{"id":2645,"date":"2020-04-05T13:41:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-05T17:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/?p=2645"},"modified":"2020-04-05T13:41:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-05T17:41:54","slug":"self-care-6-steps-to-a-better-writing-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/self-care-6-steps-to-a-better-writing-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-Care: 6 Steps to A Better Writing You!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
This is me like every day at work. No, I’m not kidding. Yes, I’m still going to work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Self-care\nis something we could all stand to get better about. At the risk of dating this\npost, when there\u2019s a pandemic happening and some leaders seems totally\nunequipped to handle a real-life crisis, you gotta take shit into your own\nhands, you know what I\u2019m sayin\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve\nalways been one of those people you want to be with when the ship is sinking: I\nwill make sure we LIVE, GODDAMMIT!! I\u2019ll find a way. Leadership can\u2019t make a\ndecision? Screw that. I\u2019m the captain\nnow.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Writing\nis sort of like enduring a pandemic that never ends, but on a psychic level.\nYou\u2019re isolated, you\u2019re uncertain of the future, you\u2019re trying not to freak out\nover things you can\u2019t control, success or failure seems random, and you\u2019re\nprobably worried about your finances (especially if you write full-time). So\nself-care is critical to getting through tough times\u2026which for a lot of\naspiring authors never ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are six basic tenets of writing self-care that\u2019ll get you through tough times:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.<\/strong> Give yourself realistic goals you have control <\/em>over<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A realistic goal might be a daily word count goal, or a certain number of submissions within a month (I recommend no more than five at a time<\/a>), or booking a few ads if you\u2019re gearing up to publish. The key is to make goals you can achieve through your own willpower, that don\u2019t depend on luck or someone else\u2019s decisions. Being able to control something in your career is a great way to assuage anxiety and feelings of despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.<\/strong> Temper expectations for things you don\u2019t <\/em>have control over, specifically goals involving the publishing process<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of authors have the goal of simply getting a traditionally published deal. The problem with this goal is that it depends almost entirely on things you can\u2019t control. Whether or not your book gets picked up by an agent is only marginally dependent on its quality. A publishing deal usually comes down to what a specific agent is looking for on any given day, what\u2019s currently hot in the industry, and how well your query letter is written based on standards that constantly change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the dream\nof being the next Stephen King is a powerful one. Dreaming big is not a bad\nthing, as long as you always keep in mind achieving that dream depends a lot\nmore on luck than your own skill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Always keep writing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you enjoy writing, keep writing! The vast majority of authors don\u2019t become bestsellers with their debut novel. Your average \u201covernight success\u201d is usually on their fifth or even tenth book, sometime more. If one manuscript doesn\u2019t hit it big, focusing on your next effort is the best way to keep hope alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Put most of your energy into things that bring you joy; minimize spending energy on things that don\u2019t bring you joy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mentioned this in my marketing blog<\/a>, since marketing is a necessary evil for a lot of authors. Don\u2019t forget why you write: for the joy of it. If you find yourself dreading doing something, reorient yourself away from it, and find the joy again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. If you fail hard at something, whether it\u2019s your fault or not, let yourself be angry and sad\u2026for a limited time; then bounce back<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cbounce-back\u201d mantra is a staple for POWs: if you break under pressure, don\u2019t give up or flagellate yourself for being a failure. You\u2019re a human being, not a robot. Cry and eat some ice cream, then pick yourself up and try again. Just the fact you\u2019re making a serious effort to be an author is miles ahead of people who dream about it but never even finish a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Don\u2019t give up, BUT don\u2019t keep doing things that don\u2019t work, or things that make you miserable<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you need to adjust your goals in order to achieve them, or adjust your execution. For instance, if your dream is to get a traditional publishing deal, but you\u2019re writing in a genre that\u2019s dead right now\u2014i.e. YA dystopia\u2014then switch genres, or shelve that book until the genre comes back around again (often what\u2019s hot and what\u2019s not is cyclical) and write something else. Or maybe you\u2019re on your way to becoming a successful romance author, but cranking out four books a year is killing you. If something\u2019s not working, or you find yourself dissatisfied with where you are in your career, take a moment to stop and ask yourself if what you\u2019re doing is really working for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that’s how you keep on keepin’ on. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Self-care is something we could all stand to get better about. At the risk of dating this post, when there\u2019s a pandemic happening and some leaders seems totally unequipped to handle a real-life crisis, you gotta take shit into your own hands, you know what I\u2019m sayin\u2019? I\u2019ve always been one of those people you … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Self-Care: 6 Steps to A Better Writing You!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[496,670],"tags":[679,671,678,674,677,673,675,676],"class_list":["post-2645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-self-care","tag-bounce-back","tag-coronavirus","tag-do-things-that-bring-you-joy","tag-how-to-endure-tough-times","tag-keep-writing","tag-psychic-pandemic","tag-realistic-goals","tag-temper-expectations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Vyi8-GF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2651,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions\/2651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shanafigueroa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}