Yes, you’re sick and weak and your mind won’t focus enough to let you write a word after another.

Do you have to stop everything and just rest until you’re fully recovered?

Well— no. You need to rest and sleep and relax while you’re sick, but there are simple ways to continue writing that won’t drain that little energy from your body.

1. Take care of yourself. Sleep, rest, take medicines, breath some fresh air every morning in your sick days. Relax above all. Then, when you feel you need to do something to ease the boredom— write. Get in touch with your editor and ask for a deadline extension, write down a few ideas for your assignment as they come to your mind, type slowly or —if staring at the screen gives you nauseas and headaches— write on paper. Keep a notepad and a pen on your bedside table for when you feel the urge to scribble down ideas.

2. Write after a good nap. Your body works hard to fix things while you sleep and usually, when you wake up, you’ll feel a lot better. Get a good drink (water or tea) and write a little, until your body commands you lay down again. Write as much as your mind and body allow you to, but don’t overdo it.

3. Update your blog. Here, I’m updating this blog staying curled up in bed with influenza hitting my poor brain and tummy. I have no urgent assignments but a guest post and a sponsored review, so I can warm up and liberate my writing spirits with a new blog post that I know will help other writers in my same conditions. It makes me feel so much better!

4. Setup a recovery plan. Of course you can’t write full speed when you’re sick, but what you can do is setup a recovery plan for when sick days are over: which assignments need more research? Which need to be made top priority? Is there anything you can postpone?

5. Plan day by day. You don’t know when you’ll feel better or be fully recovered, so my advice here is to plan your writing schedule day by day: setup a number of mini-tasks according to the energies you have on a certain day, then add more as you feel better. Just don’t fill your plate while you’re sick: your top priority is healing!

How do you handle freelance writing when your sick?  Share your experiences!

Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

If you live in a metropolitan area or nearby schools or train stations, you know pollution isn’t your only problem. However, don’t let it add more stress and headaches to your work.

When everything else has failed — begging your family to let you be on working hours, closing the windows, getting rid of distractions and house noise — you may want to opt for other solutions. Extreme, not for everyday solutions, but my experience teaches they work.

Use your local library. If you seek complete silence, libraries should be your first pick. Silence is made a rule there, guests are not allowed to cause disturbance and you can write uninterrupted hours— at least until the library closes. In addition, you can take advantage of the book and magazine sections to consult publications for your background research.

Write at the park. Obviously not crowded at all times, your town park can provide a sufficiently quiet alternative to your home office. Make sure to fully charge your laptop or netbook battery and to bring a notepad and a pen along for the emergencies. Remember to take advantage of the fresh air and treat yourself with a few minutes relax between assignments!

Rent a hotel room. This is expensive, but it can be your perfect solution when nothing else works. Spending $30 to work in peace is certainly preferable to see thousands dollars go because you couldn’t write.

Spend some time in the countryside. When you have the chance, visit your relatives in the countryside, or take a little vacation in a farm with tourist pension on budget. Sometimes getting away from metropolitan noise can be healthy, not just for your writing, but for your body and mind health too. Keep an eye out for deals and be ready to catch one.

Find a quiet café or restaurant. Writers like Fitzgerald and Hemingway used to find refuge in a café to draft their best works. A small, not too crowded restaurant will do too. Public places can offer free ideas to pitch your prospects, so it’s a double prize (the uninterrupted hours and the ideas) for the effort of getting out.

Buy yourself a pair of DJ headphones. They should be soft and provide sufficient isolation from the environment. Make sure ear cups do fit comfortably around your ears and that the headband is not too heavy on your temples— it could cause headaches.

Write at college or university public areas. Use them. If you need a permission, ask for it. As a student writer, I can reassure you that study areas are the best place to write at: you get the silence you need, books and magazines for free consultation and experts (students or teachers) who can leave you with a helpful note or a contact. This is all blessing for a writer.

Remember to never, never surrender to your environment. Freelancers need to be fighters. Nobody will fight for your rights if you don’t, so— just do it.

Image credit: David Cooper, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

It’s Halloween. The kids have gone to bed. Your spouse is asleep. But you’re wide awake. Full of anticipation. NaNoWriMo is about to begin.

Time seems to drag. Midnight seems as if it will never get there. You have committed to writing 50,000 words or more in the next 30 days. You’re not quite sure why, but that sounded like a fun idea. Especially when you sit down and realize all you need is 1,667 words a day to reach your goal.

Tick. Tock. The laptop is ready. Tick. Tock. The notes are on the desk. Tick. Tock. Will it ever begin?

Ding! Dong! The clock strikes midnight! It’s now November 1, and you can begin! Before you know it, you’ve dashed off 2,000 words. You didn’t mean to stay up so late, but since you have to get up to take the kids to school and go to work in the morning, you decide to call it a night and head to bed.

The following evening, you sit down, still filled with excitement, and dash of another 2,000 words. You’re more than a day ahead, and feel good about where you are so far.

A week goes by. That full day’s lead has dwindled down to 400. You still feel good about where you are. But you have absolutely no idea what’s ahead. The next thing you know, your characters go on a revolt. That important task you wanted them to do they just refuse to do. Somehow, they wound up in a situation you can’t seem to get them out of.

