Donne

I'm done! Done with Finals. Done with university. Done with Donne.

You said it, Benedict. 

So I've finally come to the end of my time at Oxford. I'm staying here for another month, until the end of term, but there's no more work to do for my degree. I can't believe how quickly the end has come. It's a wonderful feeling to be sitting here blogging, with no more exams ahead of me – although after being in education for most of my life, it's a bit strange not to have an "exam target" of some kind. As a kid you work towards your SATs; as a teen you're aiming for GCSEs and A-Level; late teens and early twenties, you're working on your degree – but for me, it's definitely time to go now. I've run out of study steam. I'll miss being immersed in the beautiful old books I've been able to discover here, but there comes a point when you can just do one too many exams. It's been a wonderful few years, and I feel very fortunate to have had them. 

Summer begins now. I'm going to give myself a few days to just come down from the exam cloud, read a few books – real, exciting books, completely unrelated to exams! – and hang around in the sun, but I'm going to start refining my plans for the second book in the Bone Season series tomorrow evening. (Or it it the Scion series? Goodreads has hijacked the series name! And it's actually ... better than mine...) I've yet to give Book 2 a title; I suggested one to Alexa, but as her response was "might be too weird", I may need to amend it. I'm incredibly excited about being able to write again; I've been on a very long sabbatical to concentrate on Finals, which has caused a long, unpleasant withdrawal. Not writing makes me a little bit insane. I have my usual flesh-and-bones structure laid out for Book 2: I know what's going to happen in the beginning, middle and end, but I'll be letting Paige guide me through the rest. I had 50,000 words done, but I've decided to scrap them and start again – it feels like such a long time since I worked on them in the summer, and as they were written during the editing stage of The Bone Season, there are lots of little inconsistencies. I need to shake off the dust and get back into Scion mode. My approximate deadline for the first draft is December, so I have a lot of work to do. 

I'm also overwhelmed that The Bone Season has finally got its first readers, and I'm getting my first reviews. This is possibly the most terrifying part of being a début author: waiting to see if readers are going to like your work, knowing that some of them won't, and accepting that as part of the process of being published. Thank you so much to those of you who have left reviews on Goodreads or your personal sites.

Next Thursday I'll be getting ready to fly to New York for BookExpo America 2013. Apart from the Winter Institute, which was solely for trade, this is my first really big public event with The Bone Season. I'm looking forward to meeting lots of bloggers and booksellers, particularly the ones I've already 'met' on Twitter. If you're attending BEA and want to say hi, please do! Here are the events either myself or the book will be attending. 

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FRIDAY 31 MAY

10:00: Downtown stage. I won't be at this event, but Bloomsbury USA editor-in-chief Nancy Miller will be on the Fiction Mini Buzz Panel to talk about The Bone Season. 

11:30 – 12:30: Twitter chat. I'll be answering questions live from the Kobo booth (Booth #1067); tweet your questions to #KoboBEA13. 

2:30 – 3 pm: I'll be signing gallies on Autographing Table 22.

SATURDAY 1 JUNE 

11 – 11:30: Midtown stage. “New Adult Crossover: From YA to adult and back again”. I'll be talking on a panel with Sarah J. Maas, author of the Throne of Glass series, about crossover between adult and young adult books. We'll be joined by our lovely editors, Rachel Mannheimer and Michelle Nagler. 

12 – 12:20: Video chat with ShinDig Events (Booth #2135). Sarah J. Maas and I will be talking about our books and about writing fantasy. 

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Also, some Big News for tomorrow: at 11AM (EST), Entertainment Weekly will release the official book trailer for The Bone Season. I don't want to spoil it, but the creative team behind it, Tailored Media, have done an amazing job. I was worried about a live-action trailer, thinking it might damage the milieu, but I think it works brilliantly and still allows the reader to imagine their own settings and characters. Keep an eye out and let me know what you think!

I'll be updating again from this Sunday, as usual. Great to be back!

Just let go

I'm still on blogging sabbatical, but I just had to share this. This is what your editor will be silently screaming when you send corrections after the date you were supposed to send all the corrections. 

News from World Book Night, seeing my finished hardback jacket, and other shenanigans on my return. Yes, I am studying. Yes, I am fine.

Totally got this under control. 

Little break

Hi guys,

I'm going to be taking a month's break from blogging while I study for my Finals, which start on 13th May and finish on the 21st. This is proving to be quite a hectic time for me, as I've been under the weather for a few weeks and am woefully behind on my work. I like to take my time over my blog entries, and while I'm trying to cram my protesting brain with quotes and dates, that time is eluding me. In the meantime, I'll still be around on Twitter, because I've become utterly addicted and even a degree cannot tear me from my tweeting. 

