I was recently part of a local convention known as Comic Con FanX, which included a Writing and Your Health panel that covered a lot of fascinating aspects of mental, emotional, and physical health for people who are creating stuff.
I loved hearing about how other panelists utilize principles of martial arts, meditation, and many other tools. It was also so interesting to hear about how creativity rapidly depletes dopamine, which is why it can be so stinking exhausting!
I can’t re-create everyone’s insightful genius, but I’m mentioning all this in case you feel like writing your novel is like slogging through a bog.
If nothing else, maybe we could all stretch more. For example, you could stretch right now as you’re reading this. You know you want to!
As for my two cents on the panel, I talked about dictation, which helps writers be less sedentary. By recording what you say into a mobile recorder or dictation app, you can have Dragon transcribe what you say into text–all while freeing yourself from your desk.
I nerd out over it, can you tell?
This is something you can try right away. For example, on an iOS device, just open the Notes app, select the microphone at the bottom, and give it a try. Android has similar things depending on which apps you use. You can get way more into it than this, but that’s the basic idea.
And lastly, here are some of my favorite costumes! I can’t believe the effort people put in. So cool.
The Productive Author 