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I’m exhausted. Tired. Kaput.

It’s taking me three times longer than it should to finish a project. I’m typing all the wrong things – words that don’t exist. My eyes don’t focus on what I’m reading. I’m not paying attention when I’m spoken to. I wake up tired after a night riddled with horrific nightmares (though those can be turned into stories).

It’s time for me to take a break from the bombardment of social media and blogging. It’s time for me to take some me time. It’s time for me to have quiet surround me so I can refuel, refresh and restart.

I’ve tried working through my exhaustion. I’ve tried to push through and get my work done. I’ve tried to do everything at once. I’ve tried to be super-human.

I can’t anymore.

I don’t want to face burnout again. I don’t want to watch my ideas wither and die – never to be finished, never to become great stories.

So, I’ve slowly started in the last week to cut back on social media and I didn’t do a #TwistedTaleTuesday or a #FolkloreThursday post on the blog. That was hard. And I wrote this post. Which was even harder, though I did feel relief as I wrote it.

I’m taking September off.

Yes, you read right: for the entire month of September I won’t be blogging, tweeting, posting stuff on Google+, Wattpad or anywhere else. I probably won’t be answering emails either.

In September I’m going to do some spring cleaning. Not just my home, but also my writing (especially my hard drive). I’m going to finish a few writing projects that have been mere ideas on post-it notes. I’m going to (finally!) read the books I bought for my birthday in June. And I’m going to remind myself daily that it’s okay not to go online, that it’s okay to focus on myself, that it’s okay to take some time to just write without any distractions or deadlines.

I’ll be back in October. In October I’ll share my experience of going dark, of taking time to just write. In October I’ll catch up on everything I’ve missed in September.

Until then…

Oh, before you think this has something to do with not being successful while being on social media: my short story about Valkyries, Furies and the Fates was selected to be published in an anthology at the end of November. I only found out about the anthology opportunity on Twitter…

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