Author burnout leaves writers unable to write, overwhelmed by deadlines, and questioning whether they can keep going. The demands of writing, publishing, and marketing—often managed alone—push creative professionals beyond their limits.
“If they’re alive and conscious, they should be thinking about self-care and sustainability,” says Becca Syme.
“Burnout happens when the exchange rate goes up because of stress and/or physical health and/or mental health, so much so that even the easiest of tasks now feels monumental,” said author coach Becca Syme.
Rather than a gradual buildup, burnout often comes after a major stressor that drains the last reserves of energy. Many authors don’t see it coming until they’re already struggling to function. The key to prevention, experts say, is balance—treating publishing like a long-term career rather than an all-consuming pursuit. For those already experiencing burnout, recovery requires rest, support, and a shift in mindset.
Burnout as an Overdrawn Energy Bank
Syme, an author coach specializing in sustainability and burnout prevention, compares burnout to an overdrawn energy bank account. Writers, she explains, spend “energy pennies” on everything they do, and when stress, mental health struggles, or external pressures increase the cost, even simple tasks feel overwhelming.
“We’re writing checks our energy bank can’t cash,” Syme said.
Burnout isn’t always the result of working too hard. More often, it happens when a major stressor depletes an author’s remaining reserves.
“Rarely is it just that we work ourselves so hard we burn out,” said Syme. “Usually, it’s over-working (without boundaries or self-care) in stasis, and then something happens that requires more of us, and we just can’t do it.”
A crisis, illness, or unexpected obligation can push an already exhausted writer past the breaking point. Without safeguards in place—such as clear boundaries and sustainable work habits—burnout is difficult to avoid.
“If they’re alive and conscious, they should be thinking about self-care and sustainability,” she said.
Preventing Burnout
Burnout often feels inevitable, but Syme says authors can take steps to prevent it before reaching a breaking point. The key, she says, is to shift mindset, set boundaries, and create a more sustainable relationship with writing and publishing.
“Don’t make publishing your entire life,” Syme said. She warns that putting too much weight on publishing success—whether financial or creative—can lead to burnout.
“When it’s your only hope, you work like it’s your only hope, and then everything rests on it. Danger zone.”
Authors who make writing their sole focus often find themselves trapped in a cycle of stress, constantly pushing harder without any room to recover. Having interests, hobbies, and sources of fulfillment outside of publishing helps maintain perspective and emotional balance.
Another critical step is seeking support. Many writers work in isolation, juggling deadlines, marketing, and business decisions on their own. However, according to Syme, asking for help is not a weakness—it’s a necessity.
“We are communal creatures and we need each other,” she said. Whether it means leaning on family, hiring assistance for administrative tasks, or simply building connections with other authors, a support system can make the difference between sustainable work and complete exhaustion.
Syme also encourages authors to reframe their relationship with publishing. “Treat publishing like a game,” she said. “It’s fun to try and win a game. It has low stakes. You’re allowed to learn and fail. It might work out for you and it might be amazing, or it might need to be a re-spawn where you try again.”
Viewing publishing as a long-term process rather than a high-stakes sprint reduces stress and encourages a mindset of learning rather than constant pressure to succeed.
She also warns against the constant distractions that can drain creative energy. In an episode of her Quitcast, she stressed the importance of managing attention and avoiding an endless cycle of social media, news, and industry trends. “If I’m not being a good steward of my attention, then I’m just constantly consuming and never, ever getting to pay attention to my own self and my own worth,” she said.
Authors who spend too much time reacting to external pressures—whether algorithm changes, market trends, or the rise of AI—often lose sight of their own creative needs.
Burnout prevention isn’t just about working less; it’s about working smarter. Syme urges writers to create sustainable habits, set clear boundaries, and remember why they started writing in the first place.
“I want us to think about how we’re spending our energy,” she said. “Because if we’re not at least a little bit conscious about how our attention is being maneuvered and stolen, then we’re going to lose it completely, and then we’re going to look back on the time and wish that we had done it differently.”
Recovery from Burnout
Syme says the first step is finding support from people who genuinely care about an author’s well-being.
“Find some good support. People who care about you and care about seeing you recover. Ask them for help,” she said. That support may be emotional, practical, or even financial if burnout has made it difficult to keep up with the demands of publishing.
Syme also cautions against self-blame. Many authors feel they should have seen burnout coming and done something to prevent it, but she says that is rarely the case.
“Burnout always feels like something we should have seen coming, but there’s rarely anything that could actually have been done to stop it because it usually happens in ways that we couldn’t predict,” she said.
Instead of dwelling on what went wrong, she encourages writers to focus on the next step: rebuilding their energy.
That recovery process, she says, requires prioritizing activities that bring joy and renewal.
“Make energy pennies for yourself. Do things that light you up. Things that make you feel alive. Whatever it is, do those things,” she said.
Just as someone recovering from surgery needs time to heal, she says authors recovering from burnout must treat rest and self-care as their primary job.
