Healthy Writer Is An Oxymoron?

I’ve been told that a healthy writer is an oxymoron. The nature of the business (sitting for long hours, working odd hours, seclusion, etc.) create an unhealthiness that in some ways contributes to the work. HUH? I even have a friend that when she told her mother she wanted to be a writer, her mother said, “You’ll have to learn how to drink.” My friend has loved dark rum ever since but it doesn’t contribute anything substantial to her successful career.

Our awareness as writers depends on our state of health physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Our choices have a profound effect on the condition of these factors. Studies abound on the mind-body connection proving that each affects the other. An appreciation of what role the spirit plays in being human is expanding daily as well. Overall, it is wise to make decisions that lead to a healthy state of being supportive to your creative life.

WRITER WELLNESS is a plan that employs choices you can make to improve yourself by writing in a journal, exercising, learning to relax and meditate, making sound nutritional decisions, and by engaging in some type of creative play on a regular basis.

Here is one reason journaling is useful to writers.

Journaling: Some people hate it. Some people are addicted. But a journal writing habit is nothing but good for a writer. Contrary to what you’ve heard, it isn’t a time waster. “If I’m going to be writing, I want it to be toward my daily word count.” Well, writing in a journal can contribute to your daily word count if you learn to harvest the ideas from your journal that are worth employing in your writing. When the well seems dry and you’re crawling toward your word count, turn to your journal for ideas from past entries. If you keep a journal of thoughts, pictures, events, etc., I guarantee there is no such thing as writer’s block because you have a journal full of ready-made ideas to jump start your thinking when you run into a sour place in the novel writing. But there has to be a journal to refer to and you need to set aside time on a consistent basis to track your life for ideas and for cleansing. Journaling is a cleansing process that leaves you feeling crisp and excited about your work-in-process. No such thing as writer’s block when you have journals full of history to refer to when you’re stuck.

Writer Wellness is a lifestyle, a committment just like your writing. Check back and we’ll explore fitness, meditation, nutrition, and creative play and how those ideas make you a better writer.

Be well, write well,

Joy

Coming soon! Writer Wellness, A Writer’s Path to Health and Creativity, second edition from Who Dares Wins Publishing

www.whodareswinspublishing.com