When the writing routine becomes too tiring for you

Welcome to my second post about writing. Like I said in the original one, my intention is not to preach or give any advice, but to share what works for me on my continuous writing journey.

So my original post ended with a question, “What to do when the writing routine becomes too tiring for you?” You sit down every day, you have a word limit to reach, and suddenly there’s nothing coming together. It’s not a writer’s block. You know what you want to write, but you don’t have the strength to describe it, the words are not coming to you. What did I do when this happened to me?

I took a break.

And I don’t mean a long break. I stopped writing for a day. I went out for a look, fell asleep in the afternoon, I got lazy. The writing routine became a must instead of a hobby, so I needed to reset it back. I may sound confusing, but that’s how I felt.

What happened the day after? I sat down in front of my draft, read what I wrote two days earlier, winced, and deleted it. I lost 600 words of progress! But it’s hard to call it progress if what you wrote was cringeworthy. So I started over and my writing session was much better. I wrote 1200 words and I was really happy from what I've written.

All things considered, the bottom line is that you shouldn’t push yourself too hard. If you become tired, don’t push yourself to the limit. Take a break. If you are an aspiring writer, there are no deadlines to meet, so take it easy. But then again, what about being consistent, especially when you’re busy and have a job, but want to finish the novel? Here’s my take:

Of course, you can set a time for writing every day, be it in the morning, in the afternoon, or in the evening, but it’s up to you and your strength. If you are too tired to write something on a given day, then don’t. It won’t be good for you or the story you want to tell. Come back when you feel okay. You don’t have to measure your progress in words per days, you can do this in words per week or words per month. That will be much easier and worked for me when writing my first novel.

From Monday to Friday, I was busy at  school, so I could write only during the weekends. Still, I completed the 60k words draft in four months. If you want to write a novel, consistency is the key, routine is beneficial, but burning the midnight oil is detrimental. Look after yourself first, then you can look after your novel.