Maintaining Your Writing Routine: Avoid Letting Your Holiday Interfere with Your Writing Schedule
Maintaining Your Writing Routine During and After Vacations
Vacations can provide a much-needed break from our daily routines, but for writers, maintaining a steady writing habit can be a challenge. Here's a guide on how to keep your writing momentum going during and after a vacation.
Writing on Vacation
When you decide to write during your vacation, it's essential to plan how, when, and where you will write. Consider reducing your writing expectations, such as writing for 15 minutes instead of an hour, to avoid burnout. Choose unobtrusive times to write, like early mornings or during children's naps, to balance writing and vacation activities without causing stress.
Mental preparation is also crucial. Visualise success and name your personal needs before the trip to help you handle challenges calmly and maintain focus on your writing goals even in a relaxed setting. Setting clear boundaries, like saying "no" to some social activities or scheduling solo breaks, also supports sustaining your writing mindset while preserving energy.
Returning from a Break
Upon returning from a break, it's important to ease back into your writing routine. Don't expect immediate productivity at pre-vacation levels; instead, start with small, manageable writing tasks to rebuild momentum. Reestablish familiar rituals like a regular writing schedule or dedicated writing space to reinforce discipline. Allowing time to reflect on your vacation experience can renew creative inspiration, making it easier to resume writing with fresh ideas.
A plan should be made for returning to regular writing after taking a break, whether or not writing was continued during the vacation. Options on the first day back include reviewing one's work, refining it, writing for a short duration, or returning to one's regular writing schedule. Each subsequent day, one should work up to the next level until one's regular writing pattern is regained.
Handling Writing During a Vacation
Writers often face challenges when trying to write while on vacation. Being overly optimistic about the impact of other people's agendas, not planning for ways to deal with these impacts, and believing one can "fit it in" on the fly are common pitfalls.
There are three options for handling writing during a vacation: continue writing at normal levels, reduce expectations, or stop writing entirely and plan for a return. A break from writing can be both refreshing and disruptive for writers with established habits. Life's disruptions are unavoidable and can affect the smooth return to writing after a vacation.
Not writing during a vacation can lead to falling off the writing wagon, feeling disconnected from one's script, enjoying the time off and not wanting to return to discipline, and feeling guilty for not writing.
In Summary
Combining thoughtful planning, flexible scheduling, and mental grounding techniques can help maintain writing on vacation. A gentle, structured approach supports a smoother return to writing after a break. By following these tips, you can ensure that your writing routine remains a consistent part of your life, even during vacations.
- To effectively manage writing during a vacation, consider planning a home-and-garden routine that includes a dedicated writing space, although remaining open to traveling-inspired ideas incorporated into your script.
- After a vacation, if you choose to resume writing, implement the 'act' of writing gradually by incorporating small writing tasks into your lifestyle, such as writing for 15 minutes every day, to build momentum and regain your writing rhythm.
- A successful vacation can lead to a rejuvenated imagination when returning to writing, offering an opportunity for fresh travel-inspired writing ideas to be worked into your 'writing'.
