RealityBypass

Okay there are lots of hazards to writing, both physical and emotional. What are these, you say? Well… putting your hard work out in front of people only to have it torn to itty bitty bits with “We don’t like the main character” and “This doesn’t make sense” and “He solves that too easy” and “This scene is boring…” Or the sea of rejection letters we all will get. You start to think you may never get published. Those are the emotional hazards. You can also end up so caught up in the “craft” that you forget to enjoy yourself, and remember why you like to write in the first place. I tend to get so worried about the process I lose the joy I had of just “creating” back when I was a kid.

The physical hazards, however, are my topic of the day. Of course there’s the carpal tunnel problem, and that little bump you get on your finger where your pencil rests. I always have dark smudges on my fingers, and on my cheeks when I forget to cap the pen before I put it over my ear.

But… the Attack of the Clawed Keyboard… is the worst writing hazard.

We all have seen (or have) those desks with their pull out keyboard trays and they have the perfect little space behind them that’s…hrm, maybe about half an inch wide. Mine has claws. Claws that shoot out and grab my fingers like something out of a horror movie!

Those claws /do/ belong to my cat, Yoda, but… boy does it scare me when I’m typing away and suddenly claws shoot out of the keyboard. The first time he did this I fell completely over backwards shrieking. I am convinced that danged cat was SMIRKING at me as he trotted out and stood on my chest.

I didn’t die though. But I think it was close!