A little nudge to fellow authors

Writing

Writing is a journey fraught with intense joys and frustrations. For the passionate author, writing can consume you completely, and drown you in scenes, characters, process, linkages, and descriptions. Living in these places and spaces can be so real, that a separation between reality and book life becomes blurred. For the intense character creators, it is normal to find them calling themselves and calling other people by the name of their characters. (I am guilty of that). 

This in itself is excellent for the book that an author is writing. It brings in the reality into the words spewing onto the page. It makes the writing authentic. 

But the danger is in forgetting the self. Many an author have confessed to forgetting to eat, forgetting to sleep for stretches of days on end, to battering their bodies in order to reach that goal, deadline, milestone that authors set for themselves. Gulping gallons of coffee and redbull to keep going is a discussion among authors. Chasing the story thread and riding on waves of energy is the way most of have managed to finish that story. For me, knowing that the wave will crash and I will be left with no desire to write a word or to read one for a while is a reality I must deal with. 

The thing to do:

Be mindful of the self. Be mindful of your health. Eat well, sleep well. Keep rest deadlines together with your milestones goals. 

Remember the story will still be there (if you make outlines while the story is flowing in your head and heart). 

This bit of advice is coming form experiences with writing myself. 

I live alone, and without someone to care for, to cook for, to sit with and talk, to ask me to stop and do something different, I can write for ages on end. 

But the long-term effects come after a while. It becomes harder to cater for these that if we had been mindful from the beginning. 

Just a little nudge to my fellow authors.

FM