Getting rusty

The longest I've taken in recent years was when I got married - took best part of three weeks off. I knew I wouldn't be able to just drop back into it so I made sure the book I was writing at the time was finished before the break and I had a couple of ideas jotted down. Then when I came back, I was able to ease into it with the smaller things like subbing, planning short stories etc.

If I have to take more than two days off now, it takes me a an hour or so to pick up the beat and get going.

Weeks, I guess.

I get rusty, but after some hours on the keyboard, everything comes back quite easily.

I know what you mean. Don't worry, you'll get back into it. If you can figure out what's wrong, look for some specific advice (google, forum search, any writing books you have lying around) to get a clearer idea of how to fix it.

My issue was that if I went away for too long I'd start missing out things and basically just tell all the time. I needed to get back into a more detail-oriented frame of mind. I also had a few issues with sentence structure and variation. Took me a while to realize that, and since then I don't really have any problems getting back into writing after a long time away (except for the stamina/time sacrifice involved ).

I'll add that reading a little usually helps a lot.

Every year I have to take 6 mos. off my writing to go through my episode of major-depressive disorder. I just have to. I can't write anything during those 6 months, and I've tried.


I do imagine my characters doing things in my stories while I'm listening to music, when I'm depressed, but it's something that just keeps me entertained and nothing worth writing down to include it later in any story. This year, my episode lasted a devastating 8 months instead of 6, and on Nov. 7 of this year I started writing my manuscript by hand, but it wasn't until this weekend, Sat. night to be exact, that I figured how not depressed I am anymore. I sat down, started writing the first novel in my vampire series, knowing nothing about it but the plot, (I didn't even know the MC's name, and had to get one out of nowhere) and I noticed that I wrote the first chapter, 2000 words, in one hour. Since Saturday night I've written 6 chapters for a grand total in the MS of 12000 words.

I lost my momentum at the end of October and I'm still struggling to get it back.

bearilou said:

I lost my momentum at the end of October and I'm still struggling to get it back.

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Look down the back of the sofa. Or behind the fridge.

seun said:

Look down the back of the sofa. Or behind the fridge.

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*snaps* You know, I did I hear something hit the floor behind the sofa. I just thought it was the kitten.

I find it easier and less stress-inducing just to keep writing every day, including vacations. Even a couple hundred words will keep your hand in.

I had a down period that lasted about three or four years because things were so busy at my day job. Once I got over the burnout from that (and things slowed down) it was still months before I really got going again. It helped that I had a good idea to work with. Writing is a hard thing to get back into if you haven't done it in a while. I agree with Phaeal, just keep at it. You'll get there.

There was me thinking its like riding a bike?

I take shorter but frequent breaks, and I find it hard to get in a good rhythm.

As a single person living on my own and still settling in to my new place in a new state, it's hard to find time. Even if there's time, I get mentally (and/or physically) exhausted. I don't have a lot of stamina. So I might go two or three days without writing anything, and that makes it hard to pick up right where I left off. I need to be feeling well, have time, and dive back into the 19th century.

I end up getting very cinematic--it's like a series of scenes from a movie in that most scenes begin when a character walks in a door (or something similar), play out in real time, and end when someone walks out a door.

I haven't heard that this is a problem, but it defeats my aim of giving the story an epic scope.

ETA: It's not the mechanics or the sentences that I get rusty with. I could write a string of perfectly acceptable sentences that make sense in themselves and when put together--but just don't fit with the story, or just aren't good enough.

I've had years where I didn't get to write anything. Usually when I get back to it, I spend the first week or so reading the last book (particularly if I didn't finish it) I was working on without editing. It's just to get back the feel of what I was working on, the joys of the story I was telling, the cadence of the words I was using.

Until I've read what I was working on, I don't try to write again. I need to get back into the mindset of the story first.

I took a break from my novel for a year or more. I had written 2 and a half volumes of a story over about 5 years, finally decided to clean up volume 1 and queried. I got a request for a full, then an R&R with some really good feedback. But although I had an idea what to do in the rewrite, I just wasn't feeling inspired to write it. So I trunked it for a while and didn't write anything else. Last september I met someone in the business, conversations about my novel arose, and my butt got kicked into gear. It was hard, but the break did my writing no end of good. I can see about a thousand percent improvement compared with before the break. I think that distance gave me perspective and allowed me to be more objective in my editing. Now I am downright ruthless with myself

Pick up a book and start reading it. That should not only give you the motivation to write, but it will naturally open the creative side of your mind so that your writing won't seem so wooden anymore. Honest to God remedy.

On my current WIP, I was on hiatus at one point for nearly two months. It was a combination of procrastination and indifference.

I took 8 months off back in 2011 because of a series of devastating real life problems. The biggest problem I had when I came back was that my perspective had changed so much I was no longer interested in writing quite the same type of thing I had been working on before. Once I corrected for this (changing the stories) I found that my writing had improved massively during that time I was ignoring writing. No idea why, honestly. There were really no signs of rust in my prose when I came back. Though it was difficult to renew the habit and motivation of writing large amounts every day like I used to.

The longest voluntary break was two weeks. I called it a vacation, but it's still a break. For me, any break, even if it's just the regular weekend break, takes a couple of days to get over.

Involuntary breaks take longer.

I generally don't find I get rusty. If anything, taking a break can sometimes help me write better when I start writing again.

stray said:

There was me thinking its like riding a bike?

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It's probably different for everyone. For me, I think writing's a perishable skill...more comparable to learning a musical instrument. If I don't practice regularly, I regress. My sentences become clunky, my word choices are awkward, and it takes me forever to fall back into the groove where I forget the time.

To the OP, don't worry about it, just keep writing and it'll come back to you in your own time. If you need a break, you need a break.

For the record though, sitting down and writing for 8 hours everyday sounds like a crapload of hard work to me!! If it burns you out, maybe you should cut back? I write on weekdays only for about 4 hours a day. Weekends are break time and that's generally enough to keep me going year-round.

I took six weeks when my grandmother passed away a few years ago. I didn't feel like I was back to full-speed for months.

I try to take regular breaks... weekends off (barring deadlines) and a week or two after I finish a book. Short, planned breaks help me recharge, but yes, after those longer breaks, it takes me a couple hours to feel like things are flowing smoothly. The only thing I've found that gets me past that awkward, wooden feeling is simple butt-in-chair writing.

I feel like I'm going through this right now actually. I took the passed two weeks off to focus on school and my exams because I was falling behind and my exams are really going to decide if I pass or not. Now that I have finished my last exam I have started writing again and it's painfully horrible. My sentences don't flow. They feel short and impersonal. I guess I'll go pick up a book or watch a good movie to relight the fire and just push through until I can find the quality again.

I took a month off after finishing the first draft of my novel. That's the longest I've ever taken off. I have gotten rusty before, but I try to power through. Or I remind myself that I can edit out the bad stuff later and keep writing.

I stopped writing for about three weeks last month - right around the time I lost my job. I was just so stressed out and I couldn't concentrate on anything. Before that, I spent 2 - 3 hours per day writing. When I yanked myself out of my funk and started back up again, I just read over the last chapter I'd written and off I went. Now I spend 6 - 8 hours per day writing.