How Taking Time Off Helped Me Finish My Book

Today’s guest post is by Ann McCallum Staats.

My latest book, A Quilt of Stars, co-written with astronaut Karen Nyberg, went out to 35 editors and while three brought it to acquisitions meetings, all ultimately said no thanks.

Comments included “We have a lot of books on astronauts” and “Bios are too tough to sell right now.” There were other more personal comments, too. Ouch. Good-bye months of effort, not to mention a project that Karen and I love.

P.S. It did sell on #36, but I’ll get to that later.

Suffice it to say, all those rejections were hard to stomach. I took some time off. Not weeks or months because I knew that prolonged inertia was going to be hard to kickstart back into action. But taking hours or a couple of days off is a persuasive argument because when I stepped away, I realized how critical that tiny act of push-back is for my writing career. It’s taking control in the publishing realm where so much of what happens is out of my hands.

I began to take purposeful, scheduled, and directed excursions into the world and away from my keyboard. By making time for museums, parks, and other outings, I was reminded to never underestimate the value of “head writing.”

• When at the African American Museum, for example, I tapped into fortitude and endurance. I brought that back to the story of Karen who, determined to become an astronaut at an early age, broke down challenge after challenge to finally get accepted into NASA’s program.
• When visiting Planet Word, a museum that celebrates language, I homed into the beautiful, lyrical nuances of how we speak. I later went back to incorporate some of that wonder into Karen’s story as well. In A Quilt of Stars, Karen’s experiment with sewing in space led to a project that connected people from all over the globe. It’s a unique story of art, science, and humanity. To weave together these different aspects (See what I did there?), sewing terms help convey the message. For instance, “Her mind stitched together a dream” and “She persisted and adapted as she unknotted each difficulty.”
• Other experiences provided a less obvious connection but were just as powerful. A stroll through the US Botanic Garden helped me relate to Karen’s time in the cupola of the International Space Station. She describes the view of Earth from that perspective as a beautiful patchwork of people and places. At the garden, I took time to absorb and appreciate the incredible complexity of the natural world.

Don’t get me wrong; I didn’t intentionally go outside to pinpoint ways to improve my craft. I didn’t even bring along a notebook or take notes on my phone (though maybe that’s not a bad idea for next time). It was more the osmosis of the head writing and getting out of my familiar that prompted deeper insight and exploration. Taking a break from my desk, I’ve found, is necessary in the process of creating something worthwhile. It’s also critical for rediscovering joy in writing.

When I’m at my desk, one of the ways I motivate myself to actually sit down and get words on the page is that I keep track of time. I’m pretty sure lots of people do this. In my case, I write the time I start working and mark down when I stop. For example, this morning I began at 6:30 (I do Wordle until it’s a convenient start time) and now it’s 8:37. At 8:45, I’ll stop for breakfast for a few minutes and then get back at it.

But as helpful as timekeeping is—the accountability piece—without tempering it with time off-task, it can backfire. Less time with a refreshed, rejuvenated mind is far more conducive to quality writing than is slogging through hours of forced work. It’s when the words don’t come and the rejections pile up that permission to pause becomes so crucial. I pinkie promise myself to take a different path for a while.

Not that long after the 35th rejection of A Quilt of Stars, while I had been taking some planned field trips here and there, something a little more decisive happened to reinforce time off. It was a medical issue, serious at the time, that required surgery and four days in the hospital. When I got home, I did some introspection; did I really want to continue putting in the time and effort it takes to be a writer?

As soon as I could, I began taking mini-walks (no driving for a while) that became longer as I got stronger. I also gifted myself time on my computer, at first in 15-minute increments. I cherished both the walks and the writing time. With this self-care routine, I knew—a resounding yes—that I’m a writer now and always. What was also one-hundred percent evident is that my creativity tank needs regular top-ups of meaningful, inspirational, gratitude-invoking breaks.

There’s an additional happy ending to this story. The day I submitted A Quilt of Stars for us to the 36th publishing house, the editor wrote me that day to say they were interested. Why did it take so long to get a yes? Who knows. What I do understand is that beautiful things happen when I pause— the opportunity to discover and incorporate what this magnificent world has to offer is an invigorating experience.  

Ann McCallum Staats

Ann McCallum Staats is an award-winning children’s author. Her upcoming book A Quilt of Stars: Astronaut Karen Nyberg Stitches a Dream is co-written with Karen Nyberg and illustrated by Alida Massari.