How to start writing again after a break

Had a pause from your writing? Here's how to pick up where you left off.

Oh, hello. Did you have a good summer? I’m back after a bit of a break. OK, quite a lot of a break. Which has got me thinking about stopping, starting and pauses. (All of which are absolutely fine, by the way — they’re part of the creative process.)

For most of us, it’s not realistic to sit down for an hour or two a day, every day, and write our book until it’s finished. That would be great, wouldn’t it? But life gets in the way. So if you’ve found yourself derailed by work, family or other commitments — but find that you suddenly have some writing time available again — how do you get back into it? Here are some ideas.

8 ways to start writing again after a break

1. Review your old material. If you’re coming back to a manuscript after a break, you’ll see it with fresh eyes. This is a good thing. It’s standard advice to put your crappy first draft away in a drawer and leave it for a while before thinking about editing it. How you view it may surprise you. Perhaps you wouldn’t write it that way now. Maybe it’ll spark some fresh ideas. Or maybe you’ll be able to see a perfect resolution to a tricky plot point that previously seemed insurmountable. All of which can give your motivation a boost, and get you going again.

2. Just start. Don’t wait until you feel motivated. Action creates motivation — not the other way around. So start before you’re ready. The act of starting to write creates energy and momentum — even if you’re not feeling it to start with.

3. Start small. You don’t have to dive in and push yourself to write a whole chapter. Especially if you’re struggling with your motivation, start small. Really small. You can build up over time if you feel able. You wouldn’t run a marathon without building up gradually with shorter runs first.

4. Vary your writing routine. If you’re struggling to get back into your old writing routine, try a different one. Instead of sitting at your desk with a laptop in the morning, go to a coffee shop with a notebook in the afternoon. Go for a walk and dictate into your phone. Join a writer friend — in person or online — for a focus session. Make writing new, exciting and fun again.

5. Do less. Why not start small — and stay small? If you were writing for an hour a day, try dropping down to half an hour and see how you get on. If you stopped writing because you felt burnt out by it, you might find a gentler schedule more sustainable. If you write a blog, try some shorter posts.

6. Make a schedule. Try scheduling in your writing time. If you have a busy schedule, block out your available time in advance to help you get back into the habit of writing. Or make a pact with yourself to write for 20 minutes each morning (or whenever works for you).

7. Think in seasons. Maybe you have a blog, a podcast or newsletter that’s been on pause for a while. For many people, the commitment to produce a new post or episode every week, forever, is unrealistic, and can lead to burnout. Podcast listeners are used to content being structured in seasons. Blog readers less so. But why not? Do what works for you to keep you creating.

8. Make your pauses deliberate. Pauses are an essential part of the creative process. Planning either your public output or your private writing in seasons, or chunks of time, is one way to build in these pauses. We all need breaks to create. Part of this is about giving yourself time to assimilate what you’ve written so far and to read and research new material. But you also need to fill your creative well by being a consumer as well as a producer of creative work.

A useful book on the sustaining and sustainable benefits of pausing is Do Pause: You are not a To Do List by Robert Poynton.

Whatever the reason for your break from writing, don’t feel bad about it. It’s normal — even necessary. And your writing will be here for you when you’re ready to come back to it.

Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash