Not writing today! No guilt!

31, Dec 2016 by Hilary Coombes">Hilary Coombes in Latest News,Life,Writing     No Comments

Not writing today! No guilt!
There’s no right or wrong in life

For a long time I’ve been following the conventional wisdom that a writer must write everyday, but should we? Is it really necessary? Perhaps our creative ‘genius’ would be far more inspirational if we forced ourselves to take time out. Time for ourselves, without guilt attached. Time away from the keyboard or pen.
For various reasons outside of my control I was recently forced into a state of being too weary to even think, let alone write. Emerging at the other end of this cycle I found that I’d broken the guilt trip. If I don’t sit down and write today, well there’s always tomorrow.
Now please don’t think I’ve abandoned the thing that I love doing most. I still love writing, and throughout the non-writing period my mind still mentally stored morsels of information that I thought I could use later in articles, short stories of even book three.
However, giving myself time has been an liberating eye-opener. It had the wonderful outcome of showing me what really mattered. I’ve spent more time with my family, peaceful meaningful time. Not the sort of rushed time when you’re only ‘half’ in the room because the rest of you is longing to return to your keyboard.
Also giving myself time has made me return to the writing world refreshed, with new ideas and a new enthusiasm. I’ve even been looking forward to the third edit of my second book, and all writers know how tedious edits can be.
Try it … force yourself to take a week away from writing. Plan it, do something different for a whole seven days. If you’re in that place where you ‘can’t possibly stop writing right now’, then store the idea that sometime in the future you are going to to give yourself space, time for you.
You won’t regret it.