Who dares, wins!

I’ve been formatting for Kindle, preparing for print, writing a new story, researching… so much work and the thing is, at the same time, I have been aching. In the neck, shoulder, up over the back of the head. I have been kayaking recently and I thought I had torn a muscle. I’ve not kayaked for ages and am desperately unfit in all the required places.

But then I started talking to fellow writer Barbara Silkstone who was in an edit phase. Sore neck, sore shoulder etc. I mentioned that my jaw joints were miserable. She said she had been grinding her teeth while editing. I told her I ground teeth not only editing but asleep and had got a dentist to make up a specialist guard for same.

Sometimes I love my chair, sometimes it’s a bed of nails. Sometimes my computer is as easy to read as large-print text. Sometimes it feels like playing a game of Scrabble with all the wrong letters.

Barbara and I ended up falling about laughing, thinking that writing, and editing in particular, was like Survivor. Outwit, Outlast, Outplay! Survivor of the keyboard, the demands of indie publishing, of life. Winner takes all.

So how many writers out there suffer for their art? Let me know. Who dares, wins!