One of my university professors used to say that he found it easier and more productive to walk away from an essay while he was mid-sentence with an unfinished paragraph on the page. His logic was that his brain would pick up the exact train of thought that he had been working with in the previous sitting so that his fingers could simply continue typing the remainder of that sentence and paragraph without much hesitation. Now, that may work for essays, but I’m not certain that it applies to writing scenes. I mean, how annoying is it to have your reading interrupted right when there’s a critical junction in the story? Or you’ve just gotten into a movie and the power cuts out? What a letdown! Creative writing is much the same; there’s some kind of bubble that bursts when disruptions occur—including when it comes time to shift attention to a more pressing task. Leaving the comfort of your home office to attend a dental appointment, for example.
I see what my professor was getting at, but I’m not certain that his explanation was quite accurate. It seems to me the idea is that you can (and should) give yourself the permission to walk away from a project when you’ve reached a point of feeling bogged-down and forcing the words out. If you’re not in a state of relaxation, then you aren’t focused. Leaving the project mid-sentence was his way of ensuring that re-reading a portion of the unfinished paragraph will set him at ease more quickly when he returns to it; therefore, he’s able to focus-in on continuing the work rather than wasting energy fretting about having to get back to the action of writing.
That sounds good, but can this method work for creative writing? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Do you have a go-to technique for shifting focus? Stay tuned for my next blog post. Wanna get it in your email inbox? Subscribe to stay informed of my newest articles, story reviews, updates, and more.
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Pauline Shen 
I left a manuscript in mid-chapter and mid-scene earlier this month and plan to return to it after the holidays are over. I expect that I’ll have to re-read the manuscript before I’m ready to pick up where I left off. In the meantime, I’ve been jotting down ideas and bits of scenes and dialogue for uses later in the book. We’ll see how that goes.
I also have bits of paper with jots on them around my desk from times when I’ve gotten a bit of clarity while away from my computer. Sometimes those accumulate more quickly than I’d like.
Best wishes for your post hiatus return to writing!