Writing and life

Image copyright Suicide Girls.

Sometimes life just gets in the way of good writing. We have all faced that problem. Family events, illnesses of loved ones, physical injuries. I've covered the first two quite well in the first six months of 2015 and this month I get to experience the third.

I have been dealing with extreme back pain for over a week now and was finally diagnosed today with a herniated disc between my sixth and seventh vertebra. With the level of damage it has sustained, my best bet is for its removal and fusion. If all goes as planned, I will be in surgery before this weekend, then have a day or two of recovery at the hospital before a long stay (a minimum of a month) at home.

Thankfully my day job does have a short term disability plan that will keep me covered for the weeks I am away from work. It doesn't offer my full pay, but it will provide enough to get buy on our bills and keep our family afloat.

It will also give me plenty of time to write, albeit in a neck brace, but still a lot of time. I am going to try my best to complete a few projects during that time off my feet and on limited movement, but who knows what complications will come with it.

I write this not for pity, but to show a bit of the struggles that a less-than-full-time writer deals with it on a daily or monthly basis. And maybe to tell everyone out there to take good care of your neck. You never know when it will just give out on you.

Today's image is of the Suicide Girl named Revenge. Because if I'm going to talk about the harshness of being a writer at times, I can at least show this super-idealized image of the life.