BY JESSICA SHEN
On this blog, we’ve talked a lot about how to write successfully—how to use dialogue tags, how to open your story, avoiding the passive voice, how to handle criticism. While this is all great advice, another important thing to know is when to quit.
We all get to that point—writers and editors alike—when we want to keep going: it’s 3AM, we’re falling asleep at the wheel and drinking Red Bull so we can finish that scene before we go to bed.
Step away from the keyboard! You’re not doing yourself any favors by overworking your brain. It’s better to put your work to bed and come to the table the next day refreshed and ready to write, than spend the first couple hours of your day trying to piece together what you’d written the night before.
I know I’ve made plenty of mistakes (or missed plenty of mistakes, rather) while editing because I was too tired, and it would have been much more beneficial to just put it down and come back the next day, than to have to do the work twice because I have no idea what I’ve actually covered.
Give your brain a break every once in a while. Sometimes we get too wrapped up in our stories, that we can’t see the forest for the trees. Take a couple hours off, or even a couple days! Come back to your story with new eyes.
Between work, classes, and editing, Jessica catches the zzzs when she can at her home in northern California. Her latest project, A Dash of Madness: a Thriller Anthology, was released in July 2013. Her next project, Mr. Gunn and Dr. Bohemia, a steampunk adventure penned by author Pete Ford, will be released in October, 2013.
