Hey everyone! Here I am back again with another post for another week. What a shocker. Haha. This week we’re going to move to the next section of care. So, without further ado…
Care for Writers: Welfare Part 1
This week’s post is going to be the first post related to welfare, which is the second part of the definition of care. Welfare generally refers to the happiness of a person. I’ve decided to break these welfare posts down into two sections: hobbies and non-hobby activities. For this week’s post we’re going to talk about hobbies.
I have a lot of writer friends who, when asked, would tell you their one and only hobby is writing. Most of my writer friends are either lying when they say that, or they aren’t happy about it. Having hobbies that aren’t related to writing is super important for your welfare – your happiness – since writing can be fun but also often stressful and frustrating.
I’ve got a couple pieces of advice on hobbies as a writer because having more hobbies can really help you care for yourself or writers around you but can also seem overwhelming at times.
Hobbies similar to writing
For those of my friends who truly honestly do not have a hobby that isn’t writing you need to find a hobby that can be similar to writing but isn’t directly related to your own writing. For some writers this can be difficult but for others it’s super simple. For me, my other hobby is books. Not only do I have a hobby of writing books, but I read them, I buy them, I organize them, I talk about them online, I go to reading groups with friends. Books is my similar to writing hobby. It works for me because often times my other hobbies around books actually inspire me and direct me right back to my own writing.
I have a friend whose hobby that isn’t writing, is cross stitch. She loves writing but she also loved cross stitch. When she isn’t writing her book, she takes time to make cross stitch art for her favorite fictional characters, quotes that she enjoyed from books or tv, or just whatever pattern she liked on the internet most frequently. She sometimes will design and cross stitch her own sceneries from her book, her own characters, or quotes from her own stories. For her it’s a hobby similar to her writing without being so similar as to feel like she’s always writing.
Hobbies directly related to writing
For some people who are very busy with life tasks unrelated to writing such as a full-time job, a part time job, school, kids, or anything else, finding another hobby other than writing can be super difficult. “I don’t have time for more than one hobby and writing is it!” you might say. Well, in that case find a hobby that can be directly tied to your writing but that gives you a break sometimes.
I make fiction guides. If I’m ever getting too stressed out with a story or it’s getting too big or complicated, I make a fiction guide. This is when I basically write down everything about my characters, world, culture, character history, interesting plot points, or anything that would go in a ‘guidebook’ of my story. I’ve done this for fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and mystery books that I’ve written. It helps me to keep motivated with my writing and also helps me feel creative without making me feel as if I need to sit down and bang out several thousand words of my story.
I have a friend who makes plot walls. In short, she draws plot points on colorful sticky notes or colorful paper and then sticks them to her ‘plot wall’. She uses this plot wall not only to have fun with creativity such as drawing little images of her characters and settings and color-coding things by scene type/emotion or character POV, but also allows her to visually see the plot of her novel and add to or take away from it as she works.
Take a break to enjoy a hobby
Sometimes it really isn’t that you need a new hobby and more that you just need to take a break from writing to enjoy some other hobby that you have. Bake some bread for a week instead of writing. Paint something. Write a poem. Learn a new dance. Doing a crochet/knit/cross stitch or other handmade project. Do something that isn’t writing. Let your brain work on your story in your mind without overworking it.
Just like you can overwork bread dough you can overwork a story. Sometimes you need to take a step back and let it rise for a bit before you beat it down again.
That’s all that I have for this week’s post. I hope that this post helps a bit. Hobbies are fun and can always be used to enjoy yourself more rather than stressing yourself out more than is needed. Let me know what kind of hobbies you want to try or hobbies you currently do down below in the comments.
Next week’s post will be the second half of the welfare post before we jump straight into maintenance. 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!