How to develop your novel while taking a screen break
BY Tasha Harrison
19th Feb 2026
In this blog Tasha Harrison, author of Clementine Florentine and The Thing About Lemons, shares her advice for working on your novel away from the screen.
As a writer, you might find yourself juggling some conflicting goals. For example, you might be intent on starting or finishing a writing project – be it a novel, memoir or non-fiction book. In addition, like most people, you might also be determined to reduce the number of hours you spend staring at a screen. As if either of those things weren’t challenging enough in themselves, these two goals together seem fairly incompatible.
However, it might come as some relief to know that it is possible to keep your work-in-progress evolving without being seated in front of a screen. The following five tips show you how to use unplugged time to your manuscript’s advantage.
1. Go for a walk
Scientific studies have shown how walking benefits not just the body and mind – but it can boost creativity too. It can help loosen your cogs, make subconscious connections and significantly increase your idea flow – so it’s a great way to do some creative brainstorming.
Studies carried out by researchers at Stanford University proved that it was the act of walking itself, rather than the environment, that is key to boosting creative output by up to 60%. And according to neuroscientist Shane O’Mara, a professor of experimental brain research at Trinity College Dublin, if you write down what you’re trying to figure out, then go for a walk, your brain will be twice as effective at sparking ideas than if you remain sedentary. All of which means that if you’ve reached an impasse in your plot, or a character’s motivation isn’t coming to you, write down some key questions and go for a short walk, or get on the treadmill.
2. Go out for a coffee
Pausing for a coffee break – a phone-free, people-free coffee break – can give you the space to think more clearly. A solo trip to a café, away from the endless productivity demands of home or workplace, is an excellent opportunity to let your brain wander aimlessly, daydream and recharge. In doggy terms, it’s like allowing your mind some much-needed off-lead time. Whether the café has a nice view or not doesn’t matter. If there’s nothing but a plain wall in front of you, so much the better for staring into the middle distance and letting your imagination run wild.
3. Talk through a stumbling block
Giving your WIP to a friend or family member to read and give feedback on doesn’t always yield the most helpful results. For a start, if they don’t know much about the craft of storytelling or what agents and publishers are looking for, they might not be able to identify the strengths and weaknesses in your manuscript, much less have the courage to tell you exactly what they think.
However, if you ask a friend or partner to talk through one particular aspect of your plot that you’re struggling with, they might be able to help you solve it, eliminate implausible solutions or at least explore a conversation that sparks some helpful leads. If you’re looking for more thorough, in-depth help and industry expertise on how to strengthen your manuscript, that’s exactly what our courses and editorial services are for!
4. Get out and about
Go places, do things, meet people. The more you get out and about, visit new places, try different activities and talk with a variety of people, the more material and research you’ll gather for your WIP. A friend’s anecdote, a conversation you overhear on the train, or an event unfolding right in front of you might spark an idea for a scene or the premise for an entire story. And if you’ve had a horrendous day where everything that could go wrong did go wrong, then that’s all great fodder to use in your writing. As Professor Taub says in Eighties teen movie The Sure Thing, 'Life is the ultimate experience, and you have to live it to write about it.'
5. Carry a notebook
Carrying a notebook with you everywhere you go is the best way to catch those ideas when they come to you so they don’t slip away forgotten. Sure you can jot ideas down on your phone, but there’s something more visceral, satisfying and effective about using a good old-fashioned notebook and pen. Writing by hand is slower, and slowing your brain down can help you work things out as you write, clarifying thoughts and sparking more ideas as the ink flows onto the page.
In any case, once you get your phone out to type in some notes, how likely is it you’ll start app-hopping and find yourself still on your phone 30 minutes later? Another reason paper notebooks are great: you never know when you might stumble across a thought you jotted down years ago and never did anything with at the time. But years later, it can catch your attention again, inviting you to consider it in a new light. Perhaps it could even be the missing piece of the puzzle that’s been dogging your current WIP . . .
Tasha Harrison is the author of the middle-grade comedy Clementine Florentine and YA novel, The Thing About Lemons.
Tasha studied on our three-month online Writing YA & Children’s Fiction course in 2016. She now provides full manuscript reports through our editorial services. She also gives editor feedback to students of our six-week online Writing YA & Middle-Grade Fiction course.
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