There’s a joke about a writer. Mental Health Awareness Month was around the corner and this writer, being an expert in mental health–from both experience and education–was given the reins that month: their editor expected them to write weekly articles, daily blog-posts, and hourly tweets. The strain was so intense that the writer went mad.
That’s it.
That’s the joke.
We Take Mental Health Awareness Seriously
There’s a another joke about a another writer from another publication, and this writer was the sole representative of their demographic–PoC, queer, doesn’t matter. The coming month was supposed to be their month–February for Black History Month, June for Pride month, that sort of thing. And the editor (who, again, was not of the same background) started asking questions about what the writer might like to do: “How best can we honor your heritage in print?”
“By giving me a paid vacation that month,” the writer said.
Well. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. And what better way to celebrate mental health than by taking a little break? I understand that not everyone can step away from their work; that burnout is more the rule than the exception these days. All the more reason to talk about the ways in which time off can be revitalizing, not just for the person, but for their approach to their work.
Description: “2 R W” written in large, wavy script. The final line of the “W” is a fountain-pen.
Sometimes a Vacation is a Vacation
Other times…
I wasn’t taking a complete break from writing, though. I had a piece published in the last issue of Door is a Jar magazine. I got a half-dozen rejection letters. I wrote a poem or two; wrote a story, revised two more… It’s been interesting and even productive.
And with productivity has come progress. Even as recently as a few months ago, I would write something, workshop it endlessly, send it out, receive a rejection letter, and then say “well, that’s just the process” with a shrug of my shoulders. Now, though? I see it. I see where my stories need to be improved. I see why they are getting rejected. And maybe even how to get them un-rejected.
Taking Care of my Mental Health Led to this Insight
I’ll give you an example. I just wrote and submitted a story about a father, his son, and the son’s friend. When I submitted the story, I received an unusual amount of feedback from the editor. I had concentrated on the antagonism between the father and the friend; the editor pointed out that I also needed to establish relationships between the father and the son, and between the son and the friend.
A valid response to this sort of criticism might be: that’s not what the story is about; fleshing out those relationships would distract from the main point of the piece. I’ll send it somewhere else. Someone will pick it up. I’ve done that before with other pieces. One got picked up. But this time, I reread the piece and realized the editor was right. Through three or four cycles of revision, I ripped paragraphs, characters, bits of dialogue and description out of the story in order to make room to flesh out the two relationships while still keeping the story within the three-thousand-word limit. It’ll probably still get rejected this time around. It’s also the best thing I’ve ever written.
Periodic Breaks for Refocus
So, in a way, what happened in the last month wasn’t a break; it was a sabbatical. You know–the kind of ‘vacation’ academics get to go on every half-decade or so where they leave their teaching duties behind and focus on their writing. A lot of careers would benefit from having that kind of time off for reflection and rededication–or just from having long-ass vacations like they have in Europe. A temporary change of focus is a necessity for mental health–and for continuing to develop in skill as a person, as a writer, as a collaborator.
The Risks and Downsides of Taking Care of Mental Health
Was it scary taking this much time off? Yeah. It was. “Nerve-racking” is closer to the mark. Will I come back and be able to turn out prose like before? Have I lost the knack? The habit? The enthusiasm? The readership? It’s not easy to navigate such intrusive thoughts. But the alternative is worse. I was facing each week’s assignments, whether writing or editing, with a kind of grim determination. A refusal to back down even though I knew I was burning out.
After all, Erika and I launched this publication in December 2021. We have wonderful columnists and Erika does amazing work writing, even apart from her work behind the scenes. But if there’s an article that made it to publication (with a few exceptions) I spent at least a few hours editing it and revising it. That’s a lot of hours every week. I’m glad for each one–each hour, each article.. Sometimes I go back through the publication and just read a random article or poem. I’m so proud of the work we do. But that doesn’t mean I can keep going indefinitely.
I like to think that the time I took off from publication proves how much I love this work. First, because I came back. But mainly because I could have continued week by week; a bit more resentful with each passing article. Until I decided to stop for good. I didn’t do that. Writing is one of my great loves; and every love is a relationship and every relationship requires maintenance.
This all but wraps up our exhaustive coverage of Mental Health Awareness Month. Tune in soon to see what we have planned for Pride 2023!
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