We all need to take a break from time to time. Managing the process is an underappreciated part of the GM’s toolkit. Here are 12 rules to follow.

This illustration combines two images. The relaxing man photo is by Frauke Riether and the clock face (which was used as inspiration for the text rendering) Image was provided by OpenClipart-Vectors, both sourced from Pixabay.

Taking A Break

Today’s topic is one that I don’t think I’ve ever discussed here at Campaign Mastery.

Quite obviously, I’m taking a break from the Trade In Fantasy series, mostly so that readers who aren’t into that particular subject can have something that might interest them more.

Other Benefits Of A Break

There are other benefits from taking a break that are worth noting, too.

• Chiefly, it avoids burnout – an important consideration when there is a large project underway. I’ve now mapped out the Trade In Fantasy series and now expect it to run to a total of 25 parts of roughly equal length – but with room in that schedule to add up to another 3 or 4 if things take longer than planned.

  Any project that runs over a total of 25 weeks is a serious undertaking, given that half a year is roughly 26 weeks, and burnout is a serious potential problem.

  Adding at least 1 alternative post in 3 extends the duration of a project like this by 8 or 9 weeks, well over the half-year mark, but makes it more likely that the whole thing will get done.

• It gives more time to think about the major project, and that can be a godsend when there are issues that you haven’t resolved yet.

  For example, if I break a chapter / major section into two or three posts, each with their own featured ‘spot image’ here in the blog, should I break the chapters in the eventual e-book the same way, or simply use the spot images in exactly the same way?

  Should Chapter 3 of the compiled e-book be “Routine Personnel”, followed by Chapter 4, “Mode Of Transport”? Or should Chapter 3 be “Routine Personnel Part 1,” Chapter 4 be “Routine Personnel Part 2,” and “Mode Of Transport” start in Chapter 5?

  At the moment, no decision has been made, and I’m preparing both pathways. It’s entirely possible that I will employ both – while “Routine Personnel” might not be split, “Mode Of Transport” might.

• A change of pace keeps one fresh. It’s really hard to stay focused so intently on one topic for so long; that’s why it encourages burnout. But “a change is as good as a holiday,” as the old saying goes – not completely accurate but not wildly incorrect, either.
• And, lastly, it gives readers a break, too. For all the same reasons listed above.

  What, you didn’t realize that readers can suffer from burnout, too? Well, they can. It’s less likely to happen if you can deep-dive and read a whole thing in just a few sittings, or skim until something catches your eye; the next best solution is to pause and interrupt with something completely different. The worst solution, from my experience, is a never-end dribble of small bites.

  I’ve just finished reading an Omnibus H. G. Wells. Well, kinda. I got 2/3 of the way through ‘The Food Of The Gods’ before I simply couldn’t be bothered reading any more of it. I didn’t even get that far into ‘The Days Of The Comet’.In both cases, I simply got tired of reading the story, losing any curiosity about ‘what happens next’ – something that has never happened with “The War Of The Worlds” (which I have read ‘cover-to-cover’ at least a dozen times, or ‘The Invisible Man’. There’s an object lesson in those experiences to be considered.

The Risks and Down-sides

It must also be admitted that there are some dangers in doing so.

• You risk lengthening a project beyond the point of sustaining interest in it.

  I don’t think I need to belabor this point, it speaks for itself.

• Memory is fragile and sometimes fleeting. And worse still, it’s plastic. It’s altogether too easy to write yourself into a corner, forgetting how you were going to avoid that, or get yourself out of it – something you knew perfectly well at the time, but that escapes you afterwards. This is especially prone to happen after a long break.

  There are a whole bunch of series that I’ve started and not completed – the problem is that recapturing the mindset behind them would take longer than the publishing schedule permits. The first step being to re-read your notes, and the second being to re-read the entire published series to date.

  Some simply go completely off the rails when (metaphorically) pen meets page, and what seemed like a good idea at the time never actually materializes. This is frustrating for everyone – readers and writers alike – but it happens.

  And, sometimes, plans can get derailed by side issues, either in the writing or in the real life of the writer. Plans do sometimes go astray. This is often more likely to occur without audience feedback, I’ve noticed – when there’s only your own spark of inspiration to get you through rough patches.