“Your job in burnout recovery is to recover,” she said. “We can’t return to life as usual. We have to do the work to recover and get to a healthy place.”
Writing Again
“Do whatever you can to get rid of any deadlines,” says Tracy Cooper-Posey.
For Tracy Cooper-Posey, burnout followed a series of personal crises that made writing nearly impossible. In a 2022 post, she described how she was diagnosed with cancer, underwent emergency spinal surgery, and later developed a hospital-acquired infection that delayed her chemotherapy. The combination of medical setbacks left her physically and mentally drained, making it difficult to return to her work.
“When life derails your writing—whether due to illness, loss, or other crises—the first step to recovery is removing pressure,” she wrote.
Instead of forcing herself back into a strict schedule, she advised writers to let go of deadlines and adjust expectations.
“Do whatever you can to get rid of any deadlines,” she wrote, even if that meant restructuring commitments and explaining delays to readers or collaborators.
Cooper-Posey found that creativity could not be forced but could be gently rekindled. She recommended revisiting old favorite books and movies, allowing nostalgia to reignite inspiration. A more active step involved transcribing passages from beloved works. “This engages your writer and editor mind, getting back into the habit of sentence construction,” she wrote.
When it came time to return to an abandoned manuscript, she suggested taking small, manageable steps.
“Write the next sentence,” she advised. “And when you’re ready, write that sentence down.” If resistance built, she encouraged writers to step back and allow more time to recover before pushing forward again.
Cooper-Posey reflected on how burnout continued to shape her career. While she eventually regained her writing momentum, she faced new challenges when her husband was diagnosed with cancer, making her a caregiver as well as the household’s sole breadwinner.
“I hit burnout about a year ago,” she said. “I’ve been struggling to find my writing mojo since then and tripped over the post I linked to above. I’ve been using that process to bring myself back to regular writing, and it’s working.”
Other Authors Share Their Burnout Experiences
Sarina Langer
“It took me around two months before I felt like myself again,” says Sarina Langer.
Sarina Langer experienced severe burnout that took months to recover from.
“The only thing that worked was to take a break, but because I'd been pushing myself too hard for too long, it took me around two months before I felt like myself again,” she said.
Now, she recognizes the warning signs earlier and makes it a priority to take breaks before burnout takes hold.
“I've also generally improved my work-relaxation balance,” she said.
Josh Sutphin
Josh Sutphin compared burnout to grief, saying it often follows the classic five stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
“Burnout takes as long to get out of as it took to get into,” he said. “Simply taking a vacation isn't enough. This is an inconvenient truth.”
For Sutphin, the hardest part of burnout was losing patience with everyone, even people he cared about. He realized that setting boundaries—even with himself—was critical.
“Burnout comes with a lot of anger. Anger means your boundaries are being violated. Getting clear on what your boundaries are is the first step to getting free,” he said.
Karen Williams
“Now I recognize the signs more quickly,” says Karen Williams.
Karen Williams turned to a coach for guidance when she hit burnout and found that support helped her make key decisions about her career.
“The last time involved me phoning up a coach friend in tears, and she supported me as I made some big decisions in my business,” she said.
Since then, she has learned the importance of regular breaks, holidays, and outside help.
“Now I recognize the signs more quickly. I know I can push myself for a short amount of time, but I also need regular breaks,” she said.
A.S.R. Gelpi
For A.S.R. Gelpi, burnout often showed up as difficulty focusing, especially during the editing stage, or a sudden loss of enthusiasm for writing. “It's tough juggling family, work, and publishing (and everything it entails, from writing to, ugh, marketing),” Gelpi said.
Her recovery strategy is to step away from book-related tasks for a couple of days and focus on non-writing activities.
“There were days when I could feel my brain about to shut down, and that was when I stepped away to give myself some self-care,” she said.
Over time, she found that taking short, intentional breaks made it easier to regain momentum without hitting a full burnout crisis.
MT McGuire
“I learned to peg writing as a leisure pursuit because that took the pressure off, and I ended up doing more,” says MT McGuire.
MT McGuire spent a decade on the edge of burnout while balancing caregiving, parenting, and overwhelming administrative tasks.
“Often in the moments when I had the time to write, my brain was too dead, or my heart too full,” she said.
Everything felt monochrome, and the stress of trying to write only made it harder. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helped her shift her mindset, teaching her to focus on small moments of creativity rather than forcing productivity.
“I learned to peg writing as a leisure pursuit because that took the pressure off, and I ended up doing more,” she said.
To stay creative, McGuire found quick, low-effort outlets, like “eyebombing”—sticking googly eyes on objects and photographing them. She also cut back on marketing, focusing only on essentials.
“Do what you can, the rest has to go,” she said. When lockdown briefly removed administrative burdens, she wrote an 85,000-word novel in six weeks. Burnout, she found, required letting go of unnecessary pressures and finding joy in small creative acts.
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Excellent thoughts. However, many authors don’t realize they’ve hit the burnout stage until it seems insurmountable. Perhaps we all need to recognize the early signs.