Day 8 - Burning Out

Every year there are several times I get burned out at my day job. The first one is usually when it first slows down following the holidays, the second is right after March Madness and the last happens toward the end of the summer after it has been so slow. It is in the down times when I am standing around staring at the other casino employees that I begin thinking about all of the other things I could be doing. I recently realized that I go through a similar pattern with my writing as well.

The most noticeable time I feel burnt out is immediately after the Nanowrimo challenge in November. After dedicating hours upon hours to complete the fifty thousand words, a goal I have successfully met on every attempt no matter what lengths it required going to, I will fall into a need for break mentality. This past year it lasted longer than I had anticipated. I never even finished the first draft of that story, the second in a four book series. I needed time to rest and step away because even as I neared the climax on the book I was already looking at things to change.

The break that was supposed to last for a week ended up being over a month. It wasn't until I attended the San Diego State University Writer's Conference that I found myself once again inspired to jump back into the fray of my writing. However when I got home, pumped full of motivation and inspiration I knew I had to put it on the back burner until the charity book signing event I was in charge of was over. That event took place on February twelfth yet I still managed to not write. I thought, planned and outlined but I did not write.

I came up with my forty day challenge that involved an hour of writing per day which I am currently struggling with. I find that even when I have time to sit and write I still end up planning other things, researching books that are so far down on the to do list they don't even have titles yet, or taking part in additional activities that have nothing to do with my writing. I felt that my writing was becoming stagnant which was causing the burnout sensation I experience at my day job as well. Recently though, I had a breakthrough for one of my books and I am excited to finish the revisions.

My goal now is to finish the rewrite and have it to betas but the end of this challenge which will be Easter Sunday. I am hoping that having that deadline and getting ready for shows later this year and next year. I want to have at least four books available for those shows and right now I only have two. I do have five that are at the revise and rewrite stage though so all I have to do is finish that secondary part. I also want to submit at least two for agents and publishers by the end of the year. Now all I have to do is fight off that new diagnosis of A.D.W.D. and keep myself focused and not get burnt out.