How an Author Can Prevent Burnout
We’ve had the same conversation with authors countless times: it’s essential to prevent burnout if you’re going to stay the course and become successful.
One of the best ways to prevent burnout is to repurpose your content. In this way, you are not reinventing the wheel so much as giving it a quarter turn.
Two Different Examples of an Author Repurposing Content
Author Tania Runyan first wrote How to Read a Poem as a series of blog posts here at Tweetspeak Poetry; the anthology and prompt portions were added later at the book stage.
Similarly, Tania’s book How to Write a Poem revolves around a sample poem she’d already written after going on a road trip. And How to Write a Form Poem takes Tania’s road trip concept further, incorporating many existing travel experiences and poems that she could simply pick up and put into a new form (her book).
You might think this just makes sense. But you’d be surprised at how many authors work at odds with their own established experiences and content.
The result is often burnout.
Burnout leads to early quitting: a death knell to most authors’ careers. Authors who persist and write multiple books are statistically far more successful than those who quit after their first or second title.
Author and illustrator Sara Barkat has a slightly different challenge than Tania: she has difficult time sticking to “one thing.” It’s the artist in her, always wanting to unearth what’s new and intriguing. This is the hardest kind of author to be.
How do you repurpose content when you are more interested in what’s new? Repurposing is powerful. Staying in “a groove” helps to build your author platform. But in Sara’s case staying in a groove presents a real challenge: burnout from too much focus on the same.
Sara found a way.
The key has been to repurpose into various media that feel different enough from one another to remain intriguing, while also managing to repurpose her content and keep a focus.
The best example of this comes from her efforts with The Sadbook Collections. What began as a response to sorrow turned into a (mostly) daily comic strip. This turned into a book. Followed by a fun YouTube channel that now adds color and motion…
What kind of author are you? Or, what kind of author are you aspiring to be?
Repurposing is a superpower you’ll want to take advantage of, in the special way that suits you. Don’t work against yourself. To prevent burnout and improve your odds of success, working with yourself is key.
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bethany says
I also get that feeling of feeling drawn to the new. Fun to think it can be found in a “quarter-turn,” as you say. Reminds me of collage.
L.L. Barkat says
What a great comparison, Bethany. I’m going to think of it that way from now on! 🙂