EYES RIGHT by Penny Dolan

As my ABBA post comes at the start of each month, I’m often in the mood for a bit of personal New Resolution, a hope that in the the coming month I will do better. Right now, a birthday recently behind me, I’m fretting over what long keyboard hours are doing to my – and possibly to your - health. I have read and heard constant media warnings that sitting too much, whether for “book writing” or emails & admin (various) or blogging & Face-booking and more does bad things to the body.   

On a day like today, when several writing obligations will need much long sitting, those warnings flickering away at the back of my mind like angels.

 Fitness, first. Nicola Morgan recently blogged on ABBA about her admirable writing and “desk walking.”  No, don’t think that’s for me.  I might co-ordinate the footsteps but the words would look like QWERTY exercises done by an ape. Some authors prefer exercise indoors and speak of visits to their local gym or gym equipment ready in their spare bedroom. I’d probably forget and trip over the cross trainer while day-dreaming. (Dislocated knee? Not a nice injury.) 

Many writers like walking outdoors, thinking over their latest Work In Progress as they pace each day. I always think of Jenny Alexander and Katherine Langrish out walking wild places.

I often daydream about trying something more holistic like swimming, but I am the world’s slowest swimmer and therefore a menace to all faster swimmers in the pool. It’s an activity that’s good for authors. I’m envious when I hear about Liz Kessler surfing in Cornwall or Catherine Johnson braving the waves, or the many other writers who plunge into swimming pools each day. Sigh. Any swimming experience takes me the rest of the day to get over. Sad face etc.

Then comes the bones and the bending – or not. My “long sitting” month has stiffened my joints and stretchy activities are needed.

 Linda Newbery swears by yoga, if she swears at all, and her yoga sessions are always popular at the SAS Charney Manor week’s retreat. I've tried out the easier alternative - Pilates - nearer home which went well until I was hit by a month of school visits and trips away. When I returned, the class was much fuller.  

Oh dear.  Friends, there’s a difference between hiding discreetly at the back (which I had been) and being the person bumping into other people (which I now was). Yes, I lost courage.

Then there's that other small difficulty: the Author Diet!  
When you’re working from home, extra nibbling and munching is so easy, and little by little the numbers on the scales creep up. If you are deep into writing - and therefore too busy to go through all the faff of cooking - your meals/snacks may well be a bit carb heavy.  

We tried, home here. We've done bursts of 5:2. (Thank you, Kate Harrison.) However, surrounded by the gloom of winter on many a “2” day, by 4pm we’d decide  that it was really a “5” day - and our schedule fell apart.

Besides, am I the only one with problems about all the Facebook friends who continually cheer and reward stressed friends with virtual chocolate and wine?  Ha, ha, hollow ha! Some of us stressed writers swiftly convert that reward into the real world, especially the comforting chocolate.

Yet one good health-type thing has happened. I’ve been having trouble with my eyes – no, that’s not the good thing! – but battling with font sizes and views and changing the height of the screen (posture and eyes!) and similar stuff did not seem to help. 

I usually work on a PC, facing a window so I can look out. (I’m sure that other writer’s talk about looking out of the window?) Late last month, as the daylight level outside grew brighter, I was shutting my blinds more and more. I hardly ever saw straight daylight, and was eye-sore by the end of the afternoon. Then I suddenly saw what a fool I’d been.  

Of course, of course, you cry! Didn’t you think of that before?

 

I brought a small table into the room, set it 45% to the window working top and moved the PC screen around. Now the screen is backed by a set of bookshelves and my eyes have stopped hurting. Although this big shift a) messes up the space in the room slightly annoyingly and b) means I now have wires trailing across a gap and c) blocks the occasional-use tv screen, I can now work for longer without really sore eyes and that feels like a blessing.

 

Along with body and bones and good things to eat, do look after your eyes, people. Take good care of them, as it won’t be easy to write if your sight starts going. If you are sitting there, squinting up your itchy eyes, maybe it’s time to stop accommodating all the deficiencies in your workspace set-up and consider quite where and how to place your screen while you’re at your work. Just a suggestion.

Meanwhile, despite my comments above, I'd really like to know how you keep healthy and un-creaky when you’re in the middle of long writing or too many projects? And how do you fit it that into you (and possibly your family's) life-style?.

Penny Dolan

Ps. One birthday present was a simple daily Yoga DVD. A hint, I think. I’ll let you know.