Stress is a normal part of life, and it happens more often than we think, especially for writers.
Writing can be stressful sometimes, but if it is what you love to do, you’ll have to endure it. It is one of the difficulties you will face on your chosen path.
Do things step by step
It helps a lot to take things step by step because it organizes things in your mind, so you can think more clearly because you will need to think about one thing at a time.
If you want a better overview of your tasks, you can make a checklist, which will make things more organized and easier to manage because you can physically see what needs to be done first.
Stop trying to perfect things
This should go without saying, but people often forget about it. The reason for this is because of the great books they see that become famous and bestselling books, thus creating pressure and stress on the writer, thinking that their book should be as perfect as that of that certain author.
However, there is no such thing as perfect writing. There can be an excellent or outstanding book that is not perfect. You need to realize that those writers did not write a perfect story; they wrote their story. Their stories were filled with a lot of effort and hard work, thus creating a masterpiece.
The more you think about being perfect, the more you get swallowed up by stress. Writing is not something you perfect; it’s something you master. I mean, we all strive for perfection in our work. However, if you’re overly concerned with details like paragraph structure and punctuation, you can end up disrupting your own thought process and the natural flow of your writing.
While this is a frequent practice among authors, it can have a significant impact on the final product and the intended message. Constantly modifying your writing to adhere to arbitrary grammar standards can have the unintended consequence of changing the meaning of what you’re trying to convey.
Take a break
If things really don’t work out well, it’s time to take a break. Sometimes we unconsciously ignore stress, which leaves our mind but goes to our body. Stress can cause too much strain on our bodies and make us easily exhausted without even knowing it.
Sometimes there will be a time when your body will give up on you, and then you’ll face all the consequences of overworking yourself. You need to constantly remind yourself that taking a break is always an option.
Taking a break means taking a break from everything and just relaxing or sleeping—no social media or electronics. Because you are properly rested, your mind and body will be in much better shape.
Writing can be both relaxing and stressful, depending on the writer. So, if you are just starting out, you will need to know how to love writing even when it’s stressful.
There are a lot of people who will give up on it because it’s too much work and stress. However, take this as a reminder that great things require great effort.