Navigate Burnout Like a Phoenix

Every artist suffers from burnout in one way or another. Writing books can be taxing, and being prolific is difficult. There’s a reason we block out our time over the course of months.

The prose might need some work.

The sentence flow might need some tuning to make it clear and concise.

Or, you might toss aside a neat sentence for something with rough edges for effect.

You can spend nights overthinking everything about your novels, even letting imposter syndrome climb into your thoughts.

Working every day and working on fiction is a balancing act.

I love writing, but there are times I hate the process.

I feel disappointed if I don’t make a deadline for a book because of my personal and work life.

I’ve gone through some things lately that make me find solace in crafting fantasy worlds. Part of that has been burnout.

Honestly, I’m trying my best to be a good man in all areas of my life, and finding what to sacrifice for the sake of what’s best can be challenging.

There’s this thing I really want, and it has all of my love behind it.

But getting there means fighting through the burnout and renewing my mind daily.

It’s not that you don’t love the writing. It’s that you’re wracking your brain trying to one-up your last endeavor and hoping you’ve become more skilled since the last time you did this.

I want to be prolific and have high-quality stories.

Maybe a few days need to be taken to outline a plot instead of writing the words themselves.

The blank page will always be there, waiting for you to figure out what to say next.

It’s a bit like magic, writing. It takes a wizard to do what we do.

But even wizards can burn out a sliver if the magic gets stopped up.

Maybe what we need sometimes is a sword instead of a wand.

Think unconventionally, and perhaps that magic spark will return, reinvigorating your creative spirit.

Think like a phoenix, which when it burns away comes back anew from the ashes.

Burning out doesn’t mean the end of the world, it just means trying something new with the tools you have had the whole time.

And by taking a proactive step in the right direction, that elusive thing I (you) desire will make itself manifest.

If passion is missing in your life, find that spark again by doing things over or in a different way.

Burning out from our work is normal and healthy. It means we’re human and doing the best we can.

But stopping is the wrong choice.

Burn your way through your burnout and take some time to reinvent what it is you’re trying to do.