Some general bookish news for the coming month:

• If you live or study in Oxford, or fancy a quick trip there, I'll be speaking at Waterstones Oxford for World Book Night on 23 April at 6pm. It's a free event and you'll be able to reserve a copy of The Bone Season. And see me stammering my way heroically through one of my first public speeches. RJ Anderson will be launching her new YA novel, Quicksilver, at 5pm.
  


• If you'd like to win a limited edition ARC of The Bone Season, you're in luck! The publicity team are looking for early readers in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand. All you have to do is email welcometoscion@thinkjam.com with up to 200 words on why you love reading. According to the Facebook page, you'll also get to be involved in "many other great things". Sounds intriguing.


• Finally, if you're attending BookExpo America 2013, I'll be there on Friday and Saturday. I'll be speaking with my American editor on a panel and signing proofs of The Bone Season in the autographing area. It's always been my dream to be an author at BEA; I'm looking forward to meeting lots of fellow bibliophiles. Please come and love the debut author.

Thank you all for your continued support and patience. See you in a month!

Samantha 

Joining the family

Alexa and I have finally finished editing The Bone Season, and it's been sent off to the typesetter to be turned into a hardback. I got a bit shaky before we sent it off – I'll never be able to tweak it again – but there comes a point when you have to let a book go and make its own way in the world. I'm very happy with the finished novel.  

Last Thursday I had tea with literary book bloggers from all over the country, including Karen Howlett of Cornflower Books and Simon Savidge of Savidge Reads. Karen has followed me since my deal was announced, so it was lovely to finally meet her in person. Book bloggers are fantastic people: they work incredibly hard for their passion, largely with no financial reimbursement, and whether positive or negative, their detailed feedback does wonders for both authors and other readers. So thank you, book bloggers, for working as hard as you do.

On the subject of reviews, it was recently announced that Goodreads, probably the most vibrant reviewing community on the Internet, has been bought by Amazon. My heart sank when I saw the GR announcement on their Twitter feed, which seemed to me to be deceptively cheerful, giving the impression that GR is joining the booming Amazon "family". I'm not currently a member of Goodreads – I'm not convinced it's the right place for authors, although I'm still debating – but I do enjoy glancing through reviews on there, and I've always thought it was a great place for readers to get together and discuss what's hot and what's not. Although I have no doubt that the acquisition will bring some benefits to readers (particularly Kindle-using readers), it makes me a tiny bit uncomfortable that another facet of the book industry is hopping into bed with Amazon. Goodreads was never commercial, never a site that sold books; it was a neutral environment in which readers could share opinions. Amazon plays on a different field. GR, for them, will become an invaluable well of data about what people read, and consequently, what they buy. Now the two giants are joined at the hip, I'm not sure Goodreads' neutrality can last. 

I became wary of Amazon after reading about their tax avoidance in the UK. I used to be a regular customer, but I very rarely buy there now. I could just be old-fashioned, but I think that as Amazon tightens an increasingly large fist around the publishing industry, it will drain the life from booksellers and traditional publishers, especially from the indie scene. I value the book industry, its variety and energy, and the discussion and passion that surrounds it. I value the human interaction of bookselling and the teamwork of publishing. I worry for the future with Amazon dogging the industry's footsteps. I also think it unlikely, now, that Goodreads will be able to promote indie booksellers when they could be promoting the Kindle. Otis Chandler said those links would "probably" stay, but I'm not sure I believe it. There could be hardly any change to GR – we'll have to wait and see. 

So that's my little list of initial thoughts. What do you guys think of the acquisition? Do you think this change was inevitable, or should GR have remained independent?      

Updates

Just a short one this week, guys, sorry – I'm snowed under with final proof tweaks and forcing my brain into study mode. Less than two months to go until Finals. *quakes* Once my degree is done I can finally get back to writing...

In Bone Season news, Alexa and I are painfully close to finishing the proofed manuscript: the version of the book that you'll be able to buy in shops, sans typos, with extra embellishments and changes. I've also started working with my Swedish and Hebrew translators. I'm really excited about both of these, as I had various Swedish and semitic influences when I wrote The Bone Season (most notably the Hebrew word "Rephaim"). The word that's given both of them difficulty so far is mime-lord. It's been really interesting to compare linguistic differences and try and create new words that will convey similar meanings to readers outside the Anglosphere. We're also contending with the double meaning in the title, which can only realistically be conveyed in English and one other language, French. My German publishers, meanwhile, have come up with a whole new title for the first book, although they'll be retaining the English series title of The Bone Season alongside it.  

