Bluenoseuk

I've just finished my novel, 'Sometimes the mind can be devious', and I just wondered if anyone has a break in between writing novels or any other creative piece? I might take a break now, as I feel I need to recharge the batteries. I would be interested to know what others do? I might do some light planning for the next novel, as I have a complete novel in my mind at the moment, but I think I might be in danger of burning myself out I've posted the first two chapters of the novel on the critique section. I would be very very very grateful if I could get some more advice and view on it, as I'm going to be doing some editing on it in the next few weeks, but I won't be working furiously on it. I feel I need a bit of a break, I don't want my work to suffer...

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Imagination is our sixth sense...

eleutheromaniac

Absolutely. I didn't write anything for weeks after I finished Augmented Reality (coming soon!). And a lot of people have recommended taking a break after a novel. Writing isn't a career like any other, you can't just show up to work and give 50% when you're feeling off, you have to be fully charged.

When I finally did start writing again it was such a relief not to have to write within the confines of a single book. I could write about any subject I chose for the first time in months!

Currently, I'm working on several projects at the same time, and I've found that that is much more liberating than just working on one project at a time. If I get sick of one project I move on to work on another, and come back whenever I'm ready.

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Augmented Reality

Airborneguy

I just finished editing and plan to take at least a month off before I start to write the sequel to my novel. I definately need a break!

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A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man only once...

gabriella

Nope! No breaks for me. But then, I never finished a novel, so what am I saying? To me a book isn't finished until it's edited to finality, and it's not finished until the entire trilogy is written. So I have a long way to go before I can be thinking about recovery time.

I used to find it much easier to work on a few projects at a time, but then I realized that I really need to sit myself down and focus 100% on my trilogy. I've had it in mind for four school years, and made too many false starts, and right now I want to spend all the time I can on it to get it done. Although, I don't get sick and tired of it. I'm still working on the outlines and chapter summaries, and I've made a deal that I'll be going at this novel at about a chapter a day (written and edited) and the more I work on the novel and fix a complicated error, it thrills me even more. I can not WAIT until I can start writing the actual thing again... And THIS time, there will be no chapters removed, nothing added, and no false starts. I'm happy

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You write by sitting down and writing - Bernard Malamud.

johnybob

Well all I got to say is ive been writting ever since grade school, and im in the middle of writting a novel, I finally got all the pieces fitted I just need to write it hehe. Anyway life can get in the way of my writting but I can cope.

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H.W.H. Hawk- Keith hobbs, writer of the Lost Elders.

Airborneguy

A chapter a day, edited, is a lot of work. I hope you are prepared for that. It took me three weeks just to edit my book, just under 100k words. Although I have no idea how large your chapters are...

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A coward dies a thousand deaths, a brave man only once...

gabriella

The chapters will probably be about 4k-5k words. I know it'll be a hell of a lot of work, but the higher I set it, the more I accomplish trying to reach that goal. Plus, each book is about 70 chapters (don't know about the third one yet, although I'm doubting it'll be any smaller than the first one) so that would be 210 chapters, about. That'll be 420 days to edit it if I took two days on the thing. Weekends I'm going to splurge - I rarely go out on winters, and I never go out after dinner, so it won't be like I'm shutting myself away.

That's the main reason I've been laboring so much over the plot outlines, making sure everything flow, going over it like thousands of times just to make sure that when I write the thing, I won't be having to rewrite any of the plot lines. I don't mind if I have to spend some of the next day finishing touches, but I want to get as much done as possible, and finishing the chapters is my main goal.

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You write by sitting down and writing - Bernard Malamud.