Craft of Writing: Know Your Limits (Pt 1 / 3)

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Dear Reader,

I'm all for encouraging people to push themselves and grow. But there comes a point where that's harmful. Pain is the body's way of telling you something is wrong. You have to stop and check to make sure you are alright when it happens. It's the same with writing. You can push yourself to the wall and be working along just fine.

Then something goes wrong. Suddenly, your project is uninspiring. Suddenly you are finding yourself too busy to write, with things that are actually not important. (Reorganizing your spice rack by alphabetical order and then your pantry contents by color and size might be a sign that you are avoiding writing.) Or your just stop working all together.

This happens because something is wrong and causing you pain when you go to work. If you are finding that writing for an hour a day is too long, try shortening the time of your writing session by half. Or making it less frequent, like an hour every few days. If you are finding your project is hard to work on because you no longer feel inspired, give yourself a break from it for a little while and do something completely and entirely different. (I knit and clean when I get writer's block and when projects loose their edge.) Even a brief fifteen minute break can serve to completely reset your approach towards your project as long as you stop thinking about the project for that break. If I'm busy counting rows on a thing I'm making, I'm not worrying about how to get to my next plot point.

It is important to recognize when writing is painful. A little bit of pain is alright. If you're a little bored with your project and you push through it, that's ok. If you find yourself feeling like you're being tortured to death by watching paint dry on a wall every time you sit down to write, something is wrong and it needs to be addressed. Writer's block is a manifestation of pain and suffering in your work. It usually pops up when you've pushed a bit too far past your limit. Can you grind your way through it? Yes. It is about as pleasant as grinding your way through the workday with the flu. It can be done but it is better if you take a little time to rest and recover before pushing so hard again.

Next week, I'm going to share with you how to recognize limits before you run into them. Because there is usually some warning signs that you are approaching one. They may not be as obvious as a stop sign, but they're there.