Another week passes. It’s now the middle of the month. You’re wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into. The last two days, you failed to write anything at all. You’ve felt so stuck that you’re now 5000 words behind. There’s no way you can finish! Thanksgiving looks like you won’t be able to get any writing done because the world has decided it should be at your house this year. You think about giving up. Your friend who you were writing with gave up a week ago. But something inside you won’t let you quit. You wonder how you would feel if you gave up on this dream. Not only that, but by upping our daily goal to 2,000, you can still be pretty close to making it. So you press on.

You hear about an all-night write-in being held that weekend across town. This just might be the opportunity you need to push your novel back on track. It sounds like a fabulous way to meet other writers. Through the forums, you’ve chatted with one or two, and they are going, so it might be a great time to meet them. One of those won last year. Perhaps they might have a tip that can help you.

The night of the write-in arrives. Your spouse feels like your abandoning them days before being invaded by family, but you assure your spouse that it is just one night and that there is still time to work on the other stuff. Off you go. At the write-in, you have a load of fun. You tell stories about things in your life and listen to others. You learn about word wars where everyone writes for 15 minutes and the one who writes the most wins. Most of them through the night, you loose, but you almost win one toward the end. By the time the night is over, not only have you caught up completely, but you even have built a small lead. Most importantly, the other writers, some of whom have already reached 50,000, have given you courage to face the rest of the month.

The next week is hectic. You write when you can. You go back and forth between being caught up and being behind. Though you thought you wouldn’t be able to write much on Thanksgiving, you manage to find a few moments where you could. But most importantly, you’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. You had a major breakthrough and realized exactly what needs to happen in your story. By the time the fourth week is over, you know you’re on the cusp. With just a few days left, the anticipation begins. Even more of your new writing friends are crossing the 50K mark.

November 30th arrives. You only have 2500 words left to reach 50K, but you’re starting to feel your story might not be complete at that point. You clear your schedule so you can concentrate on writing. One of your fellow writers tells you that he has 12,000 words to write that day to win. He’s not giving up, and that inspires you. So you write. And write. And Write. You take a break, and write some more. You write all day. Time flies by. You stop every once in a while to cheer on the person who had to write 12K. He’s made it to 9K with about 3 hours to spare. It will be close, but he should make it.

You haven’t bothered checking where you were at. You’re pretty sure your over, but you feel you are so close to those two “magical” words, you decide to press on. Last time you checked, you only needed about 1000 words. That was about 4,000 words ago at your usual pace. But those words are near and you want to get them in before midnight.

Finally, you breath a sigh of relief as you type in those two magical words you’ve been searching for all day. You check on your friend’s progress. According to his last update, an hour and a half ago, he needed about 2000 words. You do a quick check on your novel. 55,678 words! A flood of emotions is released as your arms raise in victory. A “YES!” escapes your lips that you hope doesn’t wake your spouse or children. But that’s okay if you did. You’re celebrating your moment. Victory is yours!

You copy and paste your novel into the validator. Surprise! The validator says you have 57,149 words! Almost 1,500 more than you thought! Even better!

You dash off a quick note of encouragement to your friend who was pushing for the finish. Eagerly, you anticipate a post from him. Midnight comes. Did he make it in time? Five minutes pass. Ten minutes. Finally, 11 minutes past midnight, your friend posts. He made it! With a minute to spare! He had been celebrating so much he had just forgotten to update everyone!

It’s December 1st. You’re almost too excited to go to bed. November had been filled with emotions. Excitement, doubt, love, hate, joy, sadness… at one point or another, you had been filled with each.

You’re not sure what you think about your novel. It could be a masterpiece in waiting. Or it could be a dud. That’s a matter for another time. But at least you can say you rose to the challenge. Everyone doubted you would do it. But somehow, you held on to the belief that you could. As you try to unwind, you reflect on your achievement. Maybe there are some lessons for life you can learn. Like commitment, setting a goal, breaking that goal into smaller goals, giving the larger goal a deadline, finding support by others, and persistence. You feel like you can take on the world.

And in the morning, you’ll be ready to do just that.

About The Author

Grady Pruitt (also known as gradyp) is a 6 time participant and winner of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). At his blog, Success Building Blocks, he uses his experience with NaNoWriMo, as well as other lessons he has learned, to help others to become successful at life as well as during the event.

I’m very pleased with the grand opening of this blog. Despite its raw, still pre-made design, I have great plans for it.

What’s Writer’s Mind?

• a place for writers to share their minds (ideas)
• a place that makes no discriminations (we’re all writers, novelists or magazine columnists)
• a writing resource by freelancers for freelancers
• a weekly news point for writing markets
• a writing blog to share your experiences on
• a niche blog that welcomes quality, writing-related guest posts

Writer’s Mind is undergoing major writing and design work in the upcoming weeks, but I’m confident in your patience and your will to come back and check out what’s new from time to time.

Guest posts are welcome already, of course.

Better, the blog needs them to get started with a punch.