Of Holidays & Writing
On Monday, I talked about my holiday—much needed after the recent years of ‘earthquakiness.’ And there were photos, here. 🙂
Yesterday, another author said: “Wow. A break from writing! Are we allowed to do that? ;-)”
Now, although the smiley face suggests that this was tongue in cheek, here’s why my answer was, and is: “Absolutely, yes!”
Not just because, as mentioned on Monday, all work and no play makes for very dull writers indeed–and if that dullness were to carry through into the writing, as one fears it eventually must… (I leave you to join your own dots.)
The Year 2000 memorial on Queenstown Hill
Equally importantly though, as I climbed Queenstown Hill to gaze out over mountains and lake water, or cycled around nearby Lake Hayes, or simply sat in the sun with my coffee and a good book, I felt my perspective on the book I am currently writing shift.
For quite a while now story-wise, I’ve been right in amongst the trees, eyeballing the detail equivalent of roots and bark, branch structure and the patterning of leaves. It’s important and needs to be done—but over the holiday as I gained time and space from the individual trees, I gained perspective on the whole of the forest. I looked along the full continuum of the story, not just this book Daughter of Blood, but back to its first beginnings in The Heir of Night and forward to where I know it is heading in The Wall of Night Book Four. Story-wise, I saw how the pattern of light and shading fell across the entire ‘forest’—and how I could draw out those effects of light and shadow more clearly in the book I am currently writing.
I had insights, dear readers, and what’s more, I had fresh ideas.
So that’s why I feel that absolutely, writers need to have breaks from writing. It’s not even a luxury, it’s a necessity—the same as with any other kind of work.
And those good books: rest assured, I’m going to be posting all about them very soon!
Lake Hayes
Helen
While I haven’t yet climbed your ‘lofty heights’ as a writer (well, certainly not as a writer of fiction anyway), this is actually very profound thinking on the challenge of writing anything really. When text book writing I had a similar experience and had to take the time to stand back…
My current fiction attempts are going through that phase right now… at 56000 words, there is much to be done at the detail level, but the overall shape and direction need careful thought as well.. I’ve had a ‘fallow’ winter with respect to word count (thank goodness I don’t make my living from my output, otherwise we would have had a ‘hungry’ time), and part of the issue is the need to step back and look at the whole work…
Kind regards
Robin
Well, I must admit, Robin, that I still regard myself as “only little” in writing terms, but hope to reach the “lofty heights” someday.:)
But I think stand back time is important with any work where any sort of work that is more than rote, otherwise we get stale and sink into formula—and i can’t help feeling that is the opposite of taking a creative path is about. As for word coutns, I honestly have come to think that they are the probably one of the single poorest measures of progress on a book, except in most rudimentary sense. I am going to post on this one day, perhaps when Daughter of Blood is finished. In that rudimentary sense though, if you’ve gotten to 56,000 words and considering overall shape and direction then it sounds like you’re making progress.
Tell us more about that memorial!
Paul, I promise to post on the memorial and other holiday fun over the weekend! 🙂
I think you’re absolutely right. I think it applies in big and small ways. I know when I’m stuck or struggling with something I’m writing, getting out and walking is the best un-sticker I know. You need experiences to write, your imagination will only carry you so far, and you need fresh ideas and inspiration. The real world does a very good job of those things 🙂
Yes, I find walks, like gardening, a great worker-out-of-writing-problems as well, Wen—I hope yours is going well!