When to pause writing your book

You deserve to take a break! We all do.

Two weeks ago, I finally caved. It was time to put editing my book on pause. I’m mid-reread, and I barely dipped my toes into the second draft. If I haven’t worked my a off the entirety of the last year writing this book — I’d probably feel guilty. Then, I’d have my best friend Sam give me a free therapy session, reminding me that we all deserve rest. Regardless.

Let me be your best friend for a moment.

I put my book on pause because I was struggling at my day job. I was overstressed, exhausted and in a bad state. I was clawing my way to the 10 full days off work during the Easter holidays I had coming up, fingers bloody. My break came and went, and I only just came up for breath. I was checking my emails on Monday morning, realising that it would be yet another week with an unrealistic workload, and I just thought that I can’t live like this.

I decided two things that morning:

1. I will no longer stress about my workload and deadlines. I am the only designer on the team, and I can only do so much. If we’re blowing deadlines because we don’t have enough people to do the work, it’s not for me to worry about. (I’m 3 weeks into this new fantastic mindset, and so far, it’s worked!)

2. I will put editing my book on pause to catch up on other tasks on my to-do list. Numerous vet appointments, putting together a brief for the illustrator I commissioned an artwork from, beta-reading for an old work friend (bloody fantastic book!), post-wedding tasks I’m still trying to tick off SIX MONTHS after the wedding. All of these things were constantly on my mind, and I desperately needed to get them done without stressing that I’m not moving fast enough with the edit.

It’s been soul healing, giving myself this space. I implore you to allow yourself rest if you feel lost, tired, overwhelmed or if the work that you’re doing/the words you’re writing/the pages you’re editing are not bringing you joy. If you feel like you’re chugging along with your book but no real progress is made — you might just be exhausted! You might be putting in the time, hitting your word count just so you can “tick off” working on your book.

You deserve rest. For any reason. For no reason at all.

We have the Auckland Writers Festival this week and I’m attending 6 events over 4 days. I’ll be getting back into my edit from next week onward (if I feel ready). And guess what? After getting some rest, I am excited to work on the book again! I’m getting new, fresh ideas! My brain is coming up with problem-solving solutions!

Sometimes what we need to overcome a problem with the book is not to work harder. Sometimes, it’s letting go for a few days. Sometimes, it’s rest.