A Novel Idea Part 5: When to Take a Break

My Fellow Contributors,

This week I am returning to my series about the novel I am writing. I am happy to report that I have completed over 60 frames and have finished my first composition notebook.

What I want to expound upon in this blog, is a part of the writing process that I have come to call, The Break Up. It's that point when you put the piece you are working on in the bottom drawer and live. I remember reading somewhere that Adrian Capote would write in his bed and when he had gotten to a certain point in a story  he would put it in the bottom drawer of his night stand. He would then grab the piece he had previously put in there and would start revising it or would start an entirely new piece. And in a way this is exactly what I am doing. But instead of writing an entire new piece of long fiction, I have started dating my long lost partner poetry.


As a writer it's important to realize when you need to put a piece down. Although you should never let a lack of words stop you from writing, when you find yourself forcing words, creating images that don't synch up or are just completely out of left field, then it is time to put the piece "on the back burner" and let it simmer. Remember that writing a book is not a sprint but a marathon. It is an exercise of mental endurance.

Just like any break up, the prospect of being friends is very slim. There needs to be no contact between you and the other. You will find that when you do come back to it, a few things have changed. First and the biggest change is that you are coming to this piece with new life experiences; new images and words for conversations. New little minute details that will complete a character. Perhaps the character you were going to kill off, you now decide should stick around for a few more chapters. Perhaps instead of cheap grungy hotel, you are going to have your characters meet up at a strip club. Whatever you decide, it is precisely because you took the time to clear your mind of the expectations and the patterns you have already created that now allows you to better present your characters.

Alli has mentioned this several times in her blogs and I am going to repeat it here: You have to live. You have to meet people, get out of your comfort zone. You have to hear all the praise, and all of the shit. You have to fall, and you have to get back up. You've got to make a few friends and spit a few lines.

And on that note, I want to invite you to my next blog next week where I am going to be discussing the ever evolving art of FLOW-try. Its not just about rhyme scheme and its not simply, hip hop.

It's about presentation.

It's about swag.

As Always

Undoubtedly Yours,

Bermuda the Man