I've also started a Pinterest board for The Bone Season here. I'll be pinning pictures to help you get a visual sense of the world of Scion and how the book looks in my head. I think Pinterest is a fantastic resource for writers, especially in terms of world-building – I'd love to have discovered it earlier.

Finally, if you have any questions for a YA editor, do drop me a line – I've organised another Q&A. See you next week!

The mysteries of YA

Before I start my blog this week – I met Neil Gaiman.

Turns out his children's books are published by Bloomsbury, and there he was at a meeting. The BBC Radio 4 production of Neverwhere started yesterday, and it's awesome. And it has Benedict Cumberbatch and Natalie Dormer in it. And Neil signed my copy of the book.

I will stop fangirling and move onto the blog now. Please welcome Kirsty Mclachlan – DGA's film, TV, YA and children's agent!

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Q&A: Literary Agent – YA

Kirsty McLachlan is a literary agent at David Godwin Associates (DGA). Her list includes adult fiction and non-fiction writers and children and YA authors. Her children and YA authors include Alex Campbell, Clémentine Beauvais, Lucy Inglis, Julian Sedgwick, Marcus Sedgwick and Rhian Tracey.  Kirsty also represents film and TV rights for the DGA agency.




How did you become a literary agent? 

I’ve worked in agencies for over twenty years now. I began straight from university through an advert in the Bookseller for an assistant at the Abner Stein Agency. I worked there for 8 years and learnt a huge amount from Abner, before moving to DGA Ltd. to represent the film and TV rights for the agency, and to build my own list.

What makes a query jump out in a saturated market like YA?

For me it’s totally instinctive, there should be just something about the writing that ‘fizzes’. I’m not looking for a trend or a subject matter. I love being told stories, tell me a good story and I’ll sit up and listen. Titles are important – ensure your title really works, and then the pitch must be strong – but it’s the writing that counts. I know within a page or so if I’m going to love something.

What's the hottest trend in YA fiction right now? 

I ignore trends – if they are hot now and on the shelves, you’ve missed the boat. Be aware of the market but don’t try and copy it. In my submissions, I’m getting a lot of trilogies and series submitted still, fantasy novels, dystopian novels, dark fairy tales and books about angels.  Write the book you want to write.

How far is too far with darker themes and adult content?

Never include dark themes or adult stuff, if there is no purpose. There has to be a purpose and a point to your themes and more than that, you need to have something to say about it. That said, I really don’t have a problem with it if it is woven into your narrative brilliantly. YA books should always push boundaries but don’t use content simply to shock, say something with it.

Would you ever respond to a query with advice or a review? 

I tend to avoid giving an author a full review – it can be taken the wrong way over email and anyway, it’s only my opinion. But I do sometimes – if I think the writing is good but just not for me – suggest other agents they should approach.

Do you consider the author's age before you offer representation? 

No. I sold Jade Ngengi’s book to Chicken House last year and she was fifteen (sixteen now). It’s the writing that is important and that I feel I can work with the author.

Why do you think YA books have skyrocketed in sales over the past decade? Do you expect it to continue?

There was an obvious gap between children’s books and adult books which was filled by YA books. But I do think it links into social media and the ability of readers to ‘talk’ to each other – so word of mouth becomes viral. Booksellers have become much cannier at speaking direct to the reader and embracing social media. Of course, there is also the shift of adult readers buying YA books as well – and younger readers (10 plus) who are reading above their age group. I don’t think sales will continue in the same way but there is an established audience now, so this is still a fantastic age range to write for.

Are there ever times when it's okay to query an unfinished MS? 

Most agents would say finish your book first – and I tend to agree. There are many times when a book is finished and the author will go back and make quite major structural revisions. However, last week I made a two book deal for a YA writer I took on, on the basis of 40 pages. The publisher also made the offer before seeing the full manuscript. So it does happen.

Is word count, too high or too low, ever a deal breaker, even if the story and writing are both great?

My heart sinks if a book is too long but if the writing is good, I will always make exceptions. Similarly, for short novels – if the writing is powerful, sparse and written in the way that every word counts, I will make exceptions. Agents like authors, like to break rules, break moulds.

