A Break

Okay, so let's just dive into the numbers:

Mon: 2108
Tue: 2131
Wed: 1122 FAIL
Thu: 302 FAIL
Fri: 0 FAIL

Total: 5663 FAIL

I'm posting late because I took a bit of a break this holiday weekend (and some of the week, as you might be able to tell from the numbers). I pulled myself away from writing and internet and sort of enjoyed life for a weekend. It was nice, it was refreshing, it allowed me to catch up a little on my reading and my editing, so I'm feeling better. I'm working on today's total right now, and have gotten about 1233 words in, will be jumping back into it after I blog this stuff.

And yes, I took yesterday off as well. It's a holiday, after all! Okay, yeah, that's flimsy excuse, but still! Anyway, as I said, I'm feeling 100% again and I can get back on my goals. There will be no misses this week (and in fact, I'm going to try and make up for missing Monday as well).

Breaks, if you ask me, are a difficult concept for a writer (or any creative mind). It affords some time for the artist/writer/musician/sculptor/slam poet to step away from their work and de-stress in order to get back into things, but at the same time, it leads to what you see above: Failure. It's one of those situations where balance is necessary, and my trouble with breaks in the past is that I end up taking a break that never really ends. This is really what led to my first schism with the craft when I was drowned in work after college.

So when I take a break, I need to have a clear endpoint in mind. I was really burnt out by Wednesday last week, which is when I considered taking a break. I did a little work on Thursday, but not nearly enough to constitute anything, and I just decided then that I was going to take it easy the rest of the week and work on editing of other people's work--which in of itself is still helpful to better my writing, but not nearly as much as actually writing.

Anyway, the time for breaks is over. I don't want to spiral into sloth. I'm getting back into things today and vow to hit my goal for this week! All I need to do is keep the internet at bay.

Bishop