• You can lose the train of thought that was the central pillar around which the whole subject was oriented. Again, the end result is a series that never gets completed.
• Readers can lose interest if a series is spun out for too long. This saps the motivation of a writer as an after-effect.

  Writers like myself don’t do this purely for recognition or acknowledgment; it’s more of an itch that needs to be scratched regularly. We write and publish for our own satisfaction as much as anything else.

  But there are always rough patches, as indicated above, and sometimes you need the motivation of readers enjoying your work to get you through them. If you aren’t getting that, if numbers are down, it’s easier and often better to simply move on to writing something else.

  You can only coast on momentum for so long.

• Ideas unrelated to the major work in hand can be distracting. Again, sometimes there’s a specific itch that needs to be scratched, a particular idea that you need to focus on for a little while. Until you do so, it poses an ongoing distraction – and those can accumulate until you find yourself thinking of anything and everything but what you’re supposed to be working on.

  In fact, having such a compulsion is one of the surest indicators that you need to take a break from a major project that I know of.

I’m sure there are others, but those are what is coming to mind at the moment. It’s enough to be getting on with, at any rate.

Application to other RPG projects

Every GM has to tackle the occasional “big, long, project” as part of their campaign planning / prep / creation. Even if no-one is going to read what you have written, players will get to experience the fruits of your labors eventually.

Even if you aren’t writing a gaming blog (which, clearly, I am), these same effects can manifest in those projects. I’ve seen popular campaigns be abandoned by the GM because the prep started to become too involved, feeling more like work than having fun. One GM I used to know could never sustain interest in one of his own campaigns for more than 3-6 months. Those campaigns were often full of interesting ideas not explored, much to the frustration of players; it seemed like you only scratched the surface and suddenly, it was all over.

The inevitable conclusion is that the management techniques that writers like myself employ to keep a series alive and ticking despite the need for a break can also be of benefit to those who aren’t writing to a regular publishing schedule. This is the ‘original thought’ that prompted the writing of this article – while it was fresh in my mind, before it got lost in the shuffle, and while it was posing a distraction from the series.

Break Management

The “rules” that I follow, in terms of break management, are fairly simple and straightforward. They have evolved out of long experience, both as a writer and as a GM.

Some or even all of them will be obvious to readers, but they are still worth pointing out, ‘setting them in stone’ as it were. There are 12 of them – rather more than I expected when I set out to explore this topic – but none of them are all that difficult or complicated.

Let me list them, and then I’ll provide some analysis, explanation, and commentary:

1. Allow for the need in project planning
2. Keep them short
3. Keep them regular
4. Keep them different
5. Keep them self-contained
6. Make them enjoyable
7. Make them distracting / compelling
8. Every Project is Different
9. Maintain a productive (writing?) schedule
10. Up-end your writing schedule occasionally
11. Touch base with the major project
12. Know, and factor in, your habits.

All of which should seem rather obvious, but there’s nuance and interaction to consider. So let’s look at each in greater detail.

1. Allow for the need in project planning

25 posts in the “Trade” series, plus one for the PDF version, less 2 already published, leaves 24. Multiply by 1 1/2 for one “outside” post to every 2 regular parts, gives a total of 36. Add 2 (weeks) for Christmas / New Year. Count 38 weeks starting from next week. The result is when the ‘extended’ “Trade” series should wrap up: – June 16, 2025. And that’s making no allowances for real life getting in the way, which – over that length of time – it inevitably will. Should I allow 5% extra for that factor? 10%? 20? (I usually allow 10%, YMMV). So, mid-July.

In my ‘writing’ mode, I don’t have a deadline for the series to wrap up; I have the privilege of being able to set my own schedule, my own timetable. When it comes to game prep, that luxury goes away.

Instead, I do then have a deadline, and have to count backwards from that deadline to know when I have to start.

I have another major project underway – the one that has sparked the “Valuation” series (of which there are many parts still in the works) – that has to be completed before the pulp session after next. But, with my co-GM temporarily out of circulation, that’s a soft target. Still, the worst-case scenario (the tightest deadline) is December 7, some 54 days away.

There are 89 parts to this project, of which 50 are now done – so that leaves 39 to do. Which means that I need to turn out one every 54/39 = 1.38 days. But, 2 days a week are fully committed to Campaign Mastery – so I don’t actually have 54 days, I have 5/7 of that, or 38.57 days.

