It’s back to the Monday Musing this week!
Base image © Nemo (http://pixabay.com/en/thinking-bubble-message-idea-blank-25906/). Edited by Penny Gotch (http://www.pennygotch.co.uk | https://pennygotch.wordpress.com).
And today, I want to talk about downtime.
It doesn’t matter where you look. It could be your university course. It could be advice from a famous author. It could be an inspirational photo on Pinterest.
If you’re a writer, there is pressure to be constantly writing.
Write every day. Write 750 words. Keep writing. You need to keep writing or you won’t succeed.
Is it important to write regularly? Yes, of course it is.
Writing is a skill and you need to keep yourself in shape for it just like you would any other skill.
But there’s a difference between that and driving yourself into the ground.
Image © Anthonares (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Patterned_ground_devon_island.jpg).
Not everyone can write something every single day. And it’s unfair to expect them to.
After all, writers are people, as obvious as that sounds.
People have jobs. University courses. Homework. Social lives.
And sometimes, those things can leave us so exhausted that we don’t have the energy to write.
And then what? We feel guilty for it. We feel like we aren’t real writers because we’re not doing enough.
And it’s nonsense.
If you write, you’re a writer. End of story.
You don’t have to write a certain amount to join the official writer club. It doesn’t work like that.
Only you know what your limits are. Only you know how much you can do before you burn out.
Image © Jens Buurgaard Nielsen (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Embers_01.JPG).
And if other people can’t respect the limits you have, they don’t deserve you.
~ Penny
P.S. “Under the Tree” is still on sale, and now it has a review by the lovely Melissa Holden! Check it out here if you haven’t already!
Related Post: Sunday Scribblings: Fanfiction Is Fabulous
P. Gotch – Writer 
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