You mentioned health and fitness for NaNoWriMo in your November 9, 2005 article. One thing to encourage health is to join " Healthy Habits Bandwagon"  [ 13+] by SueBear   . Getting healthy, and especially getting plenty of exercise in, can really help clear the cobwebs. You have more energy to write, and don't necessarily have to force yourself to stay in your chair.
Thank you! That looks like a great group to help us stay motivated to write healthy. - Jessie
Hi, I have been reading, though I haven't replied in awhile. This was great and informative. I agree with the health stuff, too. Just a walk does wonders for the brain.
The Twain quote made me chuckle - what a wit he was!
Walking is a great way to clear the cobwebs while helping to keep fit. I know many people who swear by running, but for those of us who aren't athletically inclined, walking provides many of the same benefits without wearing out knees and hips. In addition, when you walk, you can take time to notice and be inspired by your surroundings. - Jessie
Jessiebelle, thank you for the well timed and thought out article. It’s one of the problems I’m working on. It’s almost midnight, and here I am tapping away. I haven’t had a glass of water today, but I’ve had an energy drink, soda straight from the bottle, a cup of tea and coffee. No wonder I crash a burn so often. It’s a nice reminder that I’ll never be the best and most productive that I can be if I don’t take better care of myself.
The only suggestions that I could think of adding is first, never do anything twice. I backup everything, because no system melt down will make me spend time redoing something. I’m doing well on new filing system too. That goes with number 2. Get a system of organization. I touch papers once and think “F.R.T”- file it, refer it, or trash it. If you’re endeavor is to spend sometime working on the business of writing everyday, half that time shouldn’t be spent in chaos. By the way, this article made an “F”--- for filed! It’s a keeper. Thanks.
I should save this tip for a future article on "getting organized," but I'm so disorganized this month, I'd probably misfile it. Thank you for the sound advice!- Jessie
Nice NL, especially the first part about writing healthy. I once drank beer just to see if I could get my creative juices flowing, since I have a deadline to beat by that time. Unfortunately, it just made me dizzy. Never want to do it again.
Alcohol just makes me terribly sleepy and leaves me feeling completely unmotivated. That's not a good combination for a writer working on a deadline! Any interesting thoughts that may arise as a result end up as dreams, not writing. And they're not the kind of dreams that are apt to be coherent or remembered vividly the next day. Nope, doesn't work for me at all. - Jessie
why would you want to write under the influence, no one is themselfs while drunk and or high. Do you really want "someone else" writing your work?
Good point. I've always thought, though, that people "under the influence" were still themselves – just not the more attractive parts of themselves. – Jessie
Hi jessie. I feel obligated to point out that I disagree with your statement of "I strongly suspect it doesn't really work for anyone."
Case in point: Edgar Allen Poe. from 'Edgan Allen Poe Biography - Famous American Authors' Edgar Allen Poe was one of the most successful writers of all time. He is known for his tales of the mysterious and macabre. He is reported to be the first master of the short story form...Poe then became addicted to many drugs, mainly opium and laudanum. It is also reported that he used morphine (Mankowitz 259,729). While I'm in no way condoning or endorsing drug use, it does and continues to work for many famous and even legendary authors(Poe). This fact is undistputable. I feel if you are going to give a synopsis/sermon on Staying Healthy vs. Writing under the Influence you should at least acknowledge the fact that drug use enhances creativity for some (Edgar Allen Poe was hardly a 'legend in his own mind'). Just my thoughts...
I should have made myself clearer. It really is a complex subject and one that could be debated at length, but preferably by the medical/psychiatric experts armed with real, not just anecdotal, data.
I don't think the drugs enhanced Poe's creativity. I think we all grew up believing that the wonderfully macabre ideas in his stories were the product of drug use combined with creativity, and I would argue that it takes an incredibly creative, driven individual to write well through a drug-induced haze. In other words, he wrote well in spite of the drugs, in my opinion.
There's a growing body of evidence that Poe and many other wildly creative writers and artists suffered some form of mental illness (I believe that, despite frequent mention of "depression" in so many of their bios, more of them were bipolar than clinically depressed, because depression saps energy - how can you write when you can barely pull yourself out of bed? - but both depression and mania may fuel the ideas a person can write about when manic or on the upswing towards manic. And when manic, a creative person may be able to produce an astonishing amount of work, though they may be utterly miserable - like a car engine running at full speed - and trying to slow themselves down with alcohol or drugs.)
Bipolar sufferers often self-medicate in a subconscious attempt to moderate the extreme emotional highs and lows of the condition. And morphine/opium addicts can develop quite a tolerance to those substances, so that what we think of as a large amount may not have as much effect as we think it would. Even so, your average addict isn't likely to act productively and effectively on drug-induced "visions." Only one who already possesses higher than average talent and skill can turn any of that moosh into a story the rest of us can relate to and react to the way we do Poe's stories.
