Avoiding Creative Burnout

Being a novelist is a rewarding yet challenging journey. Writers pour their hearts and souls into crafting captivating stories and sending them off into the world, but in this pursuit of literary excellence, the threat of burnout looms large. Between writing, crafting social media content, email marketing, PR, selling, handling taxes, event planning, and beyond, authors can easily end up overwhelmed.

Overdoing it has major detrimental effects on your long-term success, not to mention your wellbeing. When I first graduated from college, I had this idea that I could—and needed to—do it all, all at once. Within a year of graduation, I had moved out and gotten married; I was working two jobs and writing my first attempt at a novel during my lunch breaks while trying to pay off my student loans as fast as possible and spending as little money as humanly possible.

I was also completely miserable, with uncontrolled depression and anxiety.

Preserving Creativity 

At least in my case, creativity is the output of a quiet, focused, and mentally healthy mind. It becomes impossible as I add more and more demands (plus anxiety-triggering caffeine) into my daily routine.

But creativity is the lifeblood of writers. It has to be guarded jealously, so that the heart of your work can continue to beat.

The mental exhaustion that follows burnout drains this creative force, and in my case, left me feeling completed defeated, unable to look beyond my most immediate needs to focus on any creative work. I tinkered with poetry and a few short stories through my early twenties, but I didn’t have the mental (or financial) resources to do anything notable. Working two jobs meant I was lucky when I was able to do my grocery shopping before 8 o’clock at night. But after several years of taking care of my finances, my mental wellbeing, and my relationships, I finally managed to get back into a creative mindset—and I’ve taken care to be more sustainable about my habits this time.

By recognizing and addressing the signs of burnout early on, we all can safeguard our creativity. Taking breaks, engaging in activities unrelated to writing (especially ones that are far away from screens!), and seeking inspiration from various sources can help prevent artistic exhaustion and stagnation.

Embracing the Marathon, Not the Sprint

Becoming a successful author is a journey that spans years, if not decades. It requires consistent effort, perseverance, and an understanding that writing is a marathon, not a sprint. Burning yourself out in a frenzy of productivity might provide short-term gains, but it leads to long-term consequences. Pace yourself, establish sustainable writing habits, and remember that each step you take, no matter how small, ultimately contributes to your progress as a novelist.

Many may take that approach with their writing, but throw it all away when it comes to marketing their book launch. And it’s true that marketing a book launch is much more of a sprint, but a successful launch still requires months of planning. Expecting everything to be done all at once is only setting yourself up for failure.

Honoring Your Intrinsic Value As a Person

Novelists invest so much of ourselves into our work that it can be challenging to separate our self-worth from our writing achievements. It is essential to recognize that our value as human beings extends beyond the words we put on paper, beyond the measures of our productivity.

In the capitalistic world we live in, self-care is, in and of itself, a radical practice. It’s important that, as writers, we understand that taking care of our mental and physical well-being is just as crucial as honing our craft. To that end, we should all prioritize our mental wellbeing, take time to cultivate and maintain healthy personal relationships, and celebrate all of our accomplishments, big and small.

Remember: we are worthy of rest.

Effective Strategies to Prevent Burnout 

But for some of us, rest feels… unnatural or even immoral. For me, rest triggers my anxiety because I’m sure I’m forgetting something important or setting myself up for failure. The truth is, though, that it’s an inability to step back and relax that sets me up for failure.

So, I’ve made a list of strategies that help me avoid burnout. Telling myself what concrete things I must do is much easier on my anxiety than telling myself to do nothing.

a. Ruthlessly prioritize: Recognize that not every task is equally important. Focus on the core activities that drive progress. For me, that means working on my next novel at regular intervals, maintaining a relatively active social media presence, and layering in supporting activities (like tabling at local events or reaching out to book reviewers) when I have spare time. It also means keeping myself available for my toddler’s bedtime routine and routinely leaving time to connect with my spouse and other important people in my life. There will always be people telling you that you need to do more. Listen and consider their viewpoint—after all, you may need to balance your priorities a bit differently if you’ve forgotten, for example, to organize a book launch party—but feel free to reject the idea that you must run yourself ragged in order to be a success.

b. Give yourself time off, and take it: Being an author is like any other profession—it requires time off. No matter how much you love your job, you wouldn’t volunteer to work every waking minute of your life. It’s unhealthy. For me, time off might look like playing a game of Scrabble with my mom or going for a swim… or binge-watching whatever goofy comedy I can find on Hulu. Side note: it’s definitely more rejuvenating to find hobbies away from screens, but any activity that helps you reset and recharge is valid.

c. Embrace the idea of incremental progress: baby steps will take you where you need to go, as long as you have patience. And let me tell you, success for an author is all about the long game—patience is most definitely a virtue. When I feel like I haven’t done enough, I look at my progress over the past year. When Summer of 2022 began, I didn’t have a finalized MS, an author website, a formal business structure, any idea how to handle sales tax or how to format a book… the list goes on. But a year’s worth of baby steps have added up, and I can’t wait to see where the next year of baby steps will take me.  

d. Check yourself before you wreck yourself: when I start edging towards that deep exhaustion that comes with burnout, I start cutting corners and making silly mistakes. Recently, I missed several appointments in a single week and then I scheduled a time-sensitive tweet for the wrong day. That was my sign to pull back a bit, and trust that my progress wouldn’t be erased by a few days of catching extra shut-eye and asking my husband to handle my share of the household chores. Similarly, look for your own signs of trouble to avoid accruing a debt of burnout. After all, debt is something you will eventually need to pay back. So be sure to balance your writing goals with self-care, rest, and rejuvenation.

Final Thoughts

Avoiding burnout is not only crucial for creativity but also for the long-term success and well-being of… well, everyone, but especially artistic types like authors. People often think that because writing is a labor of love, that there is no labor involved. But just like the overheated roofer is at risk of heat stroke and injury (especially in Texas), writers who overdo it are at risk of mental breakdowns, deep exhaustion, and other injuries—albeit of a more internal nature than at-risk construction workers.

I hope my checklist helps you avoid the pitfalls of thinking one person can do it all, all at once, when it comes to running a successful business as an author, and I hope it gives you actionable tips to make not just your writing, but your life, better.

Creativity is a candle. Don’t let your to-do list snuff it out.