Hey everyone. Back again with another post on care for writers. I’m excited to do today’s post and I hope that you are able to take things from last weeks and this week’s post to help yourself as a writer or the writers around you. So, without further ado…
Care for Writers: Health Part 2
Last week I wrote about how self-care in regard to health comes in several parts – mainly physical and mental/social. Since I discussed more about the physical care for writers involved in things such as eating proper food, exercise, and other things to improve your physical health. This week I’m going to talk more about mental/social health and how to care for that part of a writer’s health.
Authors and writers are generally introverted. While this is not always true about all writers it is generally true for a large majority of writers. Most of my writing friends or other writers that I have talked to are generally very introverted and don’t go out much except for required work or activities. This is one of the things that can really drop people’s mental and social health.
Making new friends and hanging out with people can seem really draining for a lot of writers for a variety of reasons including introversion, mental illnesses, physical illnesses, or a variety of other reasons. But there are some simple ways for writers to easily socialize without feeling overwhelmed or exhausted.
Make writer friends
Sometimes what can be scary or exhausting about spending time with other people is having to discuss other topics or people that you might not be interested in or might not be excited about. If you are like some of my friends, then talking about writing can actually freak some people out a bit. So, it’s really useful when you have friends that are also writers.
This also makes it easier to cancel plans if you have some serious health problems because other writers can understand. It also gives you a common topic to talk about. Writers could spend hours just telling each other about the book they are currently writing, the character they currently want to murder, or the setting they are excited to write about. Having writer friends can make socializing a little less scary.
Do online meet-ups
Sometimes the part of meeting up with people that is scary is actually having to see someone in person. This could be because of social signals, the feeling of being perceived, or simply just the work it takes to remove yourself to another location for a meeting. The modern age has solved this problem quite a bit for days when you really need socializing for your mental health but also don’t think you can get motivation to go somewhere else.
Simply do some sort of online or virtual meeting. Sometimes I have met up with my writer friends in person and those meetings have been great. But other times it was simply a voice call or a video call where we simply relaxing together in a meeting room and talked about whatever we wanted. These types of meetings have always helped me in situations where I really needed to chat with a friend but didn’t think I could find it in me to leave the house.
Find places that you like outside of a comfort space
Sometimes what’s scary is finding a place to meet with people where you can relax and talk for an extended period of time. Often my writing friends will want to meet at a library which is always nice but only leaves us a little bit to sit together and only in a whisper setting.
This issue can be solved by finding a setting that works for meetings or spending time by yourself that is another semi-comfortable setting for yourself. When I was I college I found several different settings like this for myself including a café down the street from my university, a comic shop, or the bookstore that had a seating area where you could sit and read or chat with others.
Social health is important for mental health, which both need to be taken into account when discussing the self-care of writers. Most of the writers I have talked to have had problems with going out because it’s simply scary or too difficult. I hope that these three suggestions can help you to have more meetups with others and to spend time socializing. If you have any other interesting suggestions that have helped you or that could help other writers to care for their social/mental health let me know in the comments below!
That’s all I have for this week’s post. I hope it was helpful. Next week we’ll be moving on from health into the next part of the definition of care. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, become a blog page member, share, and follow me on social media at the links below. And remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!
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