Comments on: Burnout

By: Puzzled Writer

Puzzled Writer — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:54:12 +0000

Thank you for writing about this. After four years of writing almost every day, and three of those years spent in actively submitting short stories and poetry, in self-publishing, and in the promotion of my work, I have now reached burnout. And burnout is real.

It’s a fugue state of staring at the screen, or staring into space, knowing that ideas and characters are in your head but you don’t have the energy to render them. It’ also that scary place where you start to lose your passion because it feels like you’ve only progressed five feet when there are expections that you should be further along. (Yes, self-imposed expectations, but there are cultural ones as well about how productive one should be that I need to deconstruct for my own sanity.) The tricky thing is, success in writing demands that one be a bit obsessive but too much hard slogging away day after day leads to exhaustion.

And what finally knocked me over from being merely a little tired but marching on anyway to burnout was a stressful job situation which has sucked up much of my mental energy. So I’m going on hiatus as a writer to deal with the emotional fall out of my situation and to focus on personal growth in other areas of life. The laptop, the writing world, and my projects will be there when I get back.

By: Victoria Strauss

Victoria Strauss — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:00:42 +0000

Great post. After completing my last novel under the deadline gun, I realized I was seriously burned out. Two years later, the thought of writing another Big Fat Fantasy Novel makes me panic. I’ve been through periods of burnout/hiatus before, but this is the most intense I’ve ever experienced. My solution (after a year of doing nothing) has been to work on short fiction. It’s very, very hard, and I don’t know where it will take me, but at least I’m working again, more or less.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:20:50 +0000

Well, its not cardiovascular, that’s for sure. Here’s a little science to back up my whining:

Energy consumption by the brain is 230-247 calories, based on 17
calories/gram and human brain sizes of 1,350-1,450 grams. During
periods of peak performance, adults increase that energy consumption
by up to 50%.
While this may not seem an extraordinary amount of energy, the brain
may use 30% of a body’s total energy, while being only 2â€“3% of total
body mass.
From University of Northumbria “Oxygen Administration, Cognitive Performance and Physiological Responses,”
(Mark C. Moss, PhD Thesis 1999)

By: Carol Berg

Carol Berg — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 05:06:19 +0000

I think there is little appreciation of how many calories are burned by the intense use of your brain when writing.

I wish! Any “exercise” so intense should have physical benefit.

Carol

By: Stacy

Stacy — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:17:58 +0000

I’m really glad to see a serious assessment of burnout in writers. I think there is little appreciation of how many calories are burned by the intense use of your brain when writing. Everytime I would pick up a book on writing and see the directive “You must write every day to be a writer!” all I got was depressed and demotivated, because writing every day was never realistic. The only reason I’m close to finishing a novel now is I found “The Weekend Novelist.” Sitting and brooding over a notebook full of scribbles looks like slacking but is really hard work, and that’s before you even pick up the pen and scribble more.

By: Carol Berg

Carol Berg — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:26:49 +0000

Very well said, Kate.

What gets me is that even in the midst of a tough run of burnout…when all the fears you describe are SO real…the thing I want to do most is to sit down and write. And I sit. And it’s hard. The deadline forces me to push through…and oftentimes what I write is better than what comes in more comfortable times. But it is exhausting!

This year, more balance. I swear it.

Carol

By: » Links for 25-02-2007 » Velcro City Tourist Board » Blog Archive

» Links for 25-02-2007 » Velcro City Tourist Board » Blog Archive — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 03:29:00 +0000

[...] 5 - Burnout “In my life as a writer so far I have not as far as I know suffered from writerâ€™s block, but I have been scoured clean by burnout.” Kate Elliot on the times the well runs dry. (tags: advice burnout creativity fiction writing) [...]

By: Betsy Dornbusch

Betsy Dornbusch — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 01:18:21 +0000

I don’t get really blocked or burnt out, but more distracted. I start blogging more, reading stuff for the magazine, cleaning house–all the stuff I tend to avoid when I’m really on a roll with writing.

I’m reclusive by nature, so that’s when I know I have to get out into the world, have lunch with friends, go snowboarding… anything but write. And the next time I sit down, rarely longer than a day or two later, I’ve got words again.

Good post, this.

By: LauraJMixon

LauraJMixon — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 04:36:16 +0000

Kate, you rock. This post is going up on my wall. Beautifully said.

Next week I start in earnest on completion of my current novel. I’ll hold your words close.

By: ehjones

ehjones — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 02:37:48 +0000

Wow, I asked a question that spawned a topic… I’m shocked and gratified!
Thanks for the advice, and the insight. Like I said, I don’t feel burnt out yet. I do have the occasional moment of creative exhaustion, but I really mean moments here… I take a walk, watch a movie, or read a few chapters of something else, and all is right with the world.
So I’ll take the advice to heart. I love what I’m doing so much right now, and what I’m producing creatively, that I have a fear of losing what I consider to be a roll that I’m on. I didn’t write anything at all for nearly ten years before I began the project that I’m doing now. The feeling when you type the last word of a novel is AMAZING, and I’ve had it twice in the past ten months. The only thing that could top it at the moment would be a phone call from my agent saying hey, we just sold your manuscript.