5 Tips to Avoid Burnout as a Neurodivergent Writer
When taking on a project as big as writing a novel, you may run into the risk of burnout. NaNo Participant Joana Hill gives some tips on avoiding burnout as a neurodivergent writer.
Burnout. As writers, we all know it. For neurodivergent writers, burnout can be even more damaging than usual. We can be much more sensitive, both mentally and emotionally, than our neurotypical friends and family.
This means avoiding burnout, and taking care of it when it does happen, can be even more important for us. I’m here today to provide some tips for my fellow neurodivergent writers to tackle just that.
1. Write What Interests You
Write what interests you rather than what you think you ‘should’ be writing. Many of us get caught-up in pleasing others. For neurodivergent people who’ve spent much of their life masking, or hiding their true personality and needs because of fear of rejection, it can be a hard habit to break.
If you want to write a 50k slow burn coffee shop AU of your favorite fandom, an epic space opera starring ants, or a main character with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or any other disorder or condition you have, go for it.
2. Get A Support Network
For neurodivergent people, we’ve often lived our lives with special interests no one wants to hear us talk about. It often results in us not talking about them at all before someone can tell us they don’t want to hear about it.
Whether it’s offline with friends and family, or online here at NaNoWriMo or other sites, having people who are actively interested in listening to you and helping you plot and write can be a game-changer.
3. Celebrate As Many Victories As You Want
Many years, my personal goal is that I can get the new Pokemon game, which always comes out around the middle of November now, once I hit 50k. But you don’t need just one grand goal.
Get a bag of your favorite candy and say you can have a piece every so many words. Find something on Amazon you want (and can afford to get!) and say you’ll get it once you hit the halfway point. Whatever motivates you to keep going, set it into motion.
4. Plan For Flexibility
That may sound like an oxymoron, but hear me out. Neurodivergent people often love to have a plan. I know I can get frustrated and upset when I’m expecting something to happen and something different does. For a big goal like writing a novel in a month, a lot of things can end up going wrong.
Carry a notebook and pen or tablet with a keyboard case in case an errand takes longer than expected. Back your writing up to several places in case your main writing device crashes. Make sure at least one of those is a cloud service in case you end up writing on a device that isn’t yours. The more contingency plans you have, the better prepared you are when life happens.
5. Be Kind To Yourself
Some days you may not get the minimum goal, or you might not write at all. You may feel like you just can’t do it because you’re behind on your word count, or you decide you don’t like what you’ve written.
I get it. But don’t beat yourself up about it. Take a break. Play your favorite game or read your favorite book. Go for a walk. And remember that you’re awesome. No one can write this story like you can.
Joana Hill is a writer of young adult stories, as well as novellas inspired by Japanese light novels and anime. You can find her books, social media, and anything else you could imagine wanting to know about her on her LinkTree.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
5 Essential Tips for Mastering Scene Writing in Your Novel
There's many parts involved when writing a scene. Knowing how these different pieces work together may help you move forward in your novel. NaNo Participant Amy de la Force offers some tips on brushing up your scene writing knowledge.
Scenes are the building blocks of a novel, the stages where characters spring to life, conflicts brew and emotions run high. Mastering the art of scene writing is crucial for any aspiring writer, especially in the lead-up to NaNoWriMo. But what is a scene, and how do you effectively craft one?
What is a Scene?
A scene is a short period of time — in a set place — that moves the story forward with dramatic conflict that reveals character, generally through dialogue or action. Think of writing a scene as a mini-story with a beginning, middle and end, all contributing to the narrative.
Why Scene Writing is Your Secret Weapon in Storytelling
Well-crafted scenes enhance your story to develop characters, advance the plot, and engage readers through tension and emotion. Whether you're writing a novel, short story or even non-fiction, scenes weave the threads of your story together.
Tip #1: Scenes vs. Sequels
According to university lecturer Dwight Swain in Techniques of the Selling Writer, narrative time can be broken down into not just scenes, but sequels.
Scene
The 3 parts of a scene are:
Goal: The protagonist or point-of-view (POV) character’s objective at the start of the scene.
