Nine Common Problems and Conditions That Could Affect Writers and Their Writing Careers

A writer makes a living by putting a group of words together to create a story, an article, a poem or any other literary piece.  He needs all his senses in order to do what he does best – write.  However there are conditions that could create havoc in his writing career which he is not completely immune from.   So here are some descriptions and illustrations of the 9 most common conditions that could affect a writer which he could only wish would never touch his realm.

1. Headache. Oftentimes, developing a headache becomes an alibi when one doesn’t want to work. But a true headache, once it struck, is detrimental to a writer who is in the middle of creating an article or a story on a tight deadline. He could ignore the pain if it is not severe, but it could still make him less productive. Some headaches could go away after a short rest or by taking in medicines, however if it is caused by an infection or hypertension, a visit to the doctor is a call he must heed.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/headache.jpg

2. Toothache. A toothache is a terrible experience for everyone. It immobilizes a person, making him only aware of one part of his anatomy – the side of the face where his tooth aches. As a writer is like everyone else, his urge to write vanishes with the intensity of the toothache. It can be cured though, temporarily, by taking medicines for the pain and later, when symptoms continue to persist, a timely visit to his dentist.    

http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/health/how-to-get-rid-of-a-toothache/

3. Laziness. How could one cure laziness? Nobody could cure the laziness of a person except the person himself. However much you throw the most searchable keywords or the perfect plot to a story that would sell like hot potatoes, they would just bounce back at you. The shell of laziness and lack of self-discipline is impenetrable, only remedied by the will of a writer who suddenly got the motivation to sit down and type.

http://www.zmescience.com/test-could-give-excuse-for-laziness

4. Distractions. Distractions are everywhere especially when the writer is working at the comfort of his own home. Children playing and crying, loud televisions, pets chasing each other, telephone ringing and sometimes, even a favorite song playing in the background could make him stop and forget his flow of thoughts. Proud is the writer who is immune to these forms of everyday nuisance.

http://www.osu.edu/imageoftheday/index.php?theme=29

5. Loss of inspiration or ideas. An inspiration is behind every writers great composition. It’s what makes him stay up until the wee hours of the morning to write. It makes him get up in the middle of the night or suddenly makes him stop with chores to go to his desktop and type his thoughts away. So a loss of inspiration is one nightmare he is not adept to encounter often.

http://michellerafter.wordpress.com/2009/07/

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6. Extended Power Outage. The modern era is so dependent on electricity. Without it laptops could only function for a few hours and desktops are quite useless. The new generation of writers have become so accustomed to the convenience of typing their masterpieces using computers that the thought of going back to pen and paper is giving them goosebumps. Well, it’s okay to write on paper when one scribbles a short poem, but writing down a five-page piece with no means no delete or backspace in order to replace some words takes a lot of work, and then typing them again later on when electricity comes back sounds too much.

http://blog.mtviggy.com/2009/06/24/kolkata-dispatch%E2%80%9Ccall-1912-for-only-electric-problems%E2%80%9D/

7. Osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is a medical disorder characterized by joint pain, swelling and decrease joint movements. It involves the cartilage between the joints of the feet, knees, spinal column, and as dreaded by writers, the fingers. Some factors attributed to the development of osteoarthritis are old age, heredity and injury from continuous repetitive movements of the said joints. Because writers mainly use their hands to make a living, some mechanical injury to the hand, specifically the fingers, could occur. In such cases, medical attention is necessary to diagnose and alleviate the symptoms.

http://www.mountnittany.org/wellness-library/healthsheets/documents?ID=5261

8. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Typing for long periods of time has been blamed for the development of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome among writers and transcriptionists.  The repetitive typing movements cause stress injury and nerve irritation producing the symptoms of numbness, tingling, and weakness of the thumb, the index and the middle finger. Although it could occur temporarily, some cases progress in severity and would require medical and even surgical intervention. This is a real nightmare for writers as this could lead to loss work for a day or even a week’s worth of work.  (In olden times, it was the writer’s cramp that caused some distress due to hand writing.)

http://www.medem.com/?q=medlib/article/ZZZVK53OZ5D



9. Writer’s block. When a writer has been sitting for a long while in front of his computer continually typing, and then deleting the words, replacing them again, only to find, after such gigantic efforts, still only the cursor on an empty page of his monitor, he is experiencing a writer’s block. Reasons for writer’s block include the loss of inspiration, pressures from a deadline, difficulty dealing with a new topic, distractions, insecurities, unexpected events affecting the writer in any aspect of his life, and could also be due to medical reasons. Whatever the cause, a mental block, which is mostly and thankfully, temporary, renders the writer incapable of producing a written output for the moment. Blessed then is the writer who has never had such an experience.

http://www.hollywoodtoday.net/index.php?s=graboff

So there you are.  The 9 common conditions that could affect a writer are varied in origin.  They could range from medical conditions, to a lack of discipline, to mechanical stress from the typing itself, and to situations beyond a writer’s control.