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What you are about to read is heresy.

The basic advice every writer gets from every direction is this: Write. Always write. Make sure you write. Make sure you write every day. Write write write write write write write.

(Eventually, some of us move on to “and here’s what you do to make your writing good”, but that’s a whole other discussion.)

At its core, this makes sense. Most people who say they want to write, don’t. Most people who call themselves writers aren’t, for the simple reason that they never actually sit their asses down in front of something suitably keyboard-shaped and pound out actual words in sequence. The real physical act of writing is, of necessity, the key to the writing process, and yes, you have to perform it if you’re going to call what you’re doing “writing”. And so advice to sit down and write, to do so with discipline and dedication and an honest-to-Stephenie-Meyer time commitment because no matter what the interwebs are telling you, that goddamned manuscript is not going to be magically composed for you by the combination of pixies and your sheer innate awesomeness, is good, and solid, and necessary.

Except…

There are times when it is perfectly acceptable, nay, beneficial, to stop writing.

Yes, discipline and productivity are admirable things in a writer. I wish more folks had them. At the same time, it is worth recognizing that there is more to writing than writing.

Consider the conversation I had with a writer friend recently at NECON. He’s working hard on his current project, the first book of a proposed trilogy. He’s a good writer, very professional, and making good progress. And he commented that he’s given up two of his favorite hobbies so he can get this done, one a creative outlet and the other pure relaxation.

This, I think, just might be a bad thing. Contrary to what the cult of unicorns and rainbows might think, creativity is not an endless resource. It requires downtime to regenerate. It requires fresh sources of inspiration to fuel it, and fresh experiences to synthesize. And I may be going out on a limb here, but you don’t get new experiences, meet new people, or do new things while writing. (No, websurfing doesn’t count.) Unless you’re one of a very rare breed, you can’t just crank things out endlessly, especially if there are other things in your life like a day job, a partner, children, a pet, or a crippling addiction to internet porn[i] that also demand your time, attention, and emotional energy.

Even if writing is your day job, that doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to take the occasional break. Steelworkers get days off. So do sysadmins. So do short order cooks, pediatric nurses, and blackjack dealers. Why? So they can rest, recharge, and come back and do their job well after they’ve had a chance to get away from it for a bit. There’s nothing about writing that’s so sacred, holy or unique that this notion doesn’t hold true for us scribbly types[ii].

So in short, take a break now and then. Allow yourself to do other things to rest, refuel, and allow yourself to come back to your writing refreshed. See other people besides the ones you create. Do things other than type. Not only does doing so refresh your language and interpersonal skills (useful for writing believable dialog), but it also potentially provides you with new material that you can use in your writing. I promise, you will not be punished by the gods because you didn’t update your LJ word count widget sufficiently for a day or two. You will not lose your mojo in its entirety because you did not feed the beast once or twice.

Heresy. I know. But occasionally a little blasphemy is good for the soul.

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[i] The first person who yammers in the comments about how I have now just made porn equivalent to parenthood will get sent to them a custom made t-shirt that reads “I SEEM TO HAVE MISSED THE POINT AND DO NOT UNDERSTAND RHETORICAL DEVICES”. Thank you.

[ii] I’m sorry to tell you this, but it’s true. Also, you cannot learn martial arts through a five minute montage sequence, you have almost no chance of winning the lottery, and if you’re a Kansas City Royals fan you’re completely screwed until the heat death of the universe. Some things just are.