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Conquering Burnout: Napping is Nice. #MFRWAuthor Blog Challenge, Week 33

Simply Romance Posted on by

Or “What I do to Recharge”

Burnout

It’s easy enough for an author, Indie or Trad published, to burn out. First, we have to write the book, and then promote it, and write the next one, and the next one after that, and so on, and so forth. And that’s on top of the family responsibilities, and for some, day job. There are also those pesky demons who sit on our shoulders and tell us our writing is crappy.

It can be freaking exhausting to the point that sometimes, we run out of wax and wick, and just collapse. Does that happen to you?

Recharge and Fill the Well

Author and Blogger Anne R. Allen had a great post a couple of weeks ago on this subject, Writer’s Block and Depression: Why Writers Need to “Fill the Well”.  She outlines 14 ways to “fill the well”.

Here are my favorites:

Making things: I’m a fairly good knitter and sewer, though I can’t fit a garment to save my life. Still, I enjoy the process and it relaxes me. This is the blue Regency gown I made for an event in 2016.

Gardening and Cooking: Quite honestly, I’ve probably killed more plants than I’ve successfully grown. But farming is in my blood two generations back, and I like digging around in the dirt. When I can eat what I’ve grown, I’m ecstatic!

Organizing and Cleaning: I had a friend in college who told me that whenever she started to feel depressed, she cleaned out her purse, and it perked her right up. Really, try this. (Guys can maybe clean the sock drawer or something.) It works.

Another friend of mine, author Alanna Lucas, says that whenever she’s feeling blocked, she pulls out her trusty vacuum cleaner and goes at it. She swears it unblocks her every time. More effective for me is clearing clutter; like purse-cleaning, it gives me a little sense that I’m back in control.

And Napping: This is my absolute favorite for recharging and conquering burnout, especially when I’m feeling blocked.

How about you? How do you conquer burnout?

This is a blog hop, so follow along with my fellow MFRW Authors and see what they have to say on this topic.


Images: Candle and Gardener, Wikimedia Commons: Sleeping baby, Beinecke Library via Wikimedia Commons; Vacuum Cleaner, myoreckstore.com; Regency Gown, the author

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Comments

Conquering Burnout: Napping is Nice. #MFRWAuthor Blog Challenge, Week 33 — 16 Comments

  1. In the early days of my career, I was all about making things. Now I’m more about the napping 🙂

  2. Re: Cleaning: We’re currently the *proud* owners of two houses which need emptied and torn down. I never thought I’d be thrilled to go through other people’s stuff! The guy who owned the houses was a hoarder, so it’s actually fun to go through everything. Plus, make some money selling it!

  3. Um…can’t say that cleaning helps me. I do it because it needs to be done, but when I’m blocked it’s the last thing I want to do since I’m not a fan of cleaning. I really want to make just enough money so that I can hire a weekly maid service. LOL

    Napping. My sister amazes me at her ability to sit and fall asleep with little to no effort during the day. Now at night, that’s a whole other story. LOL

    • I’m not a fan of dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing either, but de-cluttering, when I’m at the point of desperation, helps!

  4. Cleaning and organizing often helps me. Although it’s often put off because I’d rather work on writing stuff even if it’s just staring at the screen, lol

    • I totally agree, Maureen. Usually I’m at the shoveling out stage when I start de-cluttering.

  6. Love the ideas. Cleanout does help. Organizing not so much. I can never find anything afterwards. Of course I blame it on the gremlins stealing the items since some never reapper again. 🙂

    • Yes, it is hard sometimes to find things when you get them organized and put away properly!

  7. That dress is awesome! Yeah, clearing clutter helps, but I feel like I have to have a couple of books under my belt before I can take the time to tackle the accumulated debris in the house, so it’s gonna be awhile…

    • For me it’s usually when I need to move things to paint the walls or because something flooded!

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