Ah, NaNoWriMo. That’s National Novel Writing Month to the uninitiated, a global event where aspiring writers crank out 50,000 words of first-draft during November. There are criticisms against this event by some, affirmations of its usefulness by others, and if you’re a writer you’re either gonna love or hate it already.

I won’t go into any of that here. One thing I thought worth mentioning is this – one frequent bit of writer advice is that You Must Produce. Write, write, and write some more. Work those fingers until they are bloody stubs and your keyboard the cheese grater. You can’t send out the story that hasn’t yet been written. And this is all true. When the time is right, you must apply arse to chair, and just bloody get on with it. It’s so easy to talk about writing, but if you’re serious about it, you’ll get into the hard slog when needed. It’s exhausting but worthy, otherwise why would anyone do it?

But I would like to gently point out something that I’ve learnt the hard way. Despite all the rhetoric and chest-banging to the contrary, it’s Okay to Take a Break. I’m serious. If you write day after day, you just might burn out. Some people can and do write each day, and if that works for them, kudos. As for me, I like to take at least one decent holiday from writing each year.

I call it Fallow February. Going by the theory that overfarming a plot of land can make it barren and infertile, I like to let my mind go fallow around February-March of each year. Play video games with no guilt. Faff around with movies and books. Socialise, and just relax. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT WRITING.

This year, I’m actually having Fallow February in November. Apart from some work with my lovely AHWA Mentorees, you’ve caught me in the middle of a luxurious stretch of Doing Fuck All. And it’s great. Earlier this year I was actually bombarded by deadlines, so I had to take a raincheck on Fallow February. The last time I tried to write, I really struggled to get into it. And that’s when I knew it was time to hang up my GONE FISHING sign (aka play lots of Skyrim).

I know this is the right thing to do, because my muses are starting to go nuts. I’m getting lots of “what if?” story ideas. The creative fly-wheels are starting to whir and hum, greased by the oil of relaxation and fired by the brand new sparkplugs I plug in once a year.

You’d have a holiday from your job, wouldn’t you? Don’t be a dickhead 🙂 Fallow February FTW!