I’ve been struggling with a decision on one of my book projects that has pretty much had me blocked from writing on it for a while. The decision, related to point of view, needed to happen soon because continuing to write would require major revision later (and that’s just not the kind of tedious rewrite that has any fun to it at all). I decided to stop letting it drive me bats, set it aside completely, and take a few days vacation – from work, from the house, from writing – even from the puppies we decided to send off to DogVacay. I thought maybe if I just took a break, I’d be able to make the decision and move forward.
I hopped on the plane this afternoon, popped open my laptop to look at restaurants we might want to visit on our trip, and BAM. Wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I made the decision to stop making the decision, the answer was all of a sudden just… there. By the time the flight landed, I had written a couple pages of notes, supplemented my outline, flagged some re-write areas, and added POV detail to the character sketches.
How many times does this need to happen to me before I quit trying so hard?
Erika for President 
That is always the way!
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finding clarity is tough!
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Lol, so did you spend your vacation from writing, writing? The same thing happens to me when I am driving or out running. For some reason, writer’s block drifts away, and I am left scrambling to write to pin down my thoughts. This is easy when I am running; I simply stop and type into my phone. When I am driving, for my own safety and that of my fellow drivers, I am forced to wait for a red light! 🙂 Love your site! 🙂
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Thank you! I have done very little writing or surfing the Internets on vacation — My husband and I have had a wonderful time exploring Northern Virginia wine country and bouncing around Washington, DC. It felt great to unplug for a while and relax, talk, nap, and just hang out together. I’m looking forward to getting back into writing, though. I write while I run, as well. I just changed my iPhone settings to be able to dictate and will give that a try on my next long run. I may look silly telling myself a story while I’m running, but I’ve never really cared too much about what people think of me, so I just smile and wave when people give me looks. LOL
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