Writing Truth No. 2

Writing Truth (or Reality) Number 2. Writing is hard work physically.

Yes, writing is hard mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Mentally

Read widely, not just in your chosen genre, so your imagination is always nourished by ideas. The brain is like your bicep muscles. What happens if you stop using your arms? The muscles slacken and grow weak.

In older people, it's easy to see what happens when they age and don't exercise. They grow weaker.

That will happen to your brain if you don't keep it stimulated.

Emotionally

One cannot write without being in touch with emotion. your emotional landscape is what informs your writing. How can you write about love if you do not love? How can you write about loss if you have not grieved?

A lot of people try to shove their emotions down--to pretend they don't feel the pain of losing a love or a loved one. If you do this, you never grow. If you stifle your emotions, you can never let another know you intimately. Your writing will show this barren emotional landscape because no matter how hard you try, pieces of yourself invade everything you write.

Physically

If you've worked at a computer for a year or more, you probably know how it can put kinks in your body.

I should be the poster child of how working at a computer can twist your body into a pretzel and give you muscle spasms that seem encased in cement. I've suffered pinched nerves and muscle spasms for too many years. Yet, I often ignore the pain signals from my body in order to finish a project.

Do yourself a favor. Make a habit of stretching before, during, and after a bout of writing. A few minutes at the top of the hour and at the end an hour will keep you writing and pain free.

Make a commitment to some form of exercise every day in addition to the writing/stretching routine.

It's easier and so much cheaper to prevent problems like p;inched nerves, back spasms, sciatic pain, and carpel tunnel than to cure them.

You know the old saying: "You are what you eat?" Well, you also are what you think about, what you feel, and how you use your physical body.

Takeaway Truth

If you ignore all aspects of your health, you will be miserable and eventually fall apart.