How Nature Can Improve Your Health and Your Writing Desiree Smith-Daughety If the longer, warmer, and sunnier days leading into summer don’t lure you outside, away from your desk, this might entice you: going outside in nature is good for your mental and physical health, and for your writing. As writers, the work we do […]
A Q&A with Disability Book Week Founder Mary Mecham Nicole Schroeder Author Mary Mecham is passionate enough about books to have a collection of almost three thousand of them in her house. “It’s basically a library here,” she jokes. She shares the passion with her two daughters, both of whom have rare genetic conditions that […]
Chelle Honiker Facing the blank page, with the cursor blinking like a beacon of wasted time, writers often find themselves in a silent standoff with their own creativity. The challenge goes beyond simply putting words on a page; it’s about summoning the muse, maintaining focus, and breaking through the barriers of writer’s block. This is […]
Ergonomic Workspaces Protect Your Health and Your Career’s Longevity Wendy Van Camp As authors, we navigate the landscape of our imagination, but at the helm of our adventures is an often-unacknowledged force: the ergonomics of our writing space. Even if it doesn’t seem to matter much in the short-term, the setup we choose can shape […]
How to Balance Life and Work as a Creative We often think of work-life balance as an aim to keep work separate from our personal time. But as writers, our stories are almost always on our minds. For us, the traditional work-life balance might not exist; instead, aiming to separate our creative time and non-creative […]
Tips for Staying Healthy This—and Every—Conference Season Coined “con crud,” the influx of colds, flu, COVID, and other illnesses that happen this time of year is often on the minds of conference attendees and a factor to consider when preparing for a work trip. Conferences can offer authors countless opportunities for career growth and […]
Keep Your Cool During Back-to-School Although few people welcome the end of summer, no one dreads it more than parents—especially parents who are authors. Between too many trips for new clothes, school supplies, and haircuts; signing up for extracurriculars; and attending orientation events, parents are often left physically exhausted and mentally depleted. And every summer, […]
In a Sometimes Lonely Career, Indie Authors Find Creative Ways to Connect As writers, our path is primarily a solo endeavor. Some authors have an easier time combating loneliness, but others find it difficult to get past the isolation hump. When the need for companionship strikes, online writing sprints and smaller in-person writing retreats can […]
As an independent writer, poring over your work, you surely maintain peak physical performance. After all, our bodies are the vessel by which we create art, right? Most likely, this isn’t the case, and between writing sprints and hours of editing, you’ve likely experienced aches in places you never knew you could. This is the […]
What to Consider When ‘Shiny Object Syndrome’ Threatens Your Work-in-Progress Having a surge of creativity can be a great feeling. Everywhere you look, you seem to find new ideas. But while this can be exciting, it can also make it draining to progress in your current work. Your half-written drafts will be dropped. You may […]
If you’re healthy and have never had a chronic illness, you’re in a slim majority. According to the National Library of Medicine (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), 45 percent of all Americans suffer from at least one chronic illness, and that doesn’t include those with long COVID. If you don’t suffer from a chronic illness, such as cancer, heart […]
Not everyone makes a New Year’s resolution, but the people who do usually focus on health and wellness. Last year, 23 percent of Americans aimed to live healthier in the new year, making it the most popular resolution in 2022, according to Statista. As an indie author, it’s great to concentrate on your 2023 business […]
It’s that time of year again. Evenings are spent vegging out on the sofa after yet another rich, heavy meal. There are invitations to office parties and family gatherings a-plenty. Food and drink flow freely. Days and nights blend into one another, and normal is a distant memory. The belts around our waists move up […]
Many writers are familiar with the winter blues. The cold weather, long periods spent inside, and lack of sunlight can cause feelings of sadness. For some, this can even result in seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of seasonal depression that’s categorized by a persistently low mood, lack of motivation, and listlessness during certain times […]
Achieve the Work-Life Balancing Act a Little Bit at a Time Alice Briggs An author’s career is a long game. Life-changing success rarely comes after writing one or two books. Whether you’re publishing a book every month or every year, keeping to your schedule is the best way to meet your goals. But are you […]
