Featured Writer on Wellness: Sara Snider

I don’t think there’s been a day where I haven’t felt
overwhelmed since I started writing.

I think this is largely because I struggle with a number of emotional challenges that all pile on top of each other.

There’s the self-doubt that what I’m writing is any good. Flagging motivation when life struggles sap my creativity and desire to write. The pressure of trying to promote my work, which pushes me out of my comfort zone and adds a new layer of stress.

And, of course, the overall feeling that I need to be doing more, that I should have gotten more done by now.

All of this makes writing and publishing feel like an insurmountable mountain that’s threatening to bury me at any given moment.

Focusing on Day-to-Day Goals Helps Me Overcome Writing Challenges

I try to keep my focus narrowed on day-to-day goals.

Each day I decide I’m going to work on one or two specific things. This is especially helpful for goals outside of writing that I generally find uncomfortable. Like making a new ad for one of my books or other promotional stuff.

I try not to think about all the other things I want and need to get done and how long it will take me to get there.

Giving myself time to exercise every day also lets me work off some stress and gets me out of my head for a while, which helps.

My Fitbit Reminds Me to Get Up and Move Around

I spend way too much time sitting and with generally poor posture as well.

I get bouts of wrist pain on occasion from too much time at the computer. Stress headaches from, well stress, but also occasional intense work sessions where I forget to get up and move around, eat, etc.

I wear a Fitbit that reminds me every hour to get up and move around. I still sometimes miss the reminders if I’m absorbed in what I’m doing (it’s a very light vibration that can sometimes go unnoticed) but overall it’s very helpful in getting me up and moving around throughout the day.

I’m planning on getting a standup desk so I don’t sit for so long throughout the day. I’m also trying to be more aware of my posture while sitting but old habits are definitely hard to break.

And I’ve also been made aware of compression gloves that one can wear while at the computer that might help with my wrist pain. I have a wrist brace that I wear when it gets really bad (which isn’t that often, thankfully), but its bulkiness and constrictiveness makes it difficult to type while wearing it. The gloves might be a better solution.

Creativity Needs Air to Breathe

For me, writing and creating stories helps feed my creativity. As does reading, walking, and relaxing in general.

Creativity, for me, needs air to breathe, room to grow. Too much stress, anxiety, and work can stifle it.

I’d Be Lying If I Said I Didn’t Consider Giving Up Writing Completely

My most recent book hasn’t done as well with reviewers as my previous books. It was really hard to deal with at first, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider giving up writing completely.

But giving up would have only made all the negative feelings worse.

It helped me to realize that I’m not the first writer to go through this (nor the last), and by deciding to not let it defeat nor define me.

I also realized that I had been tying my own self-worth as a person with my books, which isn’t healthy and absolutely isn’t true. I feel like I’ve managed to separate myself from that a bit, which is another good thing.

I’d like to think the experience has made me a little bit stronger.

Writing Has Become My Happy Place

My greatest triumph as a writer: When I stopped telling myself I couldn’t write and I actually started doing it.

Writing has become my happy place. Because of that I have a deep desire to succeed so I can keep on doing it for as long as possible.

Advice for a Young Writer: Just Start

Just start writing, or doing whatever it is you want to do.

Don’t feel like you need to know everything before you start, you can learn as you go. You will never stop learning. But the most important thing is to just start.

* * *

Sara C. Snider was born and raised in northern California before making the move to Sweden at age 25. She is a published author of three fantasy novels and a dark fantasy novella, The Forgotten Web, which won the novella category in the 2015 Lyra Contest. She has a bachelor’s degree in Archives and Information Science and is a proud member of the Stockholm Writers Group.

For more information on Sara and her work, please see her website, or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Bookbub.

---

Hazel and Holly: Nestled within an enchanted forest is the Grove, a community where witches and warlocks practice natural magic, brew mystical potions, and lock their cellars against beer thieving gnomes. Life is quiet and uneventful. Well, except when Hazel’s long-lost father uses necromancy to trap her dead mother’s soul.

That simply won’t do. Necromancy is forbidden in the Grove, and for good reason too. Nobody wants filthy corpses shambling around, mussing up one’s garden. Hazel is determined to find her father and undo his treachery.

But despite Hazel’s plans of becoming a one-woman army, she can’t do everything alone. It’s not until wild sister Holly convinces her to leave the house for once and go to a party that Hazel finds a pair of unlikely allies in two bickering warlock brothers.

Together, the four of them go on a journey that takes them out of the Grove and into a world where necromancy reigns and the dead won’t respectfully stay in the grave. Hazel will do whatever it takes to stop her father and save her mother’s soul. Even if it means turning to necromancy. Even if it means losing her friends. Because they would never help a necromancer. Would they?

Available at Amazon.

The Thirteenth Tower: An orphaned girl unaware of her magical powers. Two secretive Magisters with a hidden agenda. Will she discover the truth about herself before it’s too late?

Housemaid Emelyn has always wanted to find her parents. When her small, sleepy town of Fallow is attacked by a host of magical tricksters, a pair of Magisters offer her both protection and their help in finding her lost family. Unable to refuse, Emelyn joins the Magi as they travel north to stop the creature responsible for the attacks.

But when Emelyn unwittingly starts working magic of her own, it becomes clear that the Magisters have an interest in Emelyn and her abilities. Emelyn must trust them if wants to find her family. But unless she learns to control her powers, she may become enmeshed in a trap from which she cannot escape.

The Thirteenth Tower the first book in the Tree and Tower fantasy series. If you like dark fairy tales, mysterious snowy forests, and bittersweet tales of love and loss, then you’ll love Sara C. Snider’s enchanting debut novel.

Available at Amazon.