Writers Are Allowed to Take Vacations. Stop Bragging About How You Never Do.

How did we get here?

What exactly has occurred to shape a creative culture in which you’re somehow “less than” if you aren’t writing 12 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year?

Why do we receive praise for announcing our “hiatuses” from social media?

Why is it a “big deal” whenever we decide to unplug for a weekend?

Shouldn’t all this be a normal part of the writing life?

I don’t understand writers who “don’t have time” to take breaks.

Or those who “take breaks,” but somehow manage not to actually break away from their routines to accomplish the very thing a break is technically meant for.

And I used to be one of them.

University life filled me with a toxic cocktail of lies, making me believe I had to “be it all” to make it as a writer. I don’t regret the degrees. But…