felt guilt creeping in and taking over dangerously: you’re not writing enough, you’re not working enough, your book is not at the point where it was supposed to be by now, etc.
I had to stop and think. And so I made the deliberate choice of stopping everything and enjoying the summer break to its full, and to do so guilt-free. Nothing is quite as exhausting as knowing you have something to do and not finding the time to do it. If I’m honest to myself, I know I could have written ten pages at most, between one beach outing and two pool breaks, and the result would have most probably been mediocre, and I would have hated myself for not managing to have a better output. The danger in taking such a long break is never wanting to start again, but in my case that danger was non-existent: I am thrilled school has started again because that means I get time for my book. Although I did not sit down and ACTUALLY write, my characters continued to evolve in my mind, I imagined situations and conversations as I walked by the sea in my hometown, and my determination is as great as ever to finish this novel.
Am I saying this to justify my three-month-long absence from Medium and Instagram? In a way. But I’m also taking the time to share with you the fact that sometimes self-indulgence can be good, and what seems like taking a step back is only a better way to jump forward.
