If you’re looking for permission to cancel your plans and spend the next week writing, I give you full permission.
The thing about writing daily is that it feels greedy for me to set a weekend aside to write when I’m already dedicating 4 hours a night to writing. I do think I need a weekend though. A weekend to just read and write. Only those two responsibilities.
Here’s my thing: when I think about spending a weekend just writing, I feel like two days are not enough. It reminds me of the time I read about this one writer who finally felt bold enough to go to a week-long writing retreat. She said she felt so guilty because she slept the first week away. When she talked to someone about the guilt she felt, they responded by saying that her body probably needed that rest. So the next year, she booked two weeks. She found that when she allowed her body to rest for the first week, she was able to get a ton of writing done the second week. That worked for her.
When I took a week away, it felt like plenty of time. I go hard the first three days and then take it easy toward the end of the week. It’s not like things magically start flowing just because you’re away, but it does give me the space to create without interruption.
A train of thought can be so delicate that constant interruption can make you feel like you can’t think. The truth is you have a great brain filled with millions of ideas; you’re just not getting the space your brain needs to complete a thought.
And that’s why you need to give yourself permission to go away and write.
I’ll give you permission.
Jayne.press 