Writing Burnout
I'm pushing myself too hard and I'm starting to burn out. I haven't even gotten published yet!
Writing is amazing. Working on a first draft is an incredible high for me. The creative process is amazing and I love it.
On the other hand, editing sucks. I don't like editing. At all. I can't really explain why I don't like it. Maybe it's admitting that what I wrote the first time isn't good enough. I'm not sure. But it sucks.
My problem is all I've been doing for the last year is editing. I've haven't been writing new material hardly at all. I've written maybe fifty thousand words in the last year and in the first year I was writing, I wrote over a million. That's a completely insane word count and I'll probably never manage that again, but it's the truth.
I'm currently editing three books and writing new material when I have time, which isn't often. I'm starting to not want to write because I'm only doing the parts of writing I hate, not what I love.
So I've got to figure out a new system. I have to make time for new material or I'm going to burn out before I ever get started. It's like charging a battery. The good things, the things we like, charge the battery, our emotional state. The things we don't like drain it. I have to write new material to balance out the editing or my battery is going to go negative and I'm going to grow to hate writing. I don't want to do that.
I've been alternating what projects I work on each day so I don't ignore anything. It sounds like I need to make days where I just work on new material and don't edit at all. Strictly creative days.
Something has to change because what I've got going on isn't working.
Writing is amazing. Working on a first draft is an incredible high for me. The creative process is amazing and I love it.
On the other hand, editing sucks. I don't like editing. At all. I can't really explain why I don't like it. Maybe it's admitting that what I wrote the first time isn't good enough. I'm not sure. But it sucks.
My problem is all I've been doing for the last year is editing. I've haven't been writing new material hardly at all. I've written maybe fifty thousand words in the last year and in the first year I was writing, I wrote over a million. That's a completely insane word count and I'll probably never manage that again, but it's the truth.
I'm currently editing three books and writing new material when I have time, which isn't often. I'm starting to not want to write because I'm only doing the parts of writing I hate, not what I love.
So I've got to figure out a new system. I have to make time for new material or I'm going to burn out before I ever get started. It's like charging a battery. The good things, the things we like, charge the battery, our emotional state. The things we don't like drain it. I have to write new material to balance out the editing or my battery is going to go negative and I'm going to grow to hate writing. I don't want to do that.
I've been alternating what projects I work on each day so I don't ignore anything. It sounds like I need to make days where I just work on new material and don't edit at all. Strictly creative days.
Something has to change because what I've got going on isn't working.
Photo Credit: nenetus via FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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