Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

Helping authors achieve their dreams

In which I took an unplanned but happy break from writing

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This happened! I’m on Instagram here.

I didn’t intend to take nearly a month off of blogging and writing entirely, but that is exactly what ended up happening. Thank you for your inquiries. The missing person report was perhaps a little excessive, but nonetheless appreciated.

One of the interesting things about being a blogger and writer is that you have to wring your life like a wet towel and see if you can find some spare droplets of time. Lately my life towel has been bone dry. I haven’t even been on Twitter!

Things like this can happen to any writer:

  • My day job is going so great that I am throwing my brain into it with reckless abandon and leaving myself with little spare mental energy for side projects.
  • Oh, but I do have side projects! I’m taking a General Assembly class on product management in order to help me develop great websites for my day job. It’s been an excellent learning experience.
  • And I’ve been freelance editing, which has been really fun! It’s great to be working directly with authors again.
  • And then I went on vacation (see above photo).
Writing? What’s that again? 
Sometimes you can wake up and look around and you haven’t written a word for two months. And it can spark a bit of an identity crisis. 
“I’m a writer! I write! I’m not writing! What am I doing?”

And sometimes it feels like you get divided so thin that your passion projects don’t receive that laser focus that they need to come to fruition.

Then I try to remind myself that it all comes together in the end. Things are going well. I’m happy. I’m getting things done.

Sometimes the writing can wait.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Peggy Webb says

    Your Twitter post immediately captured my attention because I'm a huge fan of A. A. Milne (In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump). It's a great post. I'm glad you took an unplanned but happy break, and I want to do the same thing!

  4. dolorah says

    I feel guilty when I'm not writing, but when I get back to it, it flows so much better. I agree it ok not to force it when so many other things are going well. You sound excited about all the new stuff. Enjoy the natural high 🙂

  5. Mia Hayson says

    It's okay to take unplanned breaks, I think! If we didn't pretty soon we'd lose perspective and maybe forget what we're writing for in the first place.

    Autumn is the best time to take a break too — ALL THOSE CRUNCHY LEAVES TO PLAY IN.

  6. wendy says

    Hi, Nathan, nice to see you back in your virtual home. The scene in the photo looks idyllic.

    Btw, how are your books selling? I'd be interested to hear how the mainstream published childrens' books are faring in comparison with your self-published non-fiction. Maybe a future blog post?

  7. John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur says

    Glad life is treating you well. Don't worry, we'll be here when you get back.
    One correction. It doesn't "all come together in the end." No. It has to be pulled together, sometimes kicking and screaming, but you get it there.

  9. Bruce Bonafede says

    I took an "unplanned break" from writing when I became a father. Between being very involved in raising a kid and finally getting serious about making a living since it wasn't just about me anymore, I found I had ZERO time or energy to do creative work. This was partially mitigated by the fact I do a LOT of writing in my "day job," but I basically lost about 25 years as a creative writer. Fortunately I'm an optimist and I figure I've got 20 more years to make up for it.

  11. Neurotic Workaholic says

    Sometimes it's difficult to write regularly, especially when you work as much as you do. And it's good to take vacations (though I know that it's ironic that I, a workaholic, would say that). By the way, I just finished reading your How to Write a Novel book on my Kindle; I really liked it and plan to apply your strategies and advice to my own writing.

  12. Neil Larkins says

    Is this nuts or what? I was on the Shakespeare geek site when it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't received an email from you since…I couldn't remember when. I went back to finish up what I was doing and about an hour later decided to check my email and WHOA! I swear to you, folks, that I had not seen this email from Nathan before I had that feeling about his absence. Kinda funny – or creepy. It is nearly Halloween, after all. Glad you're back, tho.

  13. Donna OShaughnessy says

    So happy to know I am not the only one! Had not posted on my Writers Blog is three months because…I went back to school for a degree in Creative Writing! So who has time to write about writing when all you do all day in class is write?!?! I knew you'd understand. Glad you are back.

  15. K L Romo says

    Glad you're doing well and OK. I checked your website the other day as well, making sure you were still "there". I'd also like to say that you're an awesome photographer!

  17. Arthur Browne says

    Hello… I am a friend of H. E. Ellis. She recommended your blog because I am a self-published author and I would really like to get an agent and move on to the next level. She said you have good advice on this subject. Oh, I also suck at editing, but that is another story. I am not just hitting you up for free advice directly, but I thought I would maybe lurk around, read some posts, maybe try to figure some of this stuff out for myself… even though I am a computer moron and must rely on my daughter to even compile and send my novels to the publishers… anyway, thanks… I will be lurking around… in a hopefully not-too-creepy way.