Everyone deserves a vacation from time to time.
We all need opportunities to rest, unwind, and recuperate.
For writers, however, vacation time can cause quite a dilemma.
I am pretty sure it was our literary friend Hamlet who once said, “To write, or not to write while on vacation? That is the question!”
In this week’s episode of The Writing Coach podcast, we tackle that question, and I share my advice on how to go about best mixing writing and relaxation.
Listen to the episode or read the transcript below:
The Writing Coach Episode #133 Show Notes
Get Kevin’s FREE book: NOVEL ADVICE: MOTIVATION, INSPIRATION, AND CREATIVE WRITING TIPS FOR ASPIRING AUTHORS.
The Writing Coach Episode #133 Transcript
Hello, beloved listeners, and welcome back to the writing coach podcast. It is your host as always writing coach Kevin T Johns here. And I am recording this and sending it out at the end of August 2022. When I think of August, when I, the late, late August, when I think of labour day weekend, my mind always goes to Stand By Me that incredible film starring River Phoenix, and will Wheaton movie from my childhood based on a Stephen King short story called the body, just an incredible film and in a film about summer coming to an end. But in, in that film, in that story summer really represents childhood and the end of childhood and that film, you know, I remember looking up to the kids in that film, their 12 going on 13. And I remember watching that movie and thinking those kids were so old.
Now I’m a 42-year-old man looking back on watching that movie in my childhood. And again, it’s just August ends, September starts and I think of Stand By Me. And I think of the end of things in terms of the year coming to an end in a new school year, beginning. Yes, obviously we have <laugh> new year’s Eve and the actual turning over of the clock. But I think in some ways, certainly, if we’re parents, but even not our, our minds stay wired to that idea of September being the beginning of something new. And certainly even as an adult, I, I really start to think of it as the final sprint to the end of the year. I think as adults <laugh> and young people, we need goals, and quarterly goals and yearly goals are really a reasonable timeline to look at things.
So when I come up on September, I start saying, did I accomplish this year what I wanted to accomplish? There are only three or four more months until the new year until 2023. And am I going to be able to look back on 2022 and say I accomplished the things that I wanted to accomplish? I know right now, one of my major priorities is finishing my novel, The Page Turners Part 3, that’s been a long, long project. I’m near the end. I, I have about 20 scenes. I’m guessing that I need to Polish up and finish off I’m. I’m kind of on a near-final draft of that book. And rather than just sitting here and saying, oh, well, I hope I can get it done by the end of the year, I did the math on it. You know, there’s say 16 weeks left in the year. And so I’ve got 26 scenes to write in 16 weeks. You know, it basically means I need to be revising two scenes a week every week for the rest of the year if I want to get that book done in 2022.
But that sort of goal setting and that sort of monitoring of whether I’m on track or not, it doesn’t happen enough, but that is the type of work that we do inside my group coaching program, FIRST DRAFT; we set goals, we track progress, and then we make adjustments. If it turns out we are way behind our anticipated timeline, we’ll wait. Maybe we adjust our timeline to reflect the realities of what’s going on in our lives. Or maybe we adjust how we’re approaching our writing. Maybe we need to do four sessions in a week instead of three. If we’re falling behind the goal that we have set for ourselves. So if you want to get a first draft of your book finished by the end of 2022, reach out to me, or visit my website, www.kevintjohns.com.
There’s a free book. You can download there, click the link at the top, or put your email address into the popup that says “free book,” Novel Advice: Motivation, Inspiration, and Creative Writing Tips for Aspiring Authors. Get on my mailing list, hit reply. And let me know that you are ready to join FIRST DRAFT and get your book finished by the end of 2022. Now, something else that happens around this time of the year, nearing the end of the summer is all the people who haven’t yet taken a vacation take their vacation. Finally, they do their summer trip, or they go to the cottage, or they do those sorts of things, which got me thinking about an issue that comes up quite a bit when I’m working with my clients. And that’s this idea of I’m going on vacation and should I work on my book or not?
While I’m on vacation now, like so much in writing, there is no one size fits all answer that I can give you, but I can’t give you some options and encourage you to choose from one of them. Because I think what happens far too often is people go on vacation and they have this idea of a fun relaxing time, but they also think, man, wouldn’t it be nice to get some writing done work? Won’t be bothering me. I’ll be maybe in a cottage looking out over a lake, or maybe I’m sitting on a beach somewhere warm and isn’t that a great time to get some writing done. Maybe I’ll do some writing while I’m there and they bring their computer along, but they haven’t made the commitment to do some writing. They say, ah, it just feels like maybe it would be a good time to do some.
And so I’m going bring my computer along or I’m going bring my notebook along. But what happens is you never do the writing because you’re on vacation and you’re having an amazing time. But the guilt is there rather than being on vacation and saying, wow, I’m enjoying this. I’m enjoying being away from the day job, or I’m enjoying spending time with the family, or I’m enjoying this beautiful weather in the back of their minds. They’re like, ah, maybe I should be writing. Maybe I should be making some progress on my book right now. So that’s the most common choice that I see. Ah, maybe I’ll do some writing while I’m gone. And I think it’s the most or least effective way to go about it. So these are the choices I would much rather see you make when you’re going on vacation. So choice number one, you’re not going to write on vacation.
