Diary of a Debut: Anxiety

Welcome to my Diary of a Debut, documenting the ins and outs of my journey on the road to publication. This week: Anxiety.

Anxiety. No one tells you it’s a bit part of the publication process, but oh boy, it is.

While publishing a book is in many ways a dream come true, it’s also hard work. Writing around my full-time work could feel like I had two jobs, and I was finding everything stressful. My free time was often eaten up by what I call “authoring” - reviewing cover designs, editing the manuscript all weekend, making TikToks and Instagram posts. I love doing this stuff, but it left me with little downtime, and I did feel exhausted.

I knew that if I was feeling a bit tired, it was important to take action before I burned out. I used daily to-do lists to spread my author workload out - a little bit every day, sometimes planned weeks in advance. This helps me to manage my time and make sure there was at least a bit of time for me to switch off in front of a movie or Sims 2. I try to make the time to see friends, as well - sometimes all I wanted to do with my rest time was to sleep, but I was a different kind of tired to just being sleepy, so it helped to get a change of scenery and relax with my friends.

I also had a few appointments with my therapist which helped me to keep on top of things. Taking action early meant these precautions were preventative, rather than waiting for me to slip into a bad place and get overwhelmed. If there’s one message I’d like readers to get from my book, it’s to ask for help when they need it.

Publication can be amazing, but it’s also stressful. My baby is going to be shown to the world, I’m going to answer questions about it in a public way, and some people aren’t going to like it. I’m grateful I had my therapist to chat this through with, and my friends and family to lean on. I feel resilient enough to get through the tougher parts of being an author, and that’ll help me to enjoy the more exciting parts. Speaking of…

Next time: Publication. 

The Diary of a Debut is written by Jenna Adams whose debut novel will be published in 2022 by Neem Tree Press. You can follow Jenna at @jennaadamsbooks and Neem Tree Press at @neemtreepress.