Chronically Ill Writers Share Their NaNoWriMo Stories
Welcome to Chronically NaNo — a place for National Novel Writing Month participants with a chronic illness or disability to share their stories!
If you want to know more, head over to the About page. If you are ready to share your story, head over to the Share page for instructions.
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Hello to everyone one there reading this blog,
I am visually impaired since birth and before the usual comments arise: No, glasses don’t help completely, contact lenses also don’t and are so uncomfortable to me that I don’t want them and the remaining impediment is still significant. I also live in a foreign country (the UK) since September, for studying software engineering in cooperation with the college in Germany where I studied the first 2 years. As you might have guessed, I am German. (You have read my rather aggressive introduction, concerning my disability. I have to excuse for this, but most people don’t take it seriously and confuse muddling and scraping through with having no difficulties. I had almost no support at school and college in Germany and thus often had to justify for my difficulties.)
Computers always were different and always alluring. In the era of the DOS-prompts and EGA graphics, screens were easily readable and the lack of peripheral vision was not an issue at all. This was one of the reasons, why I got into computers, programming and creative processes using them as a hobby and later as a possible carreer. The fact that NaNoWriMo only requires a computer, creativity and time was one of the reasons why I felt interested in it since quite a while already: I felt like competing with others on equal ground, unimpaired.
posted under contact lenses, disability, goal, impediment, NaNovel, nanowrimo, novel, pain, peripheral vision, School, software engineering, studying software, vision, writing | Comments (0)
Here I sit at 27 years old with an auto-immune nerve disorder, and though I am quite creative, it isn’t always easy for me to do things and keep up with them. I exercise regularly, attend a local business school, and I also somehow find time for hobbies and friends.
So, this year was my very first attempt at NaNoWriMo and I won! I didn’t write every single day, but I kept at it. I decided to try NaNo because I wanted to get back into my writing.
posted under carpal, flares, life writing, NaNovel, nanowrimo, nerve disorder, novel, pain, pain meds, tunnel, weather, wrist brace, writing | Comments (0)
I am a zebra. In medical schools doctors are taught that when they hear hoof beats think horses, not zebras. This is well and fine if you are a horse, but I’m a zebra. You see, zebras are people with rare diseases. In 2006 I was diagnosed with Cyclical Cushing’s Disease. It is a a rare variant of a rare endocrine disease that there are all together too many doctors who don’t believe it actually exists.
Oh good. Just my great luck to get something that literally only a handful of doctors understand. Cushing’s is one of those diseases where the official stats are something like 10 to 25 people out of a million get It, but I have met several people that I just knew for sure that they had Cushing’s; their hump was a dead giveaway. Yes, that’s right, a hump.
posted under asthma, Chronic, chronic illness, Cushing’s Disease, depression, dream, dreaming, Fatigue, fibro, Fibromyalgia, goal, Health, Illness, novel, novelist, writing | Comments (1)
I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and orthostatic intolerance. CFS is an illness that tends to get worse unless it is diagnosed and you learn to stop trying to live your life the way other people do and start taking care of the illness. There are people who have it who can lead completely normal lives, and there are those who can’t even get out of bed. For me, I was diagnosed very late, and so I can’t work anymore. I can still get out of bed and do quite a few things for myself, so I still count myself lucky.
The symptoms of CFS are common for a lot of other illnesses, making it hard to diagnose. Exhaustion. Fibromialgic pain during flare ups. Inability to recover from exercise. Feeling ill during pressure changes. Loss of cognitive function, often called brain fog. For me, that means planning my day so I don’t do too much at once. It means living with my parents so they can take care of me. I try not to commit to much of anything, because I don’t know when the next flare up will be. I keep track of every ounce of energy, take many pills and try to find things that I can still do while sick, so I don’t feel worthless. Things like crochet, art and computers have kept me sane.
posted under brain fog, cfs, Chronic, chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic illness, cognitive function, exhaustion, Fatigue, fibro, flare ups, goal, illnesses, nanowrimo, novel, pills, writing | Comments (2)
I have asthma, severe major depression and Borderline Personality Disorder. All of these have been kept well in control by medication for some four years now. I no longer have tantrums, nor do I feel suicidal, nor do I wheeze for air. However, I still get tired easily, dislike being in large crowds for more than an hour or so and often have to rest at home the day after I have been to a public event.
I first heard of NaNoWriMo in 2002, when I was in graduate school at UCLA. It sounded intriguing, but I dared not do it, because I was heading towards a depressive episode and already struggling with my coursework. I — doubtless correctly — thought that I could not handle writing term papers and a novel at the same time. After I was obliged to leave grad school because of my inability to concentrate on my studies during my depressive episode, I had a long writer’s block and did not feel like writing fiction. This upset me, since my identity as a (future) novelist is important to me. By this year [2009], however, my condition (both healthwise and financial) had stabilized enough that I felt freer to imagine and to write.
posted under asthma, borderline personality disorder, Chronic, chronic illness, depression, Fiction, goal, Health, major depression, nanowrimo, novel, novelist, writing, writing fiction | Comments (0)
Hi. My name is Robert. I write novels, usually fantasy, horror or science fiction novels with a lot of action in them, deep themes, interesting characters and imaginative settings. I’m a firm believer in Escape Fiction. The only people who are against escape are jailers.
I’m well aware the great adventure and height of my life’s achievement is to provide an effective sleep aid to as many readers as buy my books. I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of a sleep aid that has no aftereffects, does get your mind off the day’s worries, gives you something cool to dream about and won’t interact badly with whatever else you’re taking.
posted under depression, dream, Fiction, goal, novel, writing | Comments (0)
Once upon a time, you never would have met a girl with bigger goals. I wanted to sky dive, to backpack through Europe, and to climb a mountain. I wanted to go para-sailing, and to learn to surf. I had decided that, eventually, when I went to college, I would study to become an archaeologist – and yeah, they still have those. I was going to get married, and honeymoon in Italy. I wanted to run a marathon, set a world record, and probably had a bigger bucket list than anyone else I knew.
And then, just before I turned seventeen, I found out I have Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. As a teenager, a blow like that is hard to take; just months before, the world was laying itself at my feet. I think, though, that the doors that closed for me then, I shut myself. I locked them, and threw away the key. I was determined to get by, sure, and I’m so blessed in the fact that my disease isn’t as quickly progressing as so many others, but all I could see was a smart, strong, healthy girl who suddenly wasn’t strong or healthy anymore.
posted under depression, diagnosis, dream, goal, Health, misery, multiple sclerosis, National Novel Writing Month, novel, obstacles, triumphs, writing | Comments (0)
It can be little things you still can take pleasure in. For me it is things scrapbooking, writing this blog, reading a good book. But sometimes you have to dream big and push yourself. Sometimes you have to WRITE a good book.
posted under autoimmune, autoimmune pancreatitis, chronic illness, dream, dreaming, Fatigue, fibro, Fibromyalgia, goal, hashimoto's thyroiditis, obstacles, overcoming obstacles, sjogren's syndrome, thyroid, writing | Comments (0)
Novel Patient