Occupational Hazards
Since I became a writer, I have thrown out one or the other shoulder a half-dozen times. Well . . . that's technically not true. It's not purely from writing. Demon Baby likes to take a running leap INTO my arms from great heights, like tops of tables, without warning, and I end up performing acrobatic skills that put these guys to shame, wrenching my shoulders. Add typing for hours on end, carrying Demon when he is tired, and assorted other Mom tasks, and you have . . . voila . . . wrenched shoulders. I had cortisone injected into the right one after a particularly thrilling acrobatic feat two months ago.
Since becoming a writer, my butt has been sore, and my neck has been tight. I've also had lower-back issues. I have upset my stomach with too much coffee and suffered from insomnia from characters who decide three a.m. is the PERFECT time to have a chat.
There's THIS fascinating article in the NY Times. The playwright in question committed suicide some time ago, but I really felt great empathy for the actor in her play who said he coped with depression. I can think of more than one book that lingered long after I turned off my computer. It's just very hard to open yourself completely up, pour yourself into a book . . . and then just act as if it wasn't some emotional process. Even my happier books, like Freudian Slip, have a few tear-worthy scenes. Every single time I re-read that manuscript and get to the part I know is coming. I know it. Heck, I wrote it. And every time . . . I cry. A good sign for a writer. A bad sign for your personal life. Sometimes, it's hard to leave darkness.
So tell me . . . what occupational hazards have you discovered as a writer? And do you have a hard time leaving darkness?
29 comments:
I used to chain smoke while writing, so there's no telling how many years that took off my life.
Lately I've been going into another room and writing in longhand, then coming back and transcribing (and editing) on the computer. It keeps me from wasting as much time on the internet, and it's much easier on the eyes.
Since I write YA, I am a perpetual 16 years old. And when I recently learned I need braces (to correct an open bite) l realized I am *really* over identifying with my characters!
Let's see, starting with the bag of frozen corn on my back at the moment, I'd say that a stiff back is at the top of my list.
Sometimes I wish I was more like the main character I'm writing now. So I've created someone who is somewhat nicer and braver than me, hard to swallow my own frailties and downfalls when I realize that.
Definitely my neck. I bought a laptop from a friend just to write in, but if I use it more than 20 minutes, I get a neckache. So I'm back to using my PC. My laptop is my backup computer now -- always good to have.
I read the article. Ugh. It must be horrible to do that play day after day. It would depress me.
Oh my. That play. Wow. Not sure I could sit through that.
I've read books that left me depressed. I've read books that left me talking with an accent. I get deep into whatever I'm reading. It used to be the same with my writing, but I had to learn to write with distractions and that has created a bit of distance. Not much, but more than I used to have.
I get weekly massages since I'm at my computer almost every waking moment - with work, writing, the volunteer gig with the website, my addiction to blogs and e-mail.
Getting into character (I'm writing MG for boys) is very interesting - getting into that space and what is important to that character. I have darker books inside me. I'm not sure I'm ready to write them yet. My one darker book I have written is about me. Cathartic and easier to deal with since I've already been there.
So I limit the darkness to short stories. And I write light MG fantasy with gross stuff instead.
Two Nanowrimos ago, I got a steriod injection in my right lower back/hip area for a sinus infection. One week into my word count, the pain at the injection site worsened and would not go away. It was debilitating. Took me months to discover magnets. They manage the pain better than meds. I still have pain to this day and can not sit and write for long periods without magnets wrapped around my waist.
Erica, you and Spy are on the same wavelength as me today. Yesterday I got so wrapped up in one of my characters that I had to stop writing & watch a weepy movie to get it out of my system. She's only a third of the story but I just want to write about her. :)
My biggest physical ailment these days is my wrist. I got a new mouse that has a trackball and I must be holding it differently because I'm in near-constant pain. My back ALWAYS hurts, so I don't think to count that.
Less time spent with the three dimensional people. Though being online and talking with friends online helps.
I resist going there more than I have difficulty getting out of it. Usually characters go through hell, so sometimes I resist going there.
Lately, I've been so emotional about whatever, it makes no difference whether it's my skin or theirs, LOL.