Angela Archer According to Zippia (https://zippia.com), a job recruiting site, 83 percent of US workers experience work-related stress. But what is stress, and what’s the difference between normal stress, burnout, and depression? Stress is about feeling overwhelmed, as though you have too much on your plate, and according to Psych Central (https://psychcentral.com), it can lead […]
Angie Martin With one in five Americans dealing with mental health problems, mental well-being is becoming a bigger and more important topic than ever before. Mental illness has been suggested to share a link with creativity, with famed cases such as Edgar Allen Poe, Sylvia Plath, Mark Twain, and Stephen King, and a plethora of […]
We love being authors, but sometimes we can’t or don’t want to be click-clacking on keys for hours day after day. It could be for health and mobility issues or the desire to be more productive during your commute or while waiting at the doctor’s office. If you’re like me, it could be that you […]
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one in five adults in the US have experienced mental illness at some point in their life. Writers and other creative types, however, suffer at much greater rates than the average American. Over a decade of studies show the following approximate statistics for authors and artists: […]
The moment you’ve been dreading is finally here: your first bad review. You stare at it, wondering if you’ve misread it, then read it several more times. Each negative word feels like a tiny dagger to the heart. For some of us, there are tears. For others, there’s cursing, hand-wringing, or an inner critic that […]
Studies Show You Don’t Need Fancy Eyewear to Protect Your Sight from Extended Screen Use Blue light-filtering glasses sound like the perfect solution to computer eye strain. Unfortunately, there’s no evidence to support their effectiveness. Systematic reviews of multiple studies, in 2017 and 2021, found no benefits to the lenses. Double-blind clinical trials found no […]
Five years ago, author L.J. Stanton’s future took a dramatic shift. An equestrian for much of her life, she’d earned an equine sciences degree in college and was training horses and teaching riding lessons for a living. Then she was diagnosed with two genetic disorders: Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). “I […]
Since March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on chronic illnesses. Early estimates indicate anywhere from 5 to 80 percent of people experience lasting symptoms after contracting COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://cdc.gov). They join the approximately 51.8 percent of people in the US who live with a […]
Writing with chronic illness looks much different than writing without—and so does self-care. We often think of self-care as what we see prevalent in commercials or on the internet: spa days, vacations, etc. While these are nice, self-care for the chronically ill takes on a much simpler plan. It is more about taking your medications, […]
As writers, we can’t avoid spending time sitting in a chair, and this can lead to both bad posture and pain. This pain is often, although not exclusively, in the back, neck, and shoulders. When it’s time to think about a new work chair, you need to find one that meets all your needs. Budget […]
Published in 2018 by the US Department of Health and Human Services, the second edition of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans suggests that adults should sit less and move more to experience “immediate and longer term benefits for how people feel, function, and sleep.” Sit Less, Move More. Thank You, Captain Obvious. This isn’t […]
Jac Harmon How many times have you heard yourself say, “If only I had more time to write”? Probably far too many. One popular and well-proven method of increasing your productivity within your available time is to alternate periods of focused work (also called “sprints”) with short rest breaks. The Pomodoro Technique The Pomodoro technique […]
Fitting Exercise into Pockets of Time Greg Fishbone Typing an action scene might feel like a workout. Drafting a romantic interlude might get your heart pumping. But planting your butt in a chair all day isn’t doing your cardiovascular system any favors. Prolonged periods of inactivity are unhealthy, which is why regular workout sessions are […]
Protecting your wrists As a writer, your wrists are crucial to your work. Whether you use pen and paper or a keyboard, repetitive actions can cause stiffness and swelling leading to pain. The most common of painful wrist conditions is Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI), but by making a few small changes to your work habits […]
How to Eat Your Way to Creativity What’s the best fuel for a writer? For the 2021 Summer Olympics in Japan, 59-year-old Yoko Nishimura created a healthy salad to keep athletes in top form and combat the heat. She boiled edamame beans, added protein-rich noodles, fresh fruit, herbs, and vegetables. Like athletes, authors need energy […]
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