You Must Keep Writing

Why taking a break from your writing may be the end of it.

Photo by Lynn Jordan on Unsplash

There’s a school of thought these days that taking a big hiatus from writing is a good way to refuel your tank for when you are ready to write again. The concept is that giving your writing muscles a rest will allow them to work even better when you get back at it. The flaw in that thinking is this—in no other endeavor does this make sense, why would it make sense for your writing?

You’re a marathon runner. You stop running for years. Do you think you can simply jump right back into running 26 miles?

You’re a golfer. You quit for a few seasons. You think you’ll be able to break 90 again just hoping you will?

You’re a sculpture. You use your hands in skillful ways; delicate movements for creating art. You give it up for a year. Do you think your hands will fall right back into the graceful patterns without some work?

Each answer to each question is no. Why would one believe the answer would ever be yes if you stopped writing?

Writing is a craft. There are writing muscles that will atrophy if not used regularly. Imagination muscles must be worked if you want to stay toned. These are not skills one can simply put on a shelf and pull down to use whenever one wants. The work of writing is not like making toast—plug in the…