Sometimes you need a break

From all appearances, nothing’s changed. Your routine, your hot mug, the satisfying clacks of your keyboard. Then you look closer: the story you’re writing doesn’t make sense. You pour more time, more attention, more coffee on your troubled narrative, but nothing you’re doing is working. So try doing nothing, on purpose.

Sometimes you need a break.

Every piece of music is dotted with little spaces called rests, where the musician stops making sound. Rests are part of the music, they are not holes in the song. The same is true for your creative process—a break isn’t blank, it’s a beat you’re counting through.

The hardest part of any creative act isn’t the blank page. It’s the return to the blank page after you’ve walked away. Breaks are short rehearsals that teach you how to start again.

Breaks can feel like waste, but sometimes the waste is what works.