Write-Life Balance

Hello fellow word nerds! It’s the beginning of Week 3 of National Novel Writing Month, and the prime time for midpoint slogging. 

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been typing your fingers off, working toward the murky middle for which you have only a vague set of ideas—most of which are terrible. More than that, life might be starting to catch up with you. Work is piling up, housework hasn’t been done in two weeks, and you don’t have any more clean clothes because laundry has gone to the wayside in exchange for a few extra typing sessions.

If any of this sounds familiar, the following post is for you.

You might be wondering what we have for this post. Tips on how to figure out your middle? Motivation to keep typing?

Actually, nope! (Ok, kind of – I just couldn’t help myself)

Today’s all about for self care in the middle of NaNo. And—because I’m also taking a self-care day—this post is going to be a short post on self care in the middle of NaNo.

Your story isn’t as beautiful as you thought it would be. Welcome to November. Those are worries for January, so take a deep breath and take some time to re-focus. Here are some quick steps you can incorporate in your busy day to help get your NaNoWriMo write-life balance back on track.

Step 1: push all your worries about good words to the side, slam the door on your inner editor, and set a timer for half an hour. Commit to yourself that these are going to be the worst, laziest, most awful words you’ve ever written in your life, then type as fast as you possibly can. Striving for awful words can be freeing, and ease the pressure of this month.

Step 2: Pick the mindless chore which needs done the most. For me, that’s definitely the laundry. I’ve got some wonderful family members who’ve taken over dishes and trash duty, but laundry is still on my list.

Step 3: Put on your novel’s playlist, and rock out to the songs while you accomplish that one real-life task for today. As a bonus, you can use this little bit of brain time to try and work out that murky middle you’re wading into.

Step 4: Celebrate! If you’ve still got a few minutes, go ahead and take a quick nap. Watch one (only one!) episode of your favorite show. Today, you managed to put some words on the page (maybe they aren’t as many as you usually get, but they’re there) and manage normal, functional adult tasks on the same day. I hope you feel like life is a little more manageable.

Lastly, know that we’re all in this with you. If you still feel like you’re failing, you aren’t alone. Hold tight to the belief you had at the beginning of this month. The world needs your story. More than that, you need your story.

That’s it for today, word-nerds. Let me know what you all use for self-care during NaNo in the comments below.