That means that in order to be ready for deadline, I need to do one a day except for the days when I’m working on something for CM.

Most of them – say 75% – will take 1 day or less. Most of what’s left – say 75% – will take 2. The rest will take 2-4 days.

(0.75 × 1) × 39 + (0.25 × 2 × 0.75) × 39 + (0.25 × 0.25 × 4) × 39
= 29.25 + 14.625 + 9.75 = 53.625 days’ work to do – in 39 days.

In reality, then, allowing for these ‘longer parts’, I need to do 1.375 ‘days’ of work, 5 days a week, to be ready. That’s 1 3/8.

But wait – I haven’t allowed that 10%. That bumps the total ‘days’ of effort up from 53.625 to 59, close enough, and 59/39 = a smidgen over 1.5.

5 days at 1.5 units a day = 7.5 a week.

This is doable, but only if I make it a much higher priority than it has been lately (I’ve been doing about 4 a week, I need to almost double that).

That’s the reality of scheduled game prep. You have to accommodate the time available and do the best you can in that time-frame. (Note that if I have to, I can add another 60 days to that schedule, x 5/7 of course, or 42 days – but I don’t want to if I don’t have to).

And hopefully this real-world example will resonate with readers who need to do this sort of thing for their own campaigns. (I’ve deliberately skimped on project details so that they aren’t distracting).

2. Keep them short

Breaks should be shorter than you would normally spend on whatever it is that you are taking a break from. I will have spent a lot less than half as long working on this post than I would normally spend on a post for Campaign Mastery, even though it’s a fairly normal length – it’s flowed fairly naturally out of the keyboard. Up to 75% of normal is fine; try not to spend more than that, if you can avoid it.

3. Keep them regular

Right now, I probably didn’t need a break – the “Trade” series is new, and I’m eager to press on with it. Toward the end of the project, there’s the added boost that comes from being near the finish line. It’s the 1/3 of the project that ends at about the 80% mark that I will most need to take a break from it.



But by taking regular breaks now, I delay the onset of the difficult period, which means that it doesn’t have time to grow severe; and that means that fewer breaks are needed even at the most tedious part of the project. The finish line never moves, and neither does the sense that you are almost there, that you have it in sight.

Taking regular breaks from the start of a project – and allowing for them in the project schedule – is the best way to ensure that they aren’t needed, and are just nice to have.

A bonus reward is a measure of flexibility.

4. Keep them different

Whatever you do that constitutes a “break”, make it something as different from what you usually do in fulfillment of the project as you possibly can. If both are writing, as is the case with today’s post, there’s only so much you can do, but even there, there is lots of scope.

Sadly-deceased author Robert Asprin was writing a very depressing book, full of things like mercenaries burying themselves alive to deny the enemy the body-count that would otherwise be inevitable. As an anodyne to the paranoia and depression, he started fiddling with a comedy novel, a deliberate satire on the normal Fantasy Tropes, while watching a parade of the Bing Crosby / [x] “Road” movies. In the process, the pair of conniving chiselers always in trouble up to their necks made their way from the screen and onto the written page, becoming the central characters of “Another Fine Myth”.

So keep your breaks different, but no less productive.

5. Keep them self-contained

This is frequently a case of do as I say, not as I do. Last year, before I moved, I started a pair of series more or less at the same time, one about the Fantasy world of Aysle, and one about the Nightmare realm of Orrorsh, both elements of TORG.

It was my hope that alternating between the two would permit them to serve in the same fashion that “Another Fine Myth” did for Asprin (see above), and it more or less worked – up to a point.

That point came when I needed a break from one of the series – and was already weary of the other, so that it could not serve. The “need a break” factor from both of them accumulated at the same time, in other words, and hit bottom that much sooner than would normally have been the case. I will pick up both series again eventually – one at a time.

6. Make them enjoyable

I cannot emphaize this point strongly enough. Tedium and boredom and hard work are never a break from monotony that does you any good – sounds obvious when I put it like that, doesn’t it – so make the substitute something you will really enjoy doing.

7. Make them distracting / compelling

Occupy the mind as well as the hands. No matter how much satisfaction you might get from finally completing that craft side-project you’ve been wanting to get to for years, if it doesn’t occupy enough of your mind, you will find yourself thinking about the major project instead of what you are doing – so not only will it be less of a break than desired, it might not even constitute a break at all.

