So many writers I'm currently coaching are exhausted. Yesterday alone, I encouraged three separate writers to press pause. Even nature teaches us this: We sow, we wait, we harvest, we rest.
Write slow, think deep! Writing weekly for two years on Substack brought me to that same replaying-content question. Not gonna do it. Let it percolate, richer ideas will come.
It's a funny thing. Life has served up an opportunity for me to reconsider what I mean when I say "I'm taking a pause." It used to be a random day here and there, an occasional afternoon off, or even skipping a tough workout now and then. But a year ago, my mom went on dementia hospice and I manage her entire caregiving team. I've had to cut back on my writing productivity, my podcasting, and even my delightful coaching client load. So far, it's been a "year long pause." We take it day by day with her right now. And somewhere nagging in the back of my mind is this persistent chatter telling me I should be taking my finger off the pause button and getting to work. But I'm going to take your permission slip and clutch it tightly to my heart and give myself full permission to ease into this pause for however long it takes. Thank you ❤️
Thanks for writing this Will. My family just moved houses and I’ve been buried in house projects for most of 2026 and haven’t been able to write. This encourages me to not feel overcome by the perceived need to create and give myself grace for where I am.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I had to put everything on hiatus for over a month due to life throwing lemons at me and I had a hard time not being negative on myself. It took both my husband and Hannah (shout out to Hannah Callan on here she's awesome!) telling me it's an understandable situation and that I deserve a break and that I'd come back when I was ready for me to recover enough to make the comeback!
SO true! I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to build something for myself that allows me to have breaks and time off because of the exact same reason… seeing your ‘a world where we can’t take breaks scares me’ idea is the exact clarity I needed. Thankyou for sharing
Thank you. I’ve needed permission to pause. I’m very tired. And need space to work in my collection of essays. It’s a lot closer than I think but needs time and focus. I can’t do both. I’ve felt a responsibility to my paid subscribers. But even here I need time to develop something. Philipp from Serapex also wrote about this, this morning. So thank you.
Such a helpful reminder! I’m looking towards a planned break this summer and am learning more about the importance of the sabbath. I read something somewhere that the good stuff comes from rest. It’s not about what we produce but what’s produced in us.
Schedule breaks? Egad. Writing for me is DRIVEN by the NEED to know how the story comes out. I am in the middle of the muddle of it and it is coalescing like interstellar gas forming into a star and there are no rules that I can imagine except that without the characters who have chosen me, without the characters who cry out that they will wither and die without my obsession, I would not be writing at all. Where did these characters come from? My decision to story worrying about what other people think, the decision to stop imitating, to stop trying to measure up to the drone of most prose. Describe the period at the end of one of your sentences. Why is it there? Should it be?
Love yr honesty, Will. Appreciate the permission to feel the burden. But maybe the angst isn’t what we think. Maybe the Lord is doing something else. The adventure begins when we lean into that possibility…
So many writers I'm currently coaching are exhausted. Yesterday alone, I encouraged three separate writers to press pause. Even nature teaches us this: We sow, we wait, we harvest, we rest.
Write slow, think deep! Writing weekly for two years on Substack brought me to that same replaying-content question. Not gonna do it. Let it percolate, richer ideas will come.
ZH
It's a funny thing. Life has served up an opportunity for me to reconsider what I mean when I say "I'm taking a pause." It used to be a random day here and there, an occasional afternoon off, or even skipping a tough workout now and then. But a year ago, my mom went on dementia hospice and I manage her entire caregiving team. I've had to cut back on my writing productivity, my podcasting, and even my delightful coaching client load. So far, it's been a "year long pause." We take it day by day with her right now. And somewhere nagging in the back of my mind is this persistent chatter telling me I should be taking my finger off the pause button and getting to work. But I'm going to take your permission slip and clutch it tightly to my heart and give myself full permission to ease into this pause for however long it takes. Thank you ❤️
Thanks for writing this Will. My family just moved houses and I’ve been buried in house projects for most of 2026 and haven’t been able to write. This encourages me to not feel overcome by the perceived need to create and give myself grace for where I am.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I had to put everything on hiatus for over a month due to life throwing lemons at me and I had a hard time not being negative on myself. It took both my husband and Hannah (shout out to Hannah Callan on here she's awesome!) telling me it's an understandable situation and that I deserve a break and that I'd come back when I was ready for me to recover enough to make the comeback!
My first career was a musician, and taking a break always felt like going backwards. Especially surrounded by others practising hours and hours a day.
Now, as a meditation teacher, I see the most successful practice comes when we give ourselves a little break. Same was true writing a PhD,.
I do think the down tine should still be meaningful. It seems justvwasting time doesn't recharge us the way doing something meaningful to us does.
SO true! I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to build something for myself that allows me to have breaks and time off because of the exact same reason… seeing your ‘a world where we can’t take breaks scares me’ idea is the exact clarity I needed. Thankyou for sharing
Thank you. I’ve needed permission to pause. I’m very tired. And need space to work in my collection of essays. It’s a lot closer than I think but needs time and focus. I can’t do both. I’ve felt a responsibility to my paid subscribers. But even here I need time to develop something. Philipp from Serapex also wrote about this, this morning. So thank you.
Such a helpful reminder! I’m looking towards a planned break this summer and am learning more about the importance of the sabbath. I read something somewhere that the good stuff comes from rest. It’s not about what we produce but what’s produced in us.
I needed that!
Schedule breaks? Egad. Writing for me is DRIVEN by the NEED to know how the story comes out. I am in the middle of the muddle of it and it is coalescing like interstellar gas forming into a star and there are no rules that I can imagine except that without the characters who have chosen me, without the characters who cry out that they will wither and die without my obsession, I would not be writing at all. Where did these characters come from? My decision to story worrying about what other people think, the decision to stop imitating, to stop trying to measure up to the drone of most prose. Describe the period at the end of one of your sentences. Why is it there? Should it be?
It sounds like we are in a similar place—struggling to get the wheels turning again after taking a break to work on a big project!
Then, fear trying to weasel its way in, and get us to doubt whether we ever possessed the talent to write in the first place?!
It’s ludicrous and yet a real battle
Thanks for this, Will! I always return refreshed but somehow seem to forget that in the midst of the slump.
Love yr honesty, Will. Appreciate the permission to feel the burden. But maybe the angst isn’t what we think. Maybe the Lord is doing something else. The adventure begins when we lean into that possibility…
Whew! I receive this permission slip!
I guess I really needed this, cuz I cried when I read it. Thanks for being honest and generous and kind, like Jesus.