7 Ways to Avoid Burn Out

Many of us experience burnout when we pour everything we have into our writing. We spend hours a day, everyday, on our works in progress, on our blog posts, on our comments, on Facebook, on Twitter, all in the name of our writing career.

It can often be an uphill battle. We may not be getting the feedback we want. We may be losing too many hours of the day and our houses are turning into breeding grounds for dust bunnies. We may be beginning to listen again to that voice of doubt that niggles in the background of our minds.

These are sure signs of burn out, so how do we avoid this?

1. Take a break. You don’t have to spend thousands on a trip to a tropical island, but a break – any break – will do you wonders. I try to take a blogging break every weekend. I’m currently taking a break from my WIP before I start to edit. Sometimes I need to take a week off from everything. We are allowed.

2. Be kind to yourself. Remember you aren’t a superhero. You aren’t impervious to criticism, you aren’t immune to the pressures of deadlines, but you can learn to deal with these things by being kind to yourself. Pamper yourself with not only the occasional indulgences (chocolate is my favourite indulgence), but pamper yourself with kind thoughts as well. Tell yourself you will reach your goals.

3. Exercise. Blow away the cobwebs of the mind, step away from the keyboard or pen and breathe in some fresh air. Get the heart pumping.

4. Visit friends. I don’t know about you, but I tend to immerse myself in my work and forget the importance of friendship, relaxation and a great girly chat over lunch. (For the guys who read this blog change ‘girly chat’ with manly beer and grunts over lunch).

5. Reschedule. If you are burning out then it may be time to reassess how much time you have devoted to your career. Because our jobs aren’t the typical eight hour day it’s harder to regulate so we need to stay on top of it. You may need to cut back for a while.

6. Prioritise. This is one of my favourites. When drawing close to a deadline our writing becomes more important so we will have to cut back on other things such as social media until that deadline is met. But know there is an end in sight and make it as easy as possible for yourself.

7. Remember the highs. It’s good to remember why you love to write and why you put yourself under so much pressure. Remembering will help to sustain you.

Have you experienced burn out? What are some things you do to avoid burn out?

All in a Name

Talli Roland had a great post last week about pen names. This topic has been on my mind a lot lately because I’m so uncertain about it.

It’s not like using a pen name is an unusual thing. Science Fiction writer, C J Cherryh, put an “h” at the end of her name because her publishers felt that otherwise her name sounded too much like a romance novelist. J K Rowling used initials because her publishers didn’t want to scare off male readers with a female author name on the books.

If I had an unusual name I wouldn’t worry so much, but it turns out my name is more common than I thought. And, what is worse, a woman of the same name, same spelling, has published children’s health books and another whose first name is spelt with an “i” has published faith books.

With today’s growing need to build a platform before we try to get published, I’m nervous about promoting a name that may have to change. This uncertainty factor is why I don’t use my name in my blog title.

What are your thoughts? If I stuck to my true name would I become just one of many, lost in the crowd? Should I stick to this name for now and wait until a publisher tells me to change it, or should I change it now and hope the publishers like it?

I know some of you use pen names. What are the reasons you decided to change your name? Why did you choose a particular name? Do you think a name matters that much?

Awards and Trivia

Today is a short post to thank all the lovely people who so kindly gave me an award over the last couple of weeks. It's only now I've had a chance to give you an official Thank You!

Thank you to Melissa of Melissa Getting Published for the Versatile Blogger Award.

The Rules for The Versatile Blogger Award:
1)Thank and link back to the person that gave you the award.
2)Share seven things about yourself.
3)Pass the award to fifteen bloggers that you think deserve it.
4)Lastly, contact all of the bloggers that you’ve picked for the award. 



Thank you to Dawn of Life Lines for this version of the Versatile Blogger.

The Rules for The Versatile Blogger Award:
1)Thank and link back to the person that gave you the award.
2)Share seven things about yourself.
3)Pass the award to fifteen bloggers that you think deserve it.
4)Lastly, contact all of the bloggers that you’ve picked for the award.  