Many bipolar sufferers have written or said that they were afraid to take their medication - afraid to lose that wonderfully creative "high" they got while manic. And indeed, at first, it seems they do. Then they tend to get stable and find they're better able to focus. (Okay, so we could argue that the drugs helped Poe to "focus," but that's not how the argument usually goes, is it? Most think it gave him really cool hallucinations to write about and that without the drugs, the poor man wouldn't have had an idea in his head worth telling.)
We could argue that, had Poe (or others) been healthier people in the first place, they might never have written anything. It's possible. But I think if we're going to attribute any of this unhealthiness to writing ability, it's the underlying mental illness, more than drug use, that's to "credit" (if that's the word) for their output. And I'm certainly NOT about to advocate developing a mental illness in order to write better. That's just stupid. If it came to that choice, I'd definitely rather take up gardening than produce a Pulitzer-worthy novel.
For most of us, we're stuck with keeping our tools (our minds and bodies) in good shape and working hard to do the best that we can. This idea that drug use actually works for writers and artists (and no, I'm not getting that from your feedback, I just see and hear a lot of it in online forums and workshops) sends the wrong message to those who don't have the skills these people did - it's the false promise of a quick fix cure for writer's block or lack of ability, and it just won't work. But it may produce a few addicts and alcoholics with literary and artistic aspirations along the way. - Jessie
Your comments about writing healthy made a lot of sense to me. You know, I can honestly feel a difference in my writing attitude when I am stressed out at work. When I'm not stressed, my writing flows freely. However, when I am stressed to the max, my creativity seems to dry up and vanish like a lake in a drought. The only things that get me back on track are those little tips you gave...eat right, keep hydrated, exercise, rest, and relax.
Don't forget to add a vitamin supplement if you're not getting all the fresh fruits and veggies doctors recommend. A good B-Complex supplement (or a multivitamin with high-potency B-complex vitamins) is good for your metabolism and your central nervous system, and can help combat the effects of stress. - Jessie
I am new to writing and this is a wonderful letter to start with. The information is great to have on tap and your straight forward writing is like having someone here teaching me a personal lesson in the skills writing and publishing. Thanks for everything and keep um coming
You keep reading and I'll keep 'em coming! Thank you. – Jessie
I really enjoyed this newsletter with all the meta-writing tips. Good luck with the NaNoWriMo thing! -- nomlet
Er, yeah. The NaNoWriMo thing didn't go so well for me, this year. But I did get some yummy, homemade truffles as a "consolation prize" from another Houston writer, so it's all good… 
Fantastic Newsletter. . . I know it's not the latest issue but I keep storing all the newsletters in a folder so that I can give them all justice reading them 'when I have time'. I will probably print this one to keep in my file. Thanks for a great read and so many fantastic tips.
Have fun and keep writing.
Yours Truly,
Rebecca
Oh, thank you, Rebecca! I'm glad you found it helpful. – Jessie
Jessibelle,
Just when I think you can't top the month before, you go and do it again! This is a rich newsletter filled with fodder I sorely needed. This is not only a keeper, it is a print-outer. Thank you for all of the work you put into this.
Thank you. I love to hear you say it's a "keeper" and worth printing. – Jessie
This is still the best newsletter in all of Writing.Com. In Japan robots for unexplained reasons killed factory workers. Nobody knows what caused them to malfunction.
As my daughter would say, "Wow, that was really random…" but thanks!  Have you got any more obscure and fascinating tidbits on word origins? If so, I'd love to hear them – and maybe include them in an upcoming issue. – Jessie
This one is a keeper, Jessie.
Thank you! – Jessie
Nice one, yet again. I bet the other newsletter writers are so jealous. I bet they check their inboxes and grumble just to see your newsletter arrive. I bet they curse every brilliant thing you say, and then they have to shut up and follow your advice like the rest of us.
Wow, probably not – but now that you've planted the idea in their heads. . . Gee, thanks for that, Grim. (I'll be installing garage doors on the front entrance to my house next week; until then, my head's too big to get inside and I'll be sleeping in the back yard.)
I had to laugh when I read the section about writers not getting enough water...I just came across a quote the other day (I forget who to attribute it to) that said "The only person who needs more glasses of water than a sleepy child is a writer who is sitting down to write." or something similar. It made me laugh, so I thought I'd share.
Nadja
Oh, that's great, Nadja! And so very true. – Jessie
No one has yet answered my question concerning a newsletter about theology. My writing is more along the lines of theological research rather than something that would fit into a newsletter about "Spirituality". Can I start a newsletter on theology type writings and where can I find someone who will be able to review that kind of writing, or is there no one here that is interested in that particular genre? I would appreciate some kind of an answer to my question even if it is negative.
Thanks.
Michael
Michael, you can set up an unofficial newsletter on any topic that interests you. You might want to look at a few to see how it's done, generally; most use a Group item to maintain a list of subscribers and email them each issue.
I love getting feedback on the For Authors Newsletter – it lets me know you’re reading, and it tells me whether I’m writing about the subjects that interest you. Please keep those questions and comments coming!
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For Authors: December 07, 2005 Issue [#758]
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