You’re going to enjoy your vacation vacations aren’t just something we do to kill time. We need rest. I always think of this idea. I went to a lion safari with my family many years ago, and we were so excited to go see the lions. And when we found the lions, they were just lying on these rocks in the hot sun, and they did not move, and they had no interest in moving. And that’s what it’s like in nature. We relax when we can, and we save up our energy for when we’re hungry and need to go hunt down some food. This is how a lion lives its life. This is how so many animals live. And I think humans have a bit of that as well. We’re biologically wired to rest when we can, but we’ve built this modern world and the Protestant work ethic and modernism and all these things where we consider it lazy to rest.
When in fact, not only is it a natural condition to rest, it’s absolutely necessary unless you are on steroids. You’re probably not going to the gym seven days a week. This is one of the benefits of steroids. People think you just take them, and suddenly muscles pop out of your arms. This is not the case whatsoever, but what steroids do allow is for athletes to get back to the gym quicker, they can go to the gym seven days a week, but unless you are on performance-enhancing drugs, your body needs rest in recuperation. This is why most workout programs have a three or four-day workout programs with two rest days a week normally or rest days in between work days. It’s the same thing with writing. I think a lot of people who come to me have this misconception that they should be writing every single day.
I know Steven King tells a great story where he gets interviewed on Christmas day or is around Christmas time he’s being interviewed. And someone says, do you really write every day? And he said, well, I write every day, except Christmas day. And then he said, of course, I was lying. I write that day too. So yes, Stephen King writes every single day, but Stephen King is a mutant. Stephen King is an alien. Stephen King is an outlier. He’s not your average person. Your average person needs some rest. They also need some thinking time. I remember one author (was a Saramagio?), some great author said he spends about 10 months walking around thinking about his book. And then he sits down and writes it in two months. And the point being you need some thinking time, you need some rest time and, and whether you’re a writer or whether you’re just a regular human being, working a day job or being a parent or whatever it is you do, you need rest.
Rest is important. And that’s part of what vacations are. They’re a break from the monotony of doing what you got to do to survive. And they’re an opportunity to rest both your mind and your body. And so if you are going to take a vacation, especially if you’ve been working your butt off on a novel or a book, take it as a vacation, go on vacation, get that rest and recuperation time so that when you come back from vacation, you are ready to get back to work on your day job on your family and on your book. You’re recuperated, and you’re ready to rock and roll. I think that’s a perfectly valid way to take a vacation. That’s what vacation is all about. The drawback of this approach I would say is that you break the writing habit and those writing habits, they can be hard to establish.
And then once they’re broken, they can be particularly difficult to get back into. And so just make sure that you are ready to get over those psychological hurdles of getting back into rhythm, getting back onto the regular writing schedule. If you have been away for a while, that’s the only drawback I see. Otherwise, go, go on vacation, enjoy yourself, enjoy your family. Enjoy your time. The other option is if you are going somewhere amazing where you think that getting writing done is going to be really effective and efficient and enjoyable, schedule it into your vacation. If you are going to the beach and then going to a Boris site, make the third thing, work on your book. Don’t do the thing we talked about at the beginning of this podcast where I said, ah, maybe I’ll do some writing while on vacation. Schedule it in because, otherwise, you’re going to have that guilt eating away at you.
Oh, I should be writing right now. Instead, I’m enjoying a baguette in a beautiful coffee shop in Paris. <Laugh> right. So treat it like you should be treating your writing already. Get it into your calendar, create that non-negotiable writing time and let those around. You know, that’s when you’re going to get your writing done. Even if you’re on vacation, tell your family, tell your friends at two o’clock every afternoon until three o’clock, I’m going to be working on my book. That way everyone around you knows that you’re going to be spending a bit of your vacation time working on your writing. Also, you don’t have that nagging feeling in the back of your mind. I should be writing. I should be writing. When what you should really be doing is enjoying yourself, dedicate yourself to your writing during that scheduled in dedicated time and the rest of the time, allow yourself to enjoy your vacation.
As we just talked about vacations are hugely important. Not a lot of complicated stuff here, but make that choice. Life is about choices. Writing is about choices. So if you have a vacation coming up, say to yourself, I’m going to do some writing, and I’m going to work that into our vacation calendar, and I’m going to let everyone know that’s what’s going to happen or say, I need a break. I need a rest. I’m like that. Lying, lying on the rock in the sun, getting ready to go for the hunt. I’m going to go chill out for a week or a weekend or whatever it is and enjoy myself. And then when I come back, I’m going to get to my writing recharged and ready to rock.
All right. If you going to check out the transcript for this episode, all of my episodes are transcribed over on my website: www.kevintjohns.com while you’re there, make sure you pick up a copy of that free book. I give away Novel Advice: Motivation, Inspiration, and Creative Writing Tips for Aspiring Authors. It’s a great book full of stories, essays, and advice, all about writing and the writer’s life. I know you’re going to love it.
Also, don’t forget to hit subscribe so that I can see you next Friday. On the next episode of The Writing Coach.
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