Thank you to Melissa of Melissa Getting Published and Jessica of  Smile, Feel Good, Pass it On for the One Lovely Blog Award.

One Lovely Blog Award Rules:
1)Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2)Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
3)Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.



I'm not going to do the seven things about yourself thing. But I will give a fun and intersting fact:

"Bwaarrk!" is chicken speak for "Threat approaching from the ground."
Yes, chickens have a language too.

 Fascinating huh? (I've been holding onto that for a while now wondering how I could incorporate it into a blog post - lol) Do you have any fascinating or funny trivia you'd like to share?

 I'd like to pass on these awards to those in the list below. Please feel free to pick the one award you'd like.

Erinn @ something else to distract me
Stephanie @ Hatshepsut: The Writing of a Novel
Antonette @ Write on: Exploring the Craft
Talli @ Talli Roland
Arlee @ Tossing it out
Sharon @ Random Thoughts
Jeffrey @ Jeffrey Beesler's World of the Scribe

Why do you write?

Why do you write? It’s not enough to say, “Because I must.” That’s the ethereal answer reserved for strangers. We often fall back on that answer because we don’t believe our non writing friends and acquaintances would truly understand.

Yes, it’s a yearning based on the human need to express ourselves. Words whisper to us when the house is hushed in the early hours of the morning, or in the late hours of the night. They call to us when our minds wander through the chaos or boredom of daily life.

But why? Why are writers so cursed, so blessed, with the need to write?

I believe this question can only be answered by each individual writer. It’s different for everyone and, I think, our reasons shift and change as much as the tides. Below I’ve listed some possible reasons. I’d love to know if any resonate with you.

It’s a way of making a difference to the world. If your words can reach out into the vastness of the human race and touch just one person, to move them to cry, to laugh, to learn, to sing, then you’ve found your calling as a writer.

It’s a way of making sense of this world. We live in a bewildering world full of strange and amazing experiences. There is so much we don’t understand, so much we can’t quite grasp. Writing may help you to unravel some of the questions you’ve longed to answer. It might help you to speculate on the what ifs.

It’s a way of showing others we aren’t alone. When we write we share with others through the lives of our characters, the experience of the human condition. We want to relate to each other. We want to know we aren’t alone in our feelings, thoughts and dreams.

It’s a way of escaping a harsh reality. There is magic in writing. We can create any world we want and people it with any character we desire. Our imaginations are our only limit. Our stories can become a place we can escape to from a difficult or unwanted reality.

It’s a way of earning a living. A famous Australian cartoonist once admitted in an interview that he hated cartooning, but he pursued it because he was good at it. He said he needed to earn a living somehow. This might take the romanticism out of writing, but it’s just as valid a reason as any other.

What are some reasons you write? Have any of your reasons changed over the years?

Pic: Light Festival in Hong Kong

Contractions – Go with the Flow

Part of the real skill behind good writing is to make it look easy. And it looks easy when it flows off the tongue with a sweet sounding rhythm that’s effortless to understand. So what is one way we can achieve this flow?

We use contractions. A contraction is two words turned into one. For example: ‘can not’ becomes can’t; ‘do not’ becomes don’t; ‘you are’ becomes you’re.

Written contractions work because they reflect speech which is the most common way we communicate with each other. It’s a natural sound we hear every day and so we’re comfortable with the shortened rhythms. When we write like we speak, we give the reader a familiar ground to visit our stories. They aren’t distracted by the writing.

If we decide to write every word in full, then our writing begins to sound stilted. We force the readers to stumble or pause because it’s not a familiar rhythm. Because of this the piece often gains an air of pompousness.

If you don’t want a natural flow to your writing, or you want to achieve a certain level of formality, then go for it. The full words work well in any formal document. You could have a character who speaks without contractions, but they will sound robotic – much like Data in the Star Trek Next Gen series. Sometimes it works, but you’ll find mostly it doesn’t.

Do you use all the common contractions all of the time? Do you mix it up? Or do you think too many contractions make a piece too informal?