Have you ever been so overwhelmed with writing that it affected your mental health? That’s what I experienced this month with my April writing. I outlined and conjured up some new ideas mostly in preparation for the coming month, but at one point I needed to take a step back. I had so many projects in mind and so many deadlines that I had set for myself that I became overwhelmed with anxiety. Time anxiety. I started thinking I failed by not getting things done.
So I took a step back, looked at things from a different perspective. I realized that I was overwhelmed. But what does it mean to be overwhelmed by writing? Of course writing can be difficult, but something exciting always keeps me going, taking the stress away. So what do you do when you need to stop writing to prevent things from going downhill?
For one, I discovered that time management isn’t everything. I got a bunch of stuff done and still felt overwhelmed by the next thing I needed to do. But being overwhelmed while writing isn’t uncommon! If you struggle with the same thing, here are a couple great sources for coping and reworking your writing process for your mental health.
4 Tips for Dealing with Overwhelm in the Writing Process
Writing When You Feel Overwhelmed and Have No Time
On that note, I still completed some tasks. I mainly worked on outlining as part of my stab at Camp NaNoWriMo this month. This involved a bunch of worldbuilding and other forms of preparation.
I’ve still got a bunch of short stories outlined to keep working on in the coming months! Plenty of stuff to keep me busy that’s for sure. But you know that story I mentioned when I wrote that post on causal loops? Yeah, I basically started over on that one. That may take some time to finish. But keep a look out of that story, hopefully in the future!
I also started working on some projects for upcoming writing contests. Here’s some info on them in case you want to submit! This gives you a month to prepare a piece! These definitely keep me busy right now.
WOW! Women on Writing Spring Writing Contest 2023 – deadline, May 31st
Waywords – Issue 11 – Seasons – deadline, May 20th
Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest – deadline, May 31st
My other April writing includes not only lots of drafts but also working on the one book I have and starting my graduate school dissertation, which takes up TONS of my time. I get the feeling that May is going to be wild.
Now for my Cambridge announcement! I’ll leave on the fifth of May and I’ll be back on the twelfth, so I won’t be able to post. However, I’ll have a ton of awesome stuff to write about creative nonfiction, author lectures in posts, as well as some updates. So keep an eye out for that! In the meantime, happy writing! Keep these resources in mind for when the writing process overwhelms you. You got this!
I’ve updated my writing profile! You can find-
My website here: emsherwoodfoster.com
The Facebook Page
My chapbook
My serial publication The North Wind at Coffee House Writers! Part 1 is here.