Remembering to Rest

Burnout is conquerable even if it feels impossible

Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash

Ever been happily working away at a project, a deadline, and then suddenly you find yourself screeching to a halt with burnout that seems to have come from nowhere? Ever labored word after word, page after page because you’re so tired but you have a deadline and the book won’t write itself? Ever finished a project and felt like you’ve completely run yourself dry and it seems like you won’t ever have creative joy ever again?

Pull up a chair and join the club of every single creative out there.

Burnout is one of those things that I’ve become very acquainted with over the last years. Between writing and publishing deadlines and juggling day job work with said publishing deadlines, sometimes the burnout comes out of nowhere and sometimes it approaches with multiple blinking warning signs as I get closer and closer on the road.

But take heart. It’s a common thing to experience, and the cure, or rehab, for it is pretty simple.

Rest.

Don’t panic.

For those in the “I feel like I’ll never write again” phase, learn to rest with patience. Sometimes you’ve been working so hard, or surrounding life events have finally taken their toll. When everything piles up around you to stress and overwhelm, the first things the body and mind cut out are creativity. You see, creativity isn’t essential for basic life functions.

I’ve long turned away from the adage “I need to write to live” because it simply isn’t true. While creativity is a great gift and experience we get to utilize, it comes out to play when we’re more emotionally balanced. When we’re in survival mode, we don’t have time to paint the cave walls, we’re trying to outrun the bear.

While we can, and often do, write out of pain and joy and trials and victories, the writing often doesn’t come until after some initial processing and living in a more comfortable place - both physically and mentally. Adrenal fatigue is a real and present thing, and if we’ve been living in high stress “fight or flight'“ modes for days, months, years… that takes a toll on the body, and bodies have limits.

If you’re thinking “I’ve just been busy at work or trying to meet a deadline for the last month, and there hasn’t been other major life upheaval”, you’ve still been living in stress. This goes for single writers, and this goes for writers taking care of families, friends, those juggling multiple jobs, and those who are able to fully focus on writing or artistic endeavors.

I will very quickly remind others to really think about what they’ve been doing for the last week or month when they say they’re feeling burned out or tired. Many times we tend to downplay the amount of things we do, and when we truly sit down to list everything out, it’s often a much longer list than we realize.

Be assured, the creativity will return when your mind and body have had a chance to rest and regulate down. This can be days, months (been there), or sometimes years depending on how long you were in “fight or flight”, but the important thing to remember here is that it will come back.

I believe that we were made to create. It’s hard to look around at this wonderful world with incredible natural marvels, and centuries upon centuries of human made art and not believe in creativity. It’s in our DNA, so it will come back. You need to rest with patience (harder than it sounds, I know), and once you’re safe from the metaphorical bear, you’ll be able to commemorate the experience on the cave wall.

So, how to adjust for burnout?

• Schedule non-negotiable rest days. Even just one day a week where you’re not writing or working on anything else. Even when on deadline, sometimes you just need a day to breathe.

• Reach out to the deadline holder and see about an extension. So many times, I think we’re just scared to ask because deadlines seem impossible and permanent things. But 9/10 times, you can get an adjustment just by asking. I promise, many times those on the other side understand (and if they’re reasonable, they’ll help you also be successful).

• If you’re on a self-paced schedule, see where you can add more time in, or automatically add in time for breaks when you set out your timeline! I always add 1-2 months of “oh shoot” time into my publishing timelines for edits, line edits, design, etc. because there will inevitably be need for personal breaks or adjusting for mine or others’ timelines.

• Can you scale back in other things? If you work multiple jobs or have multiple responsibilities, is there a spot where you can do a little less or hand off some other work to someone else? I told my supervisor just this morning that I couldn’t take any more patients for the next month since I’m feeling pretty burned out at work, and since we’re short staffed all around, she definitely understood and agreed with my decision. Again, this comes down to just asking.

• Find something else to be creative with. Creativity takes many forms. Not just art or writing. It can be baking, mud pie making, flower arranging, crafting, making collages, rearranging furniture, etc. The simple act of making something or engaging with other art is being creative. Creativity I think has often been lumped into “productivity”, but it’s really just taking things and making something out of them.

Since I do occasionally try to practice what I preach, I was scheduled to send my novel to the editor (our very own Gillian Adams) on May 1. But as of April 1, I still had at least 10K words to write and an intensive edit to complete. Along with day job and additional part time editing job responsibilities. So I asked. And we were able to move my edit slot to give me more time. Both the story and I will be much better for it.

I’ll leave you with a repeated reassurance that if you feel like you’re burned out and haven’t felt the joy of creativity in awhile, then give it some time. Rest. Find something else to do. Like a watched pot never boils, creativity hiding from stress or overwhelm doesn’t quickly return. Sometimes all it takes is a few days of rest, sometimes it does take much longer. But one day, you’ll start looking at the world again with eyes that catch the glimmers of story in the multiple shades of light all around.

Promise.