NaNoWriMo Snacks: Self-Care

When you are a fire-bellied vortex of creativity, it's very easy to become so wrapped up in your project that you let pedestrian things like laundry, sleep, and your day job go to pot. I have this theory that my sink is participating in NaNoWriMo too, but instead of Scrivener or one of those other fancy programs, its chosen medium is mold.

This week we're going to be taking a look at some self-care issues, both stuff you're overindulging in and stuff you're neglecting. The goal is to keep yourself writing productively, but with clean hair, a full stomach, and minimal emotional turmoil.

I've found that my biggest distraction in this whole NaNoWriMo odyssey is not Facebook, or Twitter, or Cracked.

It's the NaNoWriMo forums. It is so much fun to read about other people's novels. It's fun to make writing buddies and work out plot structures together. It's fun to add to joke threads like "you know you're writing literary fiction when..." It's like Facebook, but with no pictures of babies or speculations about Obama's birth locale! The forums are very easy to justify It's the NaNoWriMo site, and I'm participating in NaNoWriMo. Therefore, it's a productive way to spend time.

Nope. Writing 50,000 words in forum posts does not a novel make. Here are a few tips to protect your time and still have fun.


1. SET A TIMER
Just like every productivity website ever suggests with Facebook and Grinder and all those other distracting sites. Allow yourself 15 minutes every couple of hours, or, if you'd prefer, a longer chunk of time after you've put in your 1,667 words for the day.

2. LIMIT YOUR BUDDIES
You are a budding or blooming writer, not a writing coach. You don't have time to be batting ideas back and forth with eleven people. (If you do, can we just trade lives, please?) Pick one or two writers that mesh well with you and are giving as much as they're getting in terms of feedback, and let the rest go.

3. STAY IN YOUR LANE
Don't start comparing your plot/word count/avatar/cover design to others. This is about your creative process and taking your ish seriously for once. You do you and write your 1,667 words. For your emotional health, just assume that all those hyper-productive people with word counts in the 30 thousands are either cheaters or unemployed. It really helps me.

4. DON'T WRITE A BOOK BY ITS COVER
Know what's more important than spending hours in lightroom designing a kick-ass book cover for the forums? Writing your book. Create a basic, functional cover and then the craft party's over.

5. USE YOUR DAY JOB
You know you're going to aimlessly crawl about the internet all day anyway, frantically refreshing BuzzFeed in hopes of another nostalgia 80's toy list. Why not get your forum jollies out on the clock? You'll be in the know and less tempted to check in when you get home.