Remembering Self-Care when doing Writing Challenges
As many of you may already know, November is National Novel Writing Month, where around the world writers challenge themselves to write the first draft of a novel 50,000 words or more in 30 days. Geesh, that is a ton of words! And let’s not forget Thanksgiving and family obligations may also cut down the days you are able to write on. We writers can sometimes shove aside our self-care and needs trying to meet the challenge.
I know in addition to NaNo, I get like this when I am under deadlines (even self-imposed ones) where I tend to sleep few hours, feel overwhelmed by other responsibilities (pesky day job and family, just kidding), and eat the worst things imaginable for my body until Turkey day.
One of the things I did this year to remind myself that no deadline is worth risking your overall health to meet is to make a Self-Care Poster with 16 different activities that can help me take care of myself during times of stress. I don’t need to do anything drastic to maintain healthy self-care during NaNo or any other deadline/time limit goal I am trying to reach. I can do any of these activities twice during NaNo and sometimes more! I used pictures but you can just write stuff in on a calendar or draw a doodle that reminds you to TAKE CARE OF YOU!!!
See if you can guess what my self-care activities are for NaNoWriMo 2021!