How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterwards.

Spanish proverb

You might not know that cable TV services have music channels, and one of them is spa/yoga type music (“Relaxing Vibes” on Music Choice). This channel displays chill photos and quotes while the even-more-chill music plays. The quote above about doing nothing seems to have inspired my afternoon recently.

Doing the Opposite of Nothing

There’s been yet another unexpected turn of events for me, and while I love that in story, I need my own day-to-day narrative to be predictable. Planned. Plodding. My life in recent days has been anything but that. But things are slowly turning around, and today I got an afternoon to do whatever I wanted. The bossy part of my brain urged me to “march right up those stairs, young lady, and revise some novel scenes.”

Doing “Nothing”

But “doing nothing and resting afterwards” was overwhelmingly appealing. Now, it’s me we’re talking about, so “nothing” meant putzing around the house and yard on this beautiful spring day and then writing this blog. But the household tasks were low priority and pleasing to my sense of orderly space, and I drafted the blog in a journal by hand.

The Power of Taking a Break

Everyone, especially creatives, must sometimes move out of the production zone into a different mode: the Relaxing Vibes Mode. The collective wisdom, as displayed on Spectrum Channel 938, tells us that a break recharges us. That we must trust ourselves to come back to the work when we are ready. And that we will become ready.

I have a strong inner critic voice who chides me about not finishing projects. Any break, any vacation, or even a day off is an occasion of sin. While I’m having good results with daily, short novel work sessions, I need to learn that intrusions happen; life, fate, the muse, God—whatever we want to call it—required a pause in the project at just this point. For a reason. Maybe more than one. I won’t always be able to work daily.

Trusting myself and the process is a hard lesson for me, thus it will be offered over and over again until I absorb it.

Que hermoso hacer nada y descansar despúes.

Check out my novel from Montag Press,The Big Cinch, a supernatural noir adventure by Kathy L. Brown. Order today. Sean Joye, a fae-touched young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean, new life in America. Until he asks the wrong questions. . .

Your Turn

How about you? Do you plan to take breaks or are they forced upon you? I’d love to hear your ideas for maintaining some sort of balance. Comment on the blog. Navigate to my website, click blog title, and complete dialogue box that will open at the end of the post.    

If you enjoyed this journal entry, you might like to read about Thought Distortions.

I started this blog thread on the gritty details of the writing process over on my Facebook Author page, @kbkathylbrown, but think I might be better served putting it over here. If you’re interest in following my writing process in an informal way, you’ll find a few posts on Facebook that might interest you. You can subscribe to the blog from the website landing page (scroll down).

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor

Love Letters to St. Louis is an adorable letter-shaped volume of short stories, poems, essays, and illustrations and includes my first science fiction story, “Welcome to Earthport Prime: A Self-Guided Tour.” A perfect gift and profits benefit the guild’s young writers’ program. Available on Amazon and local St. Louis bookshops.

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