TO WRITE OR NOT TO WRITE? MY BATTLE WITH CHRONIC PAIN & WRITING BY KAY BLAKE

This week our members will be sharing their experiences 

on writing through hard times.  

You know the grating sound a drill makes when it crushes through the pavement. How we can heat every crack as the concrete crumble so that the construction worker can get dig into the earth and get to work? Now imagine actually feeling that same drill digging into your skin. The many pricks, shooting, dull and sharp pains all engulfing your body at the very same time. That’s what it is like for an average day for me.

I have fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia is chronic widespread body pain. Most people like me also experience things such as moderate to severe fatigue, not being able to sleep/sleep disturbances, sensitivity to sound, light touch, and other cognitive difficulties such as remembering things short term. Fibro fog which I experience often is where I would go to do something and forget what I was about to do. It also consists of things such as talking to someone and all of a sudden losing train of thought and forgetting what was going to be said. Focusing and finishing tasks sometimes is extremely hard.  I was diagnosed with it in 2014 a little more than a year after my youngest daughter was born. At first I thought it was the typical pains that some women go through after the body adjust to having a baby. Oh, was I mistaken.

I recently graduated college with my bachelor’s in Psychology and during that time I published 3 novellas, as well as participated in 2 anthologies. I’ve been asked how I did it with fibro, and 3 children. My answer was simple. One day at a time. One of the things most writers will tell you is to try to write every day. There have been days when I was in so much pain that all I could do was curl up in bed and cry. I was in too much pain to even get out of bed. On really bad flares that feeling can last for weeks.

When I need to write something, I will do so on days where the pain is manageable. On those days, I try to get as much done as I can. I know sometimes when I overdo it I will pay for it the next day. However, as a person who loves telling stories and like to create characters the reward is a finished product even if the road there is a long and hard one.

If there are any other writers who have what I have I know it can be hard and most people don’t understand what it is to write when your fingers hurt, but it can be done. Take it one day at a time, one word at a time, and you can still be a writer. Everyone’s road to victory is always different, but the good thing is that there is a finish line, and that is what you hold on to.#

Kay writes sassy, sexy and sweet contemporary and interracial romance. She is from arguably the greatest city in the world. (New York). She is a sarcastic sweetheart who prefers snuggling at home with a good book. She is a mom to three cubs. Kay indulges in strawberry cheesecake, horror movies, Harry Potter, The Walking Dead, wrestling and of course a happily ever after.

READ ROMANCE !