Conflict: For dramatic conflict, this is an equally strong combination of the character’s ‘want + obstacle’ to their goal.
Disaster: When the obstacle wins, it forces the character’s hand to act, ratcheting up tension.
Sequel
Similarly, Swain’s sequels have 3 parts:
Reaction: This is the POV character’s emotional follow-up to the previous scene’s disaster.
Dilemma: If the dramatic conflict is strong enough, each possible next step seems worse than anything the character has faced.
Decision: The scene’s goal may still apply, but the choice of action to meet it will be difficult.
Tip #2: Questions to Ask Yourself Before Writing a Scene
In Story Genius, story coach and ex–literary agent Lisa Cron lists 4 questions to guide you in scene writing:
What does my POV character go into the scene believing?
Why do they believe it?
What is my character’s goal in the scene?
What does my character expect will happen in this scene?
Tip #3: Writing Opening and Closing Scenes
Now that we know more about scene structure and character considerations, it’s time to open with a bang, or more to the point, a hook. Forget warming up and write a scene in the middle of the action or a conversation. Don’t forget to set the place and time with a vivid description or a little world-building. To end the scene, go for something that resolves the current tension, or a cliffhanger to make your scene or chapter ‘unputdownable’.
Tip #4: Mastering Tension and Pacing
A benefit to Swain’s scenes and sequels is that introspective sequels tend to balance the pace by slowing it, building tension. This pacing variation, which you can help by alternating dialogue with action or sentence lengths, offers readers the mental quiet space to rest and digest any action-packed scenes.
Tip #5: Scene Writing for Emotional Impact
For writing a scene, the top tips from master editor Sol Stein in Stein on Writing are:
Fiction evokes emotion, so make a list of the emotion(s) you want readers to feel in your scenes and work to that list.
For editing, cut scenes that don’t serve a purpose (ideally, several purposes), or make you feel bored. If you are, your reader is too.
Conclusion
From understanding the anatomy of a scene to writing your own, these tips will help elevate your scenes from good to unforgettable, so you can resonate with readers.
Amy de la Force is a YA and adult speculative fiction writer, alumna of Curtis Brown Creative's selective novel-writing program and Society of Authors member. The novel she’s querying longlisted for Voyage YA’s Spring First Chapters Contest in 2021. An Aussie expat, Amy lives in London. Check her out on Twitter, Bluesky, and on her website! Her books can be found on Amazon.
Photo by cottonbro studio
Bought a notebook based on one design I made inspired by one of my favorite quotes by Lana Rafaela. Leaving the #Redbubble link if you want to check it out. Just having fun and exploring all kinds of platforms to keep growing as an artist and a writer. It's nice to finally admit that I never wanted to be anything else. And having done the day jobs for little satisfaction or sense of accomplishment, I keep coming back to words and need to come home to something that feels more like me.
And life is feeling more hopeful even if my finances have not improved. I feel like life is worth living.
Never give in to the absence of passion just as an excuse to make a living.
Tacha G Filion is an independent artist creating amazing designs for great products such as t-shirts, stickers, posters, and phone cases.
"Walking the mountain in Montreal you can't help notice the police presence. Some in cars, some on bikes and some on horseback. As you are walking up the road there are piles of horse crap about every 40 feet. Then I noticed the funniest thing I've seen in a while. I'd like to offer up a slow clap to whomever made the lil toothpick flag and claimed it for leader of the United States. Well played, well played." ~Andrew Albert~
“The patron goddess of creative success can sometimes seem like a rich, capricious old lady who lives in a giant mansion on a distant hill and who makes really weird decisions about who gets her fortune”
“If you don’t have a passion and somebody blithely tells you to go follow your passion, I think you have the right to give that person the middle finger.”
I got an art degree and my new job is arts based but I still struggle with creative living. I made that realisation the first week in my new job when all my creativity left my body and I had no idea what to plan. Hope this book reignites something inside me. I’m already taking notes.
“Do whatever brings you to life, then. Follow your own fascinations, obsessions, and compulsions. Trust them. Create whatever causes a revolution in your heart.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
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