I Quit Writing for a Week and It Wasn't Fun!

Hi guys!
So. If you saw my post last week, then you know I quit writing and editing for a week to see what would happen. In short? It wasn't fun. It sucked. A lot. However, I actually recommend that you try it. I'll tell you why, but first, here's what my week looked like:

Day 1: I spent today at a wrap-up party for my semester, work, and then a 7-hour car ride to Kentucky. I didn't have time to miss writing. However, I did start to write a poem in my head in the shower this morning before I realized what I was doing and that I couldn't write it down on my awesome waterproof notepad. It was sad :(
Day 2: Today consisted entirely of watching my niece and nephew. Again, no time to miss writing.
Day 3: Spent the day shopping at a beautiful bookstore filled with used books and amazing plots. And of course, on the ride home we passed a forest that reminded me of my mystery book, The Rosewood Doe Not Lie. I very much regret taking this challenge...
Day 4: Today we drove back to Michigan. Waaay too tired to think about writing. However, the panic of not giving chapters to my beta reader/getting my word count in for TRDNL began to settle in. Meh.
Day 5: IT'S RAINING. IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL. IT'S SUCH A PERFECT WRITING DAY. WHAT HAVE I DONE.
Day 6: Worked alll daaay looooong. So tired. I want to edit Unperfected and I CAN'T.
Day 7: Screw it/ I'M WRITING AND EDITING TODAY.

And here we are. This was a tough challenge! I found myself saying, "What am I supposed to do with myself?" a lot. And I just didn't know! I read when I could ( which wasn't often because I was so busy) but I mostly struggled with quieting my inner writer. I wrote poems in my head unintentionally, and dialogue between my characters just kind of... happened. AND I COULDN'T WRITE ANY OF IT DOWN.
But, I learned something very important through this experience, and that is that I cannot quit writing. I write against my will! It's a natural part of who I am, and to give up would be like scraping out a piece of my heart and throwing it away. I feel very secure in knowing that writing is what I am meant to do. And I'm so excited to be able to do it again!
As much as it sucks, I highly recommend this to all you writers out there. Whether you aren't sure if you're meant to be a writer, stuck writing a certain scene or chapter, or are just simply curious, try taking a week off of writing and see what happens! You just may learn something new about yourself :)


"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" - 2 Corinthians 13:5