Day 3: Time to take a Break

Ah Sunday! Time to take a break; No really, I think you should. I know it’s only been two days and you have a lot of work ahead of you but you still need a break. If you can’t take the whole day then consider easing up a little for the day. Don’t stress about your word count and just write what comes easily.

You’re probably shaking your head at me now but give me a second and I’ll explain.

A month is a long time, a really long time. If you work the whole thing strait through, pounding your story every single day, you’ll likely be burnt out by December first, if not sooner. Last year I didn’t take much time off and I really did not want to look at my story once I got past that 50,000.

Now if you take it easy, say once a week, you can recharge a bit and face the next week without feeling like the month will never end. I know you may not feel the need for it now but if you wait until next Sunday you will have been going for a full ten days, that’s a third of the month.

Why Sunday? Well first of all God said it should be a day of rest and I tend to think he knows what he’s talking about. Secondly most people have Sunday off and a break doesn’t feel as much like one when you spent the whole day at work or school. That and it’s a nice fixed day, if you say to yourself, “I’ll take Sunday off,” then you’re less likely to take unscheduled brakes that could add fast up to be more then the four days I’m suggesting.

Now about falling behind, (I know some of you were thinking it) if you write a little extra ever day you can make up for skipping a day quite easily. Now assuming you did your 1,665 words the past two days then you only have to write 1,795 words a day, starting Monday to still finish on time. (Incidentally you may want to do a little extra anyway to give yourself a buffer zone in case something comes up later in the month) That’s not even a 150 extra words. You can do that, I know you can, and the added incentive of a full day off, guilt free, should make it even easier.

I did this during camp NaNoWriMo in April, granted I was only doing 25,000 that month, I still think it helped a lot by breaking things up and giving my brain a rest.

If taking time off doesn’t work for you then maybe you can come up with something else to help break up the time? Or maybe you already have a plan? In any case I’d love to hear about it.

~Rita