Writing is good for the soul, but even the soul needs a break every so often. While writing an hour every day can really improve your technique, it can also ruin your motivation. When writing moves from enjoyable to a task, it just becomes another job that makes you miserable.
The interesting thing about writing a novel is everyone does it differently. There are endless books that contain piles of opinions on how to do it. The technical rules applied to the writing is enough to stifle most anyone’s enthusiasm for the task. That being said, most productive writers don’t really pay attention to the “rules of writing.” They simply write to their hearts content and sooner or later stumble upon the conclusion of the story they wanted to write. It sounds trite, but it works.
Writing at least a bit every day is certainly a wise move. Reading your daily tidbits will start to give you real insight to your strengths and weaknesses. Only the most crass of us, however, wishes to be criticized daily even if it self-criticism. You need to be freed from the technical side of writing and just allowed to run free with the might pen or mightier keyboard.
Put in simple terms, you need to take a break every so often. There is a point where the valuable returns of writing each day are diminished by the sheer effort required to do so. If your eye are blurring at the keyboard, it is time to stop. If you have blisters on the end of your fingers, it is time to stop. If you realize that you have children only because there is a “Dad” on the coffee cup, it is time to stop. It will not kill you to take a few days or even a week off and just enjoy yourself.
You should also write goofy material at least once a week. Why? You need to give the old brain a rest from developing wicked plot twists and in depth character developments. For the last year, I’ve been writing about the life of ants in my front yard that are separated by the garden hose that runs down the middle of it. This, of course, has also given me a reason not to roll up the hose! Regardless, the story has become fairly compelling at this point even if I have no idea where it is going or why. Frankly, I fear it is better than the other stuff I am trying to seriously write!
It is trite to say that writing should be fun. While it can be trying at time, the effort to improve your writing should not reach such a strenuous level that it becomes just a job. Take a break before that happens. Heck, write about the bugs in your yard for fun. If nothing else, it could delay the need to mow the grass!
