#31 Stress and More Stress

In the fall of 2012 I was encouraged by those in my writing group to enter the National Novel Writing Month Challenge to write a novel in thirty days. I had a story idea and decided to give it a try.

To make the 50,000 words required to be successful at meeting this challenge, you have to write about 1650 words…per day. What I liked about the whole thing was the writing community that you immediately became a member of. There were numerous chat rooms to join, and your progress, and that of your friends could be monitored throughout the month.

I managed to complete the rough draft of a book and when it was done, I realized that after the end of November came December, which meant Christmas was only three weeks away. How could that be? I’m usually ready, gift wise, long before December, leaving those last few weeks to wrapping gifts, baking, and social time.

Now, after the pressures of November, self inflicted though they were, I was being totally stressed out by the holiday. I pushed myself to maintain the same level of activity and accomplishments.

I usually anticipate a ‘crash’ after the holidays, and since I had not been at my best for the last two years, I expected that the winter of 2013 was going to be a rough one.