I just finished the draft of a novel. It’s a new novel not in my series.

I still have to work on it. Part of that work is letting it sit without me looking at it.

Stephen King says to put it away for month, at least. Don’t peak, don’t tinker, don’t fix that one part.

Right now, I feel lazy.

I also feel burned out on the story and I am dying for it to be done.

Done, done. Really done.

I’ve been a boxer and martial artist for thirty years. When you train to fight you learn how to do interval training. That’s going really hard for a short time to get your heart rate up  and then resting.

After you recover you repeat it. It’s exhausting but it conditions you for fighting.

I wonder if writing needs the same exercise. Is it just my laziness that tells me to break? Could I condition myself to writing for longer periods of time with fewer breaks? Would the writing suffer? Is burnout just a cop out?

Something tells me I need intervals. I’m just not sure about the work/rest ratio.