The Sensitive Writer and the Unhealthy Habit

After reading Nathan Bransford's blog this week I thought I would weigh in on the subjects he discussed as they pertain to me. Tuesday Nathan discussed writers being sensitive souls and yesterday his topic was "When is writing unhealthy?".

Nathan's blog is hugely popular and has a great following and always has many comments left discussing each subject he brings up in his posts. My blog is certainly much smaller in following and readership, but my opinions are still mine, and I like to share them.

As a writer, I would have to agree that writers in general are sensitive, or at least I know that I am. I'm not talking about just being sensitive to criticism of my writing, but sensitive to the world at large. There has always been something about me that causes me to experience things on a grand scale. By that, I mean that whenever something happens to me I feel it strongly, react strongly, and it stays with me. It doesn't matter if it's getting my feelings hurt, getting angry about something, or just having something happen in my life, I am emotionally sensitive.

My husband often tells me that I'm too sensitive, but I think it helps me as a writer to experience life on that level. I know it certainly helps me when writing Train Wrecks. That book is all about the emotional experience of life and without feeling that way about life myself, I couldn't write the book with any degree of credibility. So, while I think that it can be dangerous to be overly sensitive about my writing when it comes to constructive criticism if I intend to survive in the publishing industry, it is necessary to be sensitive to the world to write a thoughtful and provoking novel for my readers.

As for writing becoming unhealthy, I've been thinking about that while I've had this break from writing dealing with various illnesses of my children and a myriad of doctor's appointments. I suffer from obsessive compulsive personality disorder as well as a couple of other psychiatric disorders such as generalized anxiety and bipolar disorder. The OCPD causes me to easily slip into obsessing over certain tasks or hobbies such as writing. It doesn't take much for me to begin writing to the extent that it becomes unhealthy. I can end up spending hours on end writing and ignoring anyone and everything around me at the time for days or weeks.

My husband points this out to me quite often when I get like that. I do the bare necessities of bathing kids, showering, doing laundry, minimal housecleaning, and acknowledging that I'm not the only person in the house, but I will spend countless hours in front of the computer typing away, listening to music, and only socializing via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Google Talk. At that point, writing has become unhealthy and I have to learn to step back and take a break for a while. Lately things have been coming up that have forced me to take a break from obsessing over writing, and it's been a good opportunity to think over my obsession and try to retrain myself to take it easy and not push myself to unhealthy writing without boundaries. I admit that it's hard, but I am working on it!

Today's music of the moment is again brought to you from iTunes on my "Writing" playlist I'm working to rebuild after a minor technical calamity. (Computers and I don't always get along.) The song is "Things I'll Never Say" by Avril Lavigne. Yes, anyone who reads this blog knows that I'm a fan of Avril Lavigne. I love her voice and her style of music and much of what she sings is perfect for the YA books I'm writing. If you read the post about the playlist for Awakening of a Guardian you know that there are four of her songs on the official playlist for the book. This particular song of hers is something you may find on the playlist for The Council regarding two of the characters before they realize they are linked.

I'm hoping to get some writing done tomorrow since I'm home with Jimmy while he's sick and had to cancel my appointments for the day. He's feeling well enough to play Playstation now so I might be able to get some work done on my writing tomorrow. We'll see...