Christian Romance Author Liz Isaacson: Reading and Editing, A Writer's Recovery Period

Monday, May 11, 2015

Reading and Editing, A Writer's Recovery Period

So I sent in my entry for the Harlequin contest, and it was intense getting those pages ready. Afterward, I was completely burnt out. I couldn't read, and I couldn't edit, and basically I sat on the couch like a slug for a few days. 

Thankfully, that passed, and I've read a few books since then, and I got right to cutting those extra 13,000 words from my novel. See, Love Inspired has strict word count guidelines, and my book was too long. I'm happy to report that I've cut just over 12,000 words from the book, so I'm in the 60,000 range, but I still have about 900 words to trim.

Even that got old. The thought of opening the book one more time and reading it again... Nausea may have set in. 

So I took a few more days off. Watched a lot of Burn Notice. Every reality TV show available. 

I think these recovery periods are essential for writers. Deadlines are important, and it's good to learn how to work with them, but there's always a price to pay afterward. For me, my recovery periods include a lot of movies and going to performances and just getting away from the computer.

Now that I've had several days, I've decided to write again. Yay! I outlined (sort of) and started a new book over the weekend, putting in almost 8000 words. Drafting is my favorite thing to do, so I'm glad I'm most recovered and ready to dive into that pool again.

What do you do during your recovery periods?

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