Breaking My 16-Day No-Writing Streak

Why the break happened—and how I finally got going again.

My last entry here was twenty-one days ago.

Not because I’ve been furiously writing—quite the opposite.

I was in Boise, Idaho at a conference when I wrote my last missive. During the first couple of days of the trip, I kept to writing every day but then I finished the big, climactic end of the second quadrant of the story.

The scene was incredibly hard to write (thus the last entry where I referenced only writing 365 words in ninety minutes of work) and then I got caught up with the conference—staying up late, sleeping it off, repeat.

When I got back to Nashville, I only had eleven days until I left on another trip that would keep me out of town until July 5th. (I’m currently writing this while staring at endless ocean. I know. Poor me.) There was so much work to be done in those eleven days to get ready for the new cohort of the Guild and Writer Mentorship Program that begins on the 5th, that I had to use all of my spare time to get work done.

So the few days at the conference of not writing slipped into a couple of weeks of not writing. Then it becomes hard to restart the cold engine and get going again.

Here’s what I did to get the wheels turning again.

First, let it go. I probably needed the break, especially after such a big moment in the book. Let’s just say I took an intermission.

Second, sit down and reread the last several scenes. This gets the flow going again.

Third, start writing again.

I’m back on a five-day streak and going strong again.