8. Every Project is Different

This is another of those kinda-obvious items, but it needs emphasis. The diagram above and these text elements all refer to a generic major project; every one in real life will differ from that generic view in at least one and usually several details.

Some projects are harder at the beginning, others at the end; some are difficult throughout, others are not hard at all.

The type of problem to be overcome can be different, as are the time pressures that you may experience. Are we talking about boredom, or tedium, or frustration, or some compound of all three – and in what proportions?

The nature of what constitutes ‘a break’ can also be different from one project to the next.

There are times when a project schedule leaves you no choice; always maximize the benefits of whatever flexibility you do have.

9. Maintain a productive (writing?) schedule

Some people can stop writing (or making maps or doing art or whatever) for a period of time and just pick up where they left off, days, weeks, or even months later. Others are more like me – when we haven’t written for a while, the urge to do so becomes overwhelming – but so do the problems of the blank page. And, after a while, i you haven’t yielded to that urge, it starts to go away – and it then becomes five times as hard, maybe ten times as hard, to restart.

This applies, no matter what the major project is. If you’re a writer, write something. If you’re an artist, draw something. Never let the barnacles and rust form an impervious barrier between you and your craft(s).

So maintain a schedule, and get to know how far you can push things away before restarting them becomes more difficult.

10. Up-end your writing schedule occasionally

Where would we be without contradictory advice? When the writing schedule itself is part of the problem, and writing starts to feel too much like work, then
(and only then) does it becomes necessary to changes things up notch.

This doesn’t change what you do, or how often you do it (so it only seems to contradict Rule 9), but it does change when you will do it – for a little while. If you normally write in the evening, take a scribble pad with you and do a little longhand writing in the subway on the way to work, or a dictaphone and do some verbal creation / storytelling in the car. If you normally write on the weekends, do one or two evening sessions during the week.

While you’re about it, change the environment a little. Instead of the TV, throw a CD into the mix, or turn on the radio and tune it to a random station. You want the stimulus of “different” and you should attempt – as Asprin did inadvertently – to let the environment stimulate your creativity.

Throw on a documentary that you wouldn’t normally watch, and try to integrate some of the content into something, especially if it’s not something you would normally write / draw about.

Example: You’ve never paid much attention to Dwarven architecture. They live below ground, so it’s all caves and mine-shafts. Throw on a documentary about Middle-eastern architecture, especially of Mosques and Temples, and translate from that into the Dwarven realm. Suddenly, the ceilings are tall and dome-shaped and there is exquisite tiling everywhere, perhaps broken up by the occasional tapestry or painted fresco. Make room for this in the Dwarven culture – even more than their gods, they might venerate the heart of the mountains in which they reside, and every room becomes a place sanctified to that veneration. Before you know it, Dwarves are completely different under the surface that everyone knows, more unique, and more credible (if you’ve done your job right).

You don’t know when you’re going to use this new vision of Dwarfdom – you might never use it! – but if you don’t use it right away, file it away for the future, when you do need a new idea. If you think that the player who runs a Dwarf might object to this non-traditional view, restrict it to a particular clan or group of Dwarves, of whom he is not a member.

But, as a general rule, once inspiration strikes, it’s hard to hold it back – and you’ll start looking for an excuse or opportunity to at least drop in a reference to it, essentially seeding that inspiration back into your campaign. Job done!

11. Touch base with the major project

I said earlier that your “break projects” or “side projects” should consume no more than about 75% of the time that you would normally invest in your major project. There’s a good reason for this.

It leaves 25% of the time available for you to continue work on your major project while still getting all the benefits of taking a break.

Today’s article was originally going to be something called “Goals In Conflict;” I have that article planned out and ready to write. This started life as nothing more than a side-issue “extra” for that post, but it quickly became too large for that, so the pair were spit, and “Goals in Conflict” reserved for my next break – that’s something that happens when inspiration strikes!

But, even while planning the structure and content of “Goals In Conflict,” I’ve been working on chapter titles for the main project e-book, and tweaking the order of sections for more logical flow, and looking at which sections might need to be broken up into multiple posts, and how the whole thing is to tie together in the end.

