by A.C. Williams @ACW_Author

Conference season is upon us! How exciting! How wondrous! How exhausting!

Don’t get me wrong; I love writing conferences. I love learning. I love congregating with my people. I love being surrounded by the energy of other creative people who are pursuing the dream of sharing our imaginations with the world. But conferences wear me out.

It’s not just the sheer amount of walking that has to happen. It’s not just the extreme quantity of valuable information I’m trying to cram into my brain. It’s the constant stimulation, the noise, the rush of excitement, the press of people—all of that can be extraordinarily exhausting for some people. If you’re one of those people, this is for you. Because I’m one of those people, and it’s taken me many years to understand the value of self-care.

When I was younger, I never hesitated to run myself into the ground. I figured I could sleep later, and making space to rest still felt like a waste. I spent significant money to attend. I didn’t want to be a bad steward of the opportunities I’d been given.

So I went to every event. I stayed up late. I got up early. I did movie nights and late-night socials and the list went on and on and on. And I had a great time, until the conference was over. And then I crashed. Hard.

I got to the place that I sort of dreaded conferences. I mean, I loved them still, but I was so tired when I got home I couldn’t function. And the older I got, the worse it grew. The harder it became to bounce back. I wasn’t 24 anymore. Bouncing back is a lot easier when you’re under 25 than it is when you’re over 40.

Had I lost my passion? Had I given up on my dream? Was I just lazy?

Not at all. I just hit the breaking point where I needed to learn how to take care of myself. My body, my mind, my emotions—they are all gifts God has given me, and they are as much in need of wise stewardship as my time.

So, how do you juggle a busy conference schedule when you’re easily exhausted by people? That’s what being an introvert is, by the way. It’s not being shy. It’s a measurement of how much energy you have to be in social situations or to interact with other people.

Being aware of how you move through the world is something everyone should make time to study. If you have endless energy and are energized by being around crowds, wonderful! Embrace it. If you aren’t? That’s okay. If you need more space and quiet in order to function well, that doesn’t make you a bad writer. It doesn’t make you a failure as a creative person. It’s just the way you’re wired.

So here are some self-care tips to make the most of your conference experience if you are an introvert or a highly sensitive person (HSP):

Be honest with yourself.

If you already know that you struggle with over-stimulation, don’t pretend that putting yourself in a massively stimulating environment won’t affect you. Prepare for it in advance. Make sure you are allowing space to rest between sessions. Yes, there are opportunities to network and make connections, but if you know that you’re exhausted and weary and on the edge of losing your cool, is that the best time to attempt to befriend an editor or an agent?

Find a quiet place where you can retreat.

Maybe it’s your room. Maybe it’s your car. Maybe it’s a bench in a secluded garden. Honestly? It can be a bathroom stall. Just find a place that will allow you to be still. If you need to be in a place where the lights are off, be sure you consider that as well. Do you need noise-cancelling headphones? Bring them.

Practice being still now.

Learning self-awareness doesn’t happen overnight. Start being intentional now about how you function in crowded, noisy environments. Maybe that means you need to keep a journal about your energy levels. Maybe it means you just make more space after you have busy weekends. Pay attention to how you feel before you get to the conference, and you’ll be better able to evaluate your state of mind there.

Writing conferences and other social gatherings of creatives are a necessary part of making important connections in the writing industry. Making progress in this industry truly is in who you know. That’s a fact. But attending events and conferences and gatherings doesn’t have to wreck your mental and emotional health.

Award-winning author A.C. Williams is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. She’d rather be barefoot, and if she isn’t, her socks won’t match. She has authored eight novels, three novellas, three devotional books, and more flash fiction than you can shake a stick at. A senior partner at Uncommon Universes Press, she is passionate about stories and the authors who write them. Learn more about her book coaching and follow her adventures online at www.amycwilliams.com.