Dear Readers,
I hope you are well! It’s hard to believe it’s November 1st, especially after all we’ve collectively been through this year, but alas, here it is, and that means the next couple of months will be filled with family, friends, and love as the holidays approach.
While taking care of one another is paramount, it’s also important to care for yourself, as well. That can mean exercising, eating right, meditating, reading, relaxing, and giving way to things that make your heart happy.
For me, besides the wonderful gift of a boat that my husband gave me for my birthday in August—one of the greatest surprises of my lifetime—I’ve begun to tick away things that make me happy besides being on the water and spending time with my family on the river.
Therefore, I’ve decided to hunker down and finish this novel that I started earlier this year during National Novel Writing Month 2020 (NaNoWriMo). Currently sitting at 69,000 words, my work in progress is growing closer to completion, and I’m dedicating the month of November to finishing it.
After learning over the summer that I am, in fact, an empath after reading Judith Orloff’s book about empaths, I’ve grown even closer to the writing of the main character, Meg. Knowing my main character was going to be an empath was driving my story, but not until I researched it fully did I realize I, too, am a full-blown empath. Thus, the story I am trying to tell has become even easier knowing what I now know.
As writers, part of what we do is explore—we explore other people’s stories, their shortcomings, paths, and their triumphs—but we also find that sometimes we end up learning more about ourselves through research and exploration. So many things that have happened in my life, from mistakes and decisions I’ve made, to understanding people and relationships, made sense once I learned more about what having a strong empathic nature means.
Anyway, I don’t want to bore you with all of my findings, but I will tell you this—and it goes back to how I began this blog post—you owe it to yourself to make yourself happy, to do the things you want to do, while still caring for others and being kind.
Finishing my novel so that I can share it with you is important to me. And so, #NaNoWriMo, here I come. It’s time to read, write, and dive into my empath even more during November.
I’ll also be posting on Instagram in order to foster a sense of a community during this writing time. If you’d like to participate in it along with me, you can find me on Instagram at stephanie.verni.author.
Here’s the schedule of posts for the month! Play along, have fun, and make your heart happy.
xx
Stephanie
