Building the Break Before You Need It

If you spend more than five minutes with me, you realize I have a lot of balls in the air.

Day job. Serial novels. Podcast. Comic company. Kickstarters. Conventions. The second and fourth quarters of the year are brutal, and honestly, the calendar doesn’t care that I’m also trying to write two mysteries every week.

It won’t surprise anyone to hear I’ve dealt with severe burnout in the past. Those days where everything feels like too much and the only reasonable response is to stare at the wall and do nothing. I’ve been there more than once.

But I think I’ve actually learned something.

The warning signs are familiar now. A creeping resentment toward the work. Dreading sitting down to write instead of looking forward to it. Producing words that feel hollow. When I start noticing those, I know I’m running too close to empty.

So this time I built something in before I needed it. After every fifth chapter, starting at chapter ten, I’m taking a break week. No new chapter. No apology. Just a planned pause I can point to and say: this is part of the plan.

What makes that possible is you. Having an audience I can talk to honestly means I’m not disappearing or leaving anyone hanging. I can just say “break week coming” and people get it. That kind of transparency is only possible because this community operates the way it does. You’re collaborators, not just readers, and that changes everything.

So: what does your version of a planned pause look like? And have you ever built breathing room into something before you needed it, or do you tend to wait until you’re already running on fumes?