This week: Take a Break from a Story Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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Fantasy Newsletter by Dawn
A little ramble about the need to take breaks between drafts, the benefit and what one can do during the interim. |
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November for some is a big month of writing. For those that take part in novel writing, it can be a time where the attempt happens to write the entire novel, or at least 50,000 words towards that particular story, within just one month. Even those that rebel and write different short stories while tracking overall word count can get a lot done in the short amount of time. Whether you reach the end or not, when it comes to writing, there are certain stages we commonly experience. They may come at different timelines or speeds, but there are some big approaches that are often taken when writing any type of story, which includes fantasy and other genres of speculative fiction.
What do I mean? It is a common practice to write a few different drafts of a story. Writing is a part of the process, along with rewriting, editing, testing with readers and the like. Another part that can come in handy that people might not link to the process of writing, however, is when you take a break from a story.
I know there are some who will need to keep writing after the month ends who took part in NaNoWriMo and that's okay. Not everyone is going to finish the book in a month and with fantasy, some of our novels are going to be much longer. One of my fantasy NaNo attempts ended up at 170,000 words once I was done writing (and no, I didn't write all of that in November but it was close at 160k for one very crazy year). However, while it might be tempting to move on to the next step right away, like going through for an edit because there are definitely going to be some errors in a first draft done quickly, I would recommend taking a break instead. Give yourself a little time and space from the story before taking the next step in the action part of the process.
In fact, when it comes to almost any story except very short contest deadlines on WDC, I recommend taking a little break after each draft of a story. Deadlines can make it difficult, so this isn't a hard rule that has to be followed all of the time. This is more of a suggestion to take into consideration if you plan to develop stories and, in particular, if you want to submit the writing to publishers/agents/etc. And the break doesn't have to be long either. Sure, at times I take a break for years but that's more out of distraction with many other stories compared to doing it with purpose.
One of the main reasons for this break, aside from how it can just help you in general, is that having space away from the story where you haven't spent long hours thinking about it will help make the editing and rewriting process better. You can approach it with "fresh eyes." This is really big after November novel writing because after spending a whole month thinking about the novel most of the time, you've probably seen the words and thought about them so much that your mind may skip over errors or fill in blanks that might not actually be in the text. You know the story, which means you might not see some of the problems. Taking a break will help some with that. Granted, it won't solve all bias as the writer, but it's a good start. And don't think of it as not doing something or putting off an important part of the writing process. While we like to stay active and do work, knowing when to take a break will help avoid other problems like burn out.
However long you decide to take on the break, that is up to you. There isn't a set amount but with a novel I would suggest more than a few days just considering how big of a project that entails for rewrites and edits. A short story could be set aside for a few hours, especially if you're writing micro or flash fiction. That can help with short deadline contests if there are less than 24 hours or even only a couple of days to get something edited in time. A novel, you might want to take a few days or weeks, at least, before going back to work on the next draft or when starting the edit process. Let things marinate.
What can you do during the break? Well, that is up to you and what you have going on in your life. You can write something else. Take a break for writing for a few days. Whatever works with your goals and plans. If you are trying to write a little bit every single day, then you might not want to take a complete break from writing in general. But if you've been writing a lot and start to feel tired, also know that it's okay to have a respite from writing. Take a little break, then get back to things.
So, normally I would end with a comment about having fun and writing. But today, with November nearing an end where I've worked on 2 novels, I'm going to say something else...
Have a Kit Kat bar I mean, take a break. 
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Do you plan times when you take breaks from a story? How long do you wait before a rewrite or edit?
We also had a break from comments for this month. Hopefully everyone is having a good time writing and that NaNWriMo helped anyone make progress, whether they made 50k or not.
Happy Holidays
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Fantasy: November 27, 2024 Issue [#12861]
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