None of that is actually writing the next part of the “Trade” series – but I’m only approaching 50% of the usual writing time, and this article is almost finished (because I skipped ahead and wrote the end of it before I started adding specifics to each of these rules. And I might, at the end, skip back and create a list of the rules themselves – or maybe I’ll put such a list at the end of this discussion, just before the already completed work. That, and pre-publishing work like spellchecking, uploading, image searching, etc, will get me close to the 75% by the time it’s all done.

Which means that there will be several hours on Monday that I can devote to getting an early start on the third post in the “Trade” series, the content of which has now been tickling over in the back of my mind for a week or two. Which should – at least in theory – make it that much easier for the words to flow when the time comes.

But even if you don’t go that far, just reading back over your notes keeps the major project in mind and helps avoid some of those dangers that I listed earlier.

12. Know, and factor in, your habits.

My life revolves around a fairly regular schedule that is perpetually varying from the baseline for one reason or another.

• Sunday: Outline CM article, maybe write 1/3 of it
• Monday: Finish CM article, publish at midnight, promote through social media
• Tuesday: Co-GM visits, work on Pulp campaign
• Wednesday, Thursday: Projects & Prep
• Friday: Prep for Saturday’s Game if needed, Projects otherwise
• Saturday: Play an RPG, make notes for next session, other projects

Examples of the variations:

• Sunday (tomorrow): This article will be finished already. Spellcheck it and do pre-publication stuff. Work on other projects, especially the Pulp Resource I talked about earlier and the chapter titles for the e-book.
• Monday: Make Doctor’s appointment for Tuesday, make Podiatrist appointment, write 1/3 of next “Trade” post, upload, publish, and promote this post, work on the Pulp Resource
• Tuesday: Co-GM is still out of action, Dr’s appointment, update budget, Pulp Resource. Maybe more chapter titles work if there’s time.
• Wednesday: Podiatrist appointment? Shopping. Pulp Resource, other projects, chapter titles.
• Thursday: Podiatrist appointment? Pulp Resource, other projects, chapter titles.
• Friday: Prep next Dr Who even though it’s not scheduled yet. Pay electric bill. Pulp resource, chapter titles.
• Saturday: No game at this point. Pulp resource, 2nd 1/3 of next “Trade” post, chapter titles. End of the week.

Compare the two lists. The actual task list for the next week is recognizable only as bearing some resemblance at some points with the ‘theoretical’ base list. Nevertheless, if you break things down to their most elemental activities – write, publish, art – the two are essentially the same, with a few extras thrown in.

And, of course, the 13th rule

Do what works for you. Nothing said in this post, or in any other article on time / project management, is holy writ.

Ignore my rules if they don’t meet your needs or don’t work for you. Replace / edit them whenever and however necessary.

But don’t expect one solution to this issue to work for you (or anyone else) 100% of the time – sometimes, you need a break from your usual patterns / constraints, too.

So, even if they aren’t what you need right now, it’s going to be worth having them around – or knowing where to find them – for when you find that you do need to do something differently, or when your usual practices don’t have the desired effect.

The above 12 rules are a set of guidelines that can be used as a tool to identify why your usual practices work for you, or don’t work on a specific occasion – and what you need to change to address the problem.

The 13th rule: Make it fun. Make everything fun, or get as close to it as you possibly can. Otherwise, there’s not a lot of point, is there?

An afterthought

Behavioral Psychologists have tested and confirmed the theory that if you smile, you are more likely to be smiled at. Similarly, if you frown, you are more likely to be accorded a less-than-gentile experience by those you encounter.

But there were a few results that took them by surprise in the course of this research.

People who smiled, even though they didn’t really feel like it, responded to the smiles being directed back toward them by feeling better about themselves and their circumstances. Smiling at others made their days better and less oppressive.

Those who frowned or remained aloof reported that they also responded to their attitude being reflected back at themselves. Their burdens became harder to bear, depression was more likely or deepened, and their daily existences seemed less fulfilling or rewarding.

Even more interesting, these effects were still pronounced even when no reflection of attitude was possible because the subject didn’t encounter anyone. It took a little longer, and it wasn’t as strong, but the same effect took place (to a lesser degree).

Forcing a smile had a direct correlation to their state of mind after the experiment even if no-one ever saw it.

So find something to smile about even if you’re on your own. And fake it in the meantime. The happiness you create might just be your own.