There are just times when a writer has to step back, whether from writing itself or from a single project. For career writers, there will be many of these moments over the years. And most of those career writers will feel guilty for doing so. Writing is a business. Stepping back means losing valuable work time and money. As noted in my previous article, Recharging Your Spirit, all writers need time off. They need ways to refresh themselves. This can only be good for the writing. There is no reason to feel guilty about taking time for oneself, no matter the profession.

But there is another kind of stepping back that is often harder to justify. Setting aside a project, any project, is a difficult decision in a business where finished projects determine your value as a writer, particularly if a lot of time and effort has already been put into it. All that work is seen as wasted and that pressures the writer to continue. Other writers can add to this pressure without realizing it -- they like the project and want to see it done. They may indicate that the author's misgivings are related to a lack of confidence and advise the author to just push through those feelings by continuing to work on it. Even articles like the last meta, A Dividing Line, can pressure a writer into continuing where she or he should not.

Sometimes a writer just needs to take a big breath and set aside a project. This is particularly true if the project is ambitious with a lot of advanced techniques involved and the writer is new to the career of writing. No one walks the day after they are born, writers can't fly the day after they first pick up a pen. We all want our stories to come out "just right," but for that to happen the writer has to be ready. It's about limits, and most people don't know where their limits are until they've pushed past the boundary. Once that's happened, it's more damaging to the writer and the work to keep going than to set it side for a time.

How big of a breath will a writer need to take? That depends on the writer and the project. Regardless of the time, however, an author shouldn't feel guilty about putting something aside until they are better prepared to work with it, even if they have to set it aside several times before they finally finish it. Picking it back up and trying again often takes more perseverance than just moving on to another project. Everything in between those efforts is nothing more than breathing.