Are you a highly sensitive writer? Do you know what “highly sensitive” is? I didn’t until I read The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N. Aron. Wow. What an eye-opener. If you’ve ever been told that you’re “too sensitive” and you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend you do.Continue Reading
Living with manic depression and anxiety, the biggest physical challenge for me being a writer is finding a healthy balance between being still, managing anxiety, exercise, and writing. I also have sciatica, so back strengthening exercise is extremely important. It can painful to sit for long hours at a time.Continue Reading
I’ve been reading lately about laptop dangers. I do all my fiction writing and blog writing on it, and I take it with me everywhere. My desktop gets a great workout on my freelance projects and submissions, but for just about everything else, I’m on my laptop. Imagine my dismay,Continue Reading
My left hand likes to protest typing, as loudly as possible. Five years ago, I went to a physical therapist for lymphedema that resulted from surgery for breast cancer. While undergoing physical therapy, I mentioned that my hand had been hurting a great deal—I thought it was related to theContinue Reading
How can you attain optimal creativity in your writing life? It’s all about motivation. Think for a moment: What motivates a person to want to climb Mount Everest? The task is difficult, near brutal, and several people have died doing it. I wondered why someone would spend all the moneyContinue Reading
When I was writing my first novel, I gave little thought to my physical health—how I was sitting, the postage-stamp size of my desk, if in fact squinting down at a screen with hunched shoulders was a good idea. I had two small children and an urgent need to getContinue Reading
Are you in a writing funk? You may not have noticed it creeping up on you. Then one day, you’re no longer excited about your writing. You may go so far as to say that you don’t really care if you write or not. What’s going on? Should you beContinue Reading
by Ulrike Selleck When I was five years old, I drowned. While my friend and her mom desperately tried to fish my lifeless body out of the water, I actually had the most amazing, beautiful, light-filled, and cozy experience. I experienced where I lived, who I really was, had been,Continue Reading
A friend of mind got a rejection the other day. She’d worked really hard on the story, putting it through numerous edits. The journal was one she’d read and admired for years. It was a big blow. I tried to console her, but she wouldn’t really allow it. “Nah, I’mContinue Reading
Sitting at a desk for long stretches of time takes a toll on my body in many ways. When I’m chugging along, it’s hard to avoid as many as 20 hours at a computer each day. But to be fair, this is the case with all of us who workContinue Reading
If you’re going to be a writer, you gotta toughen up. People are going to criticize your work. Agents and editors are going to reject you. Readers will impale you with bad reviews. Publishers will turn their backs if your sales are lackluster. Rejection awaits at every turn, so youContinue Reading
Sitting for long periods of time puts a strain on my back, neck and legs. Sometimes my hands cramp or my elbows tingle. My shoulders ache and my neck hurts. I have the opposite of the munchies—if I’m really in the zone, I’ll go until 4:00 in the afternoon withoutContinue Reading