216. How to Restart Your Writing after a Break

“Do not make yourself wrong. Life is busy. We have multiple commitments that we're juggling, all of us.” - Beth Barany

In this How To Write the Future podcast episode titled “How to Restart Your Writing after a Break,” host Beth Barany shares the emotional turbulence of coming back to writing after a break and why feeling anger can be a powerful tool to use in your writing. She also offers tips to use timed writing and helpful prompts, which are available to download free here.

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ABOUT THE HOW TO WRITE THE FUTURE PODCAST

How To Write The Future is a podcast for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to imagine better worlds—and write stories that bring those futures to life. Each episode offers practical craft guidance, creative prompts, and big-picture inspiration to help you draft, revise, and publish with purpose.

ABOUT BETH BARANY

Beth Barany is an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. Through her services and products, she guides novelists to write, revise, and publish stories that matter—blending practical craft guidance with a big-picture commitment to bright imagination, deep meaning, and wide-open possibilities. She calls writers to create with hope and courage—and to speak truth through art, even when it stretches them into a new version of themselves.

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Transcript

216. How to Restart Your Writing after a Break

Welcome And Topic

BETH BARANY: Hi everyone. Beth Barany here with How to Write the Future podcast. Today, I'm gonna talk to you about how do you restart your writing after a break. For some of you listening as I release this, it is summertime, and maybe you've had to step away from your writing, or maybe you're trying to restart after a busy first six months of the year, or maybe it's another time of year, and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I've stepped away from my writing. How do I get restarted?" 

I have to say, I have been in this position many, many, many, many times. I feel like I'm an expert in restarting. It is something that, gosh, I have done so many times.

[00:42] Emotional Turbulence

So first of all, you might encounter some emotional turbulence as you realize you've stepped away from your writing, and now you're, like, waking up after a dream or a very busy life, and you're like, "Oh my gosh, I wanna make time for my writing."

But maybe you feel upset, which is something I used to feel. I'd feel so upset. "Oh my God, how could I forget my writing?" 

That's how I used to feel. I feel less so now. Now it's more like, "Oh wow, I'm really cranky. I need to make time for my writing." 

Yeah. If I don't write, I am… I feel very cranky, and I also feel like, uh, I'm not living my purpose, and that actually makes me really angry at myself, but more angry, just like explosive energy of anger.

Anger is such a great indicator of how some boundary has been crossed. And basically, the boundary that I cross when I forget about my writing, or I don't make time for my writing, is a commitment, a promise to myself. I have crossed that line. I have broken that promise to myself. So once I feel all that, feel your feelings.

I make space for my emotional turbulence, and I recommend that you do the same. Do not make yourself wrong. Life is busy. We have multiple commitments that we're juggling, all of us. So once you take some time, feel your feelings, make some room for that, and then that could take a few days. That could take an hour.

Come to neutral. Find yourself in a neutral place and start.

[02:17] Start Small Again

Now, how do you start writing? 

When I have taken a break, I start small. I give myself permission not to be overly ambitious, but just to rev the engine. It is like a car has been sitting overnight in very cold temperature, and what do you do?

You don't expect your car to just go. You rev your engine. You clean the windshield, do-do-do, and you warm up the car. You need to warm up. Just like you're not gonna expect yourself to go and do a really long run if you've taken a break from running. I don't run anymore; I used to, or any kind of working out.

You don't wanna jump in full force; you wanna jump in gently. So what does that look like for you? That could look all kinds of ways. Maybe you just work for 5 minutes, maybe 10, maybe 20.

[03:06] Timed Writing Boundaries

I love timed writing. I have talked about that multiple times on the podcast. This is what I do to help myself stay focused. Is I do timed writing.

When I am starting out again with my writing after a break, I will contain the space. I will put a boundary around the space. I will set the timer even for 5 minutes or 10. 

I ask myself, "What feels doable right now?" And I set that timer for that. I don't make it overly ambitious. I don't try and, "Oh, my God, today I've gotta write five pages."

I don't set ambitious deadlines or goals, or word counts. Nothing. I just keep it really small, and if all I do on the day one of coming back after a break is 5 minutes of writing, that's successful. And so that's the mindset shift I wanna invite you into. And then promise yourself, tomorrow, I'm gonna write for 6 minutes or 10 minutes.

I'm gonna increase it a little bit because you are a bit rusty mentally, emotionally, even maybe physically, just sitting down to write and focus.

[04:09] Warm Up The Muse

So those are my two main tips, is leave space for your emotional turbulence, really have compassion for yourself there, and start slowly warming up your own creative engine as you get back into your writing.

The other thing, uh, that you may wanna do is reread your work so you can acquaint yourself with it, reread your story notes, and do other things that invite the creative muse to join you, whether it's opening up your Scrivener program, or putting in your favorite music, or having your favorite writing drink, or, making sure that you do something physical before you write.

I like to walk and then write. So there's a lot of different habits that you can put together; people call that habit stacking, so that you are welcoming the muse, and the muse will come with you. And you've set up your writing environment the way you like it so you can get back to your writing. Writing is a practice in the most fundamental sense, meaning the more we do it, the better we get at it.

So if we've taken a break, we're gonna feel rusty. We're gonna feel like, "Wait, how do I do this thing?" And that's okay. We need to warm up. And there might even be writing prompt exercises that you like to do to get your juices flowing. I used to not really have any affinity for writing prompts, and now I love using writing prompts.

[05:34] Prompts And Free Gift

So if you would like some writing prompts today, this episode, I'm gonna offer you a special gift. It's my 10 writing prompts little e-book. Be sure to look for that giveaway in the show notes so that you can grab your own writing prompts book and have lots of ideas for what to write about if you are just getting started or if you're stuck.

[05:58] Closing Sign Off

All right, everyone, that's it for this week. Write long and prosper.