Get Distracted: How to Deal With Burnout

Alright, this may sound counterintuitive—especially coming from a MAJOR perfectionist—but if you’re feeling any kind of burnout or exhaustion with your writing, then I have your solution. Get distracted.

Normally, I’m a very type A person when it comes to organizing my life. I like schedules, lists and reliability. I despise when someone changes plans last minute, I feel like a failure when I have to shift my own plans or expectations by a hair. In the words of Lorelai Gilmore, ‘I can be flexible. As long as everything is exactly the way I want it, I’m totally flexible’. BTW, I’m totally a Lorelai; the only thing Rory and I have in common is a love of books and lists.

The point is, I hate moving my plans, which most of the time, make me very effective at my job. I set deadlines and I stick to them, I plot outlines in detail and therefore have the ability to write less drafts. Being type A serves me well a lot of the time…but sometimes it doesn’t. Because when the burnout comes on—and it WILL—pushing forward doesn’t help. Sticking to the schedule doesn’t help. Being a perfectionist doesn’t help. What does help, is distracting yourself with something other than the thing burning you out.

For me, I got burned out while trying to detail outline my third book. It’s a big project (estimated to be 290k words—I know, it’s ridiculous) with lots of POV’s and plots, and it’s the end of the trilogy, so the pressure is on to make everything end perfectly. But the problem was that as I got into outlining the last half of the book, I became more and more tired. I got down to the last 14 scenes, but I just couldn’t quite get myself through it. So my coach (basically my therapist) suggested that I eliminate the outline from my to do list for a few weeks. Of course, my perfectionist brain REVOLTED against this notion. You mean I was supposed to POSTPONE my accomplishment? It was like a death sentence.

But I did it.

And I couldn’t be more grateful. Because as I took about two weeks off, I was able to get my creative juices flowing in other ways, and now that I’ve picked my outline back up, I’m INTO it! I feel motivated and equipped to fix my plot holes and pacing issues, because my mind isn’t tired now. It’s not running in circles, using the fumes left in an empty tank to get by. The things I’m creating are actually quality ideas now instead of half-a$$ed ideas that would need fixing later anyway. So, while I hate giving up control and taking a break, I highly recommend it.

The balance is in pushing yourself when you know you have it in you, and giving yourself space when you know you’ve got nothing left. Tap into your own head and you’ll be able to feel the difference—because when you’ve got nothing left, you’re near to tears, your ideas are poop, and you feel overwhelmed just by walking.

So, if you know you’re in a burnout stage, here are some things I recommend to help:

-Start a new project (or work on an existing one). I haven’t liked juggling multiple projects in the past, but these days, I get why people do it. It allows for you to still be writing, still be creative, while letting you take a break from the intense focus that’s draining you. The trick with this suggestion is to not get lost in your side project and forget about your original project altogether (but I’ve got a blog post about how I juggle multiple projects).

-Focus on marketing. I know, most people don’t think marketing is fun, but when you’re time isn’t split between writing and marketing, the whole social media thing can ACTUALLY be fun. Take some time to make some reels or posts, create some flatlays, write some blog posts, redesign your website, etc. You’re still being creative, it’s just going elsewhere.

-Read. It seems obvious, but really, reading is awesome for loosening your creative muscles. Read things in your genre and out of your genre. Read whatever makes you HAPPY! Now is not the time to read that book that everyone else likes, but you just couldn’t get into. Now is the time to read your guilty pleasures and the things that make you happy. We want to feed your endorphins right now and fuel your joy so that when you sit down to write again, you’re in a good headspace.

-Get out. Silly as it sounds, socializing (to whatever degree you enjoy) helps with your creativity. New experiences give you new things to pull from in your daydreams. Going to the mall, going for a walk, going for a simple drive all give your mind new scenery and new stimulation, which all give your mind reasons to be creative.

-Watch some good TV. Just like reading, TV and movies are great for creativity! And just like with books, don’t force yourself to watch things. Sure, try that show that looks interesting, but don’t force yourself to binge a show you’re just not into. If you end up watching all of TVD AGAIN, that’s okay. It’s the same concept. It feeds your endorphins and gives your brain space while offering it inspiration.

And that’s my list! If you end up trying any of these methods, let me know which ones and how they worked for you!!