I started blogging in December last year and ever since there’s been no looking back. Read: I have not taken a single writing break. I write religiously if not every day, but every other day. After all writing like I’ve said in the past, has proved to be the “elixir to my parched soul.”

But ten days back, after the Write Tribe Festival Of Words got over, during which I wrote for seven days non-stop, I just felt the need to take a breather. In my head I think, it had been a long haul. I had participated in three writing challenges in a span of few months. The first one being the rigorous but completely gratifying A-Z 2017 in April, followed by Bar-a-Thon in June that stoked my creativity further.

Initially I thought it would be like a weekend break as the WTFOW got over on a Friday. But when Monday dawned and it was time for me to sit down and write, which is usually from 9:30 A.M. till about noon. I felt no inclination whatsoever to write. I felt I needed that break from writing. But then, at the same I worried about the dip in my readership and getting out of the habit of writing which I had inculcated after years of struggling to do so. Å few weeks back I had decided to blog with a schedule in place. Monday for Monday Musings, Wednesday for my Travel Tales called Wanderlust Wednesday and Friday for FridayFotoFiction. “What would happen to those for a week?, I thought.

After going back and forth and beating myself for being lazy, I wrote on the Write Tribe Whatsapp group asking them for their views. I was flooded with reassuring messages, by the community saying it was perfectly fine to take writing breaks. That was the most reassuring thing to hear. I felt blessed to be part of a blogging community that could dispense free advice and that too something that I wanted to hear. *Cheesy grin* After all I had been writing without any break for 9 months. I had carried my baby, NatashaMusing in my womb and nurtured it with loads of tender, loving care. Yes, I hadn’t stressed too much about the visitors on my blog or about building a big follower base. What I’d focussed on was writing from my heart and soul. I was not expecting my baby to be the stereotypical fair and beautiful child, but one that was well cared for and one that had a wholesome personaity. Each time I wrote I put a bit of myself out for the world to see and relate to. As the gestation period got over and the baby was readying to pop out, I experienced withdrawal symptoms. As if I didn’t want the baby anymore. No, it wasn’t a Writers block. Not at all. It was just that phase where I wanted to put my feet up and relax. All these months I also  blogged during my holidays and travels. Those of you who know me, will know that I travel every other month.

Well, I’m glad I took this break. It cleared my head space and I’m back with renewed vigour. Though time just zipped by and honestly it hardly felt like a break. The 9 year-old has her first ever set of exams, so we are all over the place like headless chicken. It feels as though I’m taking those exams. I had once attended a session by one of my favourite author Ruskin Bond and I remember asking him the relevance of taking writing breaks. He had smugly answered saying he takes these breaks once in a while for a few days; to just lie in bed, to read or sleep and revel in nothingness.

We all need some time off here and there, from our daily schedules, from the busy grind of our lives to do just nothing and stop by and smell the flowers.

Have you also taken writing breaks? Do you feel guilty about it? Or do you just soak in the nothingness? When you return to the pen, are you all charged up to start again? Or does it break your writing rhythm? Would love to hear your side of the story too.

Afterword: I did write a tiniature though, last Friday. A tiny horror tale. Here goes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Corinne’s #MondayMusings