Your Mental Health as a Writer: Crucial Facts Copyblogger Forgot to Mention
Writing is a mental task. Neurons fire, messages run down the hotlines of your brainwaves and voila – creativity sparks. Your fingertips rattle out prose like a machine gun and you revel in your words, a little high on your craft.
In that moment of time, it’s tough to think of writing as harmful to your mental health.
Writing – the act itself – isn’t going to cause cancer or send you screaming to the insanitorium. How you write, though, may cause some serious mental health issues if you don’t take caution with your habits.
Get outside
These days, writing usually takes place at a computer desk. When they’re in the zone, writers forget many things vital to mental health – like the day, the time, to move around and stretch muscles, and to blink. Writers also forget to go outside.
In summer months when days are long, this may not be an issue. In the fall or winter, depending on where you live, a lack of daily exposure to sunlight can put you at risk for depression. In the Northern Hemisphere, winter days are short. Writers cut out daylight in favor of staying indoors to write like a fiend on fire. I don’t blame them; it’s warm.
It’s also the fast track to the blues. Get outside every day for at least a half an hour.
Get some sleep
Long hours during the day with longer ones at night, and many a writer’s candle start to burn at both ends. It’s tough to put down the pen, especially when deadlines loom and writers need the money badly.
Tired eyes and a tired mind make for tired writing. The work might be finished on time, but the fresh eyes of a client notice everything – especially sub-standard work.
Most adults need about 8 hours of sleep a day. That amount generally leaves people feeling rested, fresh and ready to take on the day. Productivity spills over, energy is high, and it’s easier to blaze through work instead of dragging feet through the mud.
Get an objective opinion
Cherished loved ones, friends and family…They’re the best people to surround yourself with for support; they’re the worst people to ask for an opinion. Too critical, not critical enough, overly supportive or jealous of success, these people never provide the feedback a writer needs to maintain a good, positive attitude while improving on his or her work.
Writers are touchy, sensitive creatures (and some are eccentric, too!), and a poorly phrased but well-intentioned comment easily brings the Muse to her knees. A writer who starts to doubt his or her own innate talent, ability or potential is a writer on the road to trouble.
Support should be from people who care, and opinions should be from people distanced from the situation. Ask a person who has no vested interest in the writer’s success or failure for an opinion. Accept the feedback as just that – feedback. Take that feedback with a grain of salt, too, because writing is generally subjective to personal perspective.
Models care for their looks. Athletes care for their bodies. Surgeons care for their tools.
If you want to be a writer, care for your mind.
Thanks to Brian Clark for sparking my interest in his Cosmo challenge! (Though it doesn’t take much to have me sit up and say, “I can do that…”)
10 Responses to “Your Mental Health as a Writer: Crucial Facts Copyblogger Forgot to Mention”
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Oh yeah. Sleep. I knew there was something I was forgetting….
Good post (and good points)!
Actually, I think low rates are sometimes the reason that writers work themselves like this.
If a writer accepts a $2 article deal, they pretty much have to work 12 to 14 hour days just to make ends meet. If they negotiate a decent rate, they can afford to rest and spend time with family.
It’s definitely a reason to negotiate a good rate for yourself going into a project.
Of course, I guess that there could be other reasons that writers don’t give themselves enough breaks.
My personal reason for not giving myself enough breaks is the feeling that if I go to bed, if I take a day off… if I dare to step away at the computer, something bad will happen. The business will crash, clients will go insane…It never occurs, but it’s hard to step away. Oh, yeah, that and the “one new mail!” addiction. I might miss something good
A second reason for not taking enough breaks is the fast pace of the world online. Everything is warp speed. There’s so much to do, as well. Be on top of this. Follow that. Work on this. Change that. Check your stats. Check your email. Check your to-do list. Manage your time. Manage your business.
Sheesh, when I take breaks, it’s almost a guilt-ridden sin. I feel bad. I rush to get back home and pick up the slack after a scant hour at the local skating arena.
@ Laura – I agree. People. Stop working at $2. Please. It’s just not healthy.
@ Deb – Good to have you around. And as a reward for stopping by, you’ve earned a free nap!
Yeh right on.
I live in Portland and in the winter it rains all the time and the days are short and muggy and very conducive to hiding at the good old terminal and banging away. Thanks for the jolt back to reality.
I’m getting up right now and taking a break to step outside if only for a minute……..
Ciao
You’re very welcome. I’ll trade you snow for rain, though… We’re currently experiencing heavy snow (18 inches in 10 hours and still coming down), making going outside a laughable joke. Even for Canadians.
I enjoyed this piece – and yes it was the headline wot grabbed me
Actually I’m finding that writing a lot is very good for my mental health – it makes me feel happier, more confident, clearer about things. It’s my physical health I need to take better care of – proper breaks for food, regular exercise and like you say, time outside – which is normally good for generating some writing ideas too
Joanna
Great post, Its causing me to rethink some things
Enjoyed this post James. I’m guilty of these things. Staying up too late, writing and surfing on beautiful sunny days.
I liked what you said about family and friends – “The best people to surround yourself with for support. The worst people to ask for an opinion.”
Joe
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