I took over five years off
from writing in a specific niche
in Romance.
Yes, my income
from that niche dipped.
But it didn’t stop.
Yes, my readership build stopped.
But existing readers didn’t forget about me.
When I came back to the niche,
they were waiting for me.
A loved one
didn’t have any formal schooling
(including no home schooling)
until she was sixteen.
When she was sixteen,
she decided on her own
she wanted to
earn her high school diploma.
She took accelerated courses,
went to school year round
and before her eighteenth birthday,
she had her high school diploma.
She is now applying
for universities.
“The gap year
has a terrible name.
It implies that
the year is somehow wasted,
that
it’s a gap snuck
in between the stuff
that you’re supposed to be doing.
But of course,
it’s not that at all.
Living is what
we’re supposed to be doing.
Contributing.
Learning.
Figuring out
how to make things better.
The stuff we’re not doing
when we’re simply complying
–that’s the point.
Our compliance years
are the gap.”
Taking time off
is unlikely to harm you
and it might be
the best decision
you ever made.