Today I am sharing a wonderful guest post written by Madeleine Dyer, author of Untamed, for the Book Lovers Blog. As a writer with a chronic illness her advice is invaluable. I wish I had read it earlier so I would not have beaten myself up so much for struggling to write after an epic November and times fatigue takes over so no words are added to my WIP. I am terrible at comparing myself to other writers, they achieve more than I despite working full time, and looking after young children but I need to remember having a chronic illness can be a full time job and if I don’t practise self care nothing will be achieved.
In this month’s Writing Magazine a reader wrote into the helpline section for advice on writing with chronic fatigue. Her friends suggested maybe she should stop writing. I hope she continues to write because it helps with mental health and is a wonderful form of escapism. I also hope she finds her tribe to help her on her writing journey as I have. The writing community on social media especially Twitter and FaceBook is strong and mainly supportive. Many writers have health conditions which impact their lives and are willing to share tips and advice. I may work on my WIP and stories alone but writing is no longer an insular hobby. There is always someone to talk to, bounce ideas off or laugh with online. I am grateful for Turtlewriters on Twitter whose quotes and encouragement always help on bad days and the Fiction Cafe Writers. If it was not for them I would not have known about the RNA and the New Writers Scheme.
Writers can be found using the following hashtags #spooniewriters #writingcommunity #FictionCafeWriters #turtlewriters #5amwritersclub (If you are awake then)
If you have a chronic illness how do pace yourself with writing or do you have any tips? Feel free to share below.
Thank you Madeline for sharing your thoughts.
Love
Hi guys! I’m so excited about today’s post, because I actually didn’t write it (except this introduction)! As you can see from the title at the top, this is my first ever guest post for BookLoversBlog, a super exciting step for me and one that I hope can continue because I love getting to connect with other bloggers and writers and have them share their experiences, there is such a wide world of writers out there with different experiences to mine and I want to make sure that is reflected in this feature.
Which brings me quite nicely onto today’s topic. Madeline Dyer is a YA writer, who has several chronic illnesses, so when she suggested writing a guest post about her experiences of writing with chronic illness, I thought it was a great idea. I hope that any of my followers who are also writers with chronic illness find…
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Kate Kenzie Writes 
Thats funny. I read that as well. Jen x
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Need more advice like that out there to balance things out 🙂
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Interesting – I reckon all writers need a strong support network around them. It’s a tough environment
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Its tough having a chronic illness. Sometimes when I get home from work all I can manage is crawling into bed, let alone think of my WIP!
Great advice ❤ thanks for sharing x
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