Movies theaters work wonders, though. And sitting on a yoga ball while working is WONDERFUL: zero butt pain, and the wiggling I tend to do on it stretch out my sides and back and stuff. It's the perfect chair.
No wrist pain. I have a post on that somewhere. It's avoidable!
You know, the usual, paper cuts and near-sightedness.
I currently have what I assume is a pinched nerve that's causing a lot of pain in my right shoulder, but I wouldn't call it writing related. I would call it: a-bad-tendency-to-sleep-on-my-right-side-with-my-right-arm-tucked-under-my-pillow-under-my-head.
It's happened before and it sucks, but what're ya gonna do? Ice it, rest it, take ibuprofin.
And if I start to get whiny, I think of the photograph from the Kona Iron Man Triathlon of a guy with a prosthetic leg doing the Iron Man. What do I have to complain about?
Jude;
Glad you don't chain smoke anymore.
E
Alyson:
There are worse things than being perpetually 16! Think of it . . . you can go to prom again. ;-)
E
Amy:
I use heating pads. Haven't tried frozen corn.
E
Edie and Sarah:
Al of her plays are very, very intense. She must have been a intense young woman. I don't know if I could do that night after night.
E
heather:
I have never tried magnets . . .
Once in a blue moon (like once every two years), someone babysits and I go for a massage. BLISS.
E
zoe:
Yeah. 3-D people are kind of a rarity for me.
E
melanie:
Yeah . . . you know,. I've written 20+ novels, but it's just a few of them that have affected me to that degree. Freudian Slip is one of them.
E
mark:
I've decided to get back into the whole dawn-walking thing. That did a lot for cutting down on the aches and pains.
E
Except for Demon Baby. He's both 3-dimensional, and larger than life!
I was using frozen blueberries last night.
Zoe:
Um . . . "larger than life" is a very positive way to look at it. It's November and we're still in "Naked Strike." He hasn't worn clothes in the house since sometime in July--and he sleeps naked, too. We keep trying to "freeze him out." I set the A/C for 65 degrees and we haven't turned the heat on even though it's frosty every morning. And STILL he's naked.
E
Zoe:
P.S. There is a new Demon Baby blog post detailing Operation Freeze Out.
E
Because I'm at the computer all day at work and then writing in the evening, I have sorted out my sitting position in relation to the computer and that has helped back and neck pain heaps. As for my wrist pain, I keep swapping hands. I am very right-handed but I am amazed at how easy it is to use the mouse in my left hand. That has stopped wrist and hand pain.
All my novels are dark. In the beginning I couldn't understand where they were coming from so it has been a learning process about who I am and how much I suppress emotions. They come out in my writing, which is probably a healthy thing.
suzanne:
Without the outlet, I wonder what I would do with all that's in my head.
E
I haven't had that experience, yet. I think a lot of my writing is a way to cope with darkness - sort of making lemonade out of lemons. That sort of thing.
Reading your post makes me wonder if writers, and perhaps actors, who get extremely emotionally involved in their work, are also doing it in a cathartic way. When it's done "properly" it's very healthy, but if it becomes too intense, people can get stuck in depression (like the poor playwright). I know that a lot of comedians are dark, tortured people, but there are many who are pretty normal and happy.
Hi Robin:
The comics and actors I have know have uniformly been an unhappy bunch . . . But obviously that's not a universal. I think it's tough to be "on" all the time for some people.
As a writer, I already struggle with being hermit-like, which can mean being very withdrawn. I don't really talk to anyone when I am sad . . . but then my books seem to function in a cathartic sense, I guess,
E
No pain due to writing except to self-esteem. I must not write enough, want it enough, to deal with the pain.
Bought a leprechaun hat yesterday (yard sale) for my hat collection.
I told my husband I was furious with my character for getting on horse and riding off instead of staying the scene like he was supposed to and I'm thinking, huh? Aren't you the writer in control? Tell me again where the line between insanity and writing?
richmond:
It's a thin line. A very thin line. LOL!
Something is wrong with my bloglines in that the demon baby posts aren't showing, so now I have to go catch up on demon baby.
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