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Thanks so much for Kirsty for taking the time to answer these in detail! I think that last piece of advice is crucial: agents love to break rules. Don't just go with the crowd and follow trends. Write something unique. Let me know if there's anyone else you'd like me to interview from the publishing industry, or if you have any requests for upcoming blog posts.

Scrivener's palsy

Writer ailments – physical

Anonymous asked me to talk about Repetitive Strain Injury this week, so as usual I'm using it as a prompt to expand on a wider topic: writer ailments. 

Writers, alas, are notoriously unwell people. It seems to be a side-effect of the art. A recent book by John Ross, Orwell's Cough: Diagnosing the Medical Maladies & Last Gasps of the Great Writers (clearly some really cheerful stuff), is dedicated to studying the various conditions from which our literary ancestors suffered. I'm not going to talk about mental illness today, because it's such a vast topic that it merits its own entry. Instead I'm going to shed some light on some of the physical conditions writers suffer when they push their bodies too far, and how those conditions work. Why does coffee wake us up, and why do we get addicted to it? 

I've suffered, or suffer from, most of these conditions. I had them particularly badly when I was working on Aurora, when I was working for up to fifteen hours a day and generally turned myself into a wreck of a human being. I tried to be better behaved with The Bone Season, but I still get the odd problem. Remember, I'm not a GP, and this entry will only give a rough overview of each condition. Thank you so much everyone who contributed their experiences or knowledge to this week's blog. 
  

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Back pain 

Back pain comes in many forms, and produces many degrees of pain, but it's always unpleasant. It's often caused by bad posture. Writers can be hunched over computers or manuscripts for hours or even days at a time, which does your back no favours. 

Ideally, you should be sitting at your desk with the top of the screen at eye level, your back straight, elbows close to your body, shoulders relaxed, feet resting flat on the ground (or on a footrest). The screen should be roughly an arm's length from your eyes. This all sounds like a lot to remember, but you'll naturally develop good posture if you set up your workspace properly.    

Make sure your workspace is equipped with an adjustable chair that supports your back. If it doesn't, you can buy a separate orthopaedic back cushion. I use the Houston High-Back Leather-faced Executive Chair (always reminds me unpleasantly of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I remember that) and the Fellowes Portable Lumbar Support, both from Staples. You might have to shell out a fair amount of money for a decent office chair, but it's better than suffering in silence on a cheap one, and it will last you a long time. It's an investment. There are also heated back supports available if you want to be really decadent. Scroll down to RSI to learn more about proper wrist posture. 

William Alexander

Literary sufferers: Most writers will have experienced back pain in one form or another, but here's some examples of literary back woes. Roald Dahl had crippling back pain for which he had to undergo surgery. William Alexander, winner of the 2012 National Book Award for Goblin Secrets, has to write standing up due to a spinal defect. He works at an espresso bar in a coffee shop in Minneapolis, which he calls his "steampunk desk" – it's made of copper pipe, antique glass doorknobs and tooled stainless steel. He said to me that "sitting is bad for everyone! Just extra bad for me." Take heed. Another writer unable to sit down, though not due to a spinal injury, was Ernest Hemingway, who wrote standing up after a leg injury gained during the war. Thanks to my Twitter followers DWD Johnson and Kirstin Corcoran for letting me know about these! 

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Caffeine addiction 

Like ink, wine and the sweat of our labour, coffee is one of the fuels that keep us writers going. Legend erroneously tells that when drunk monk Dom Pérignon first tasted champagne, he cried "Come quickly, I am drinking the stars!" That's pretty much what happened to me when I took my first sip of coffee. Suddenly I could get through hours and hours of writing without face-planting the keyboard halfway through a scene. Writing and coffee go hand in hand. Not all of us work well by day, and we need something to keep us bright and breezy as we work towards our dreaded deadlines.  
So why does caffeine wake us up? Turns out it's a bit of a trickster: it fools the body into thinking it's a neurotransmitter called adenosine. Adenosine causes drowsiness by binding to receptors in the brain, which slows down nerve activity. Caffeine resembles adenosine and binds to adenosine receptors, but unlike adenosine, it doesn't slow down nerve activity - instead, it speeds everything up. Because the caffeine is taking up all the nerve receptors, the effects of adenosine are blocked, and you don't get drowsy. It increases neuron firing, confusing the pituary gland, which think there's an emergency and starts to pump out adrenaline. It also messes around with dopamine, the neurotransmitter that activates pleasure in the brain. 

The three big effects of caffeine – blocking drowsiness, stimulating adrenaline and making you feel good – give your body and mind a short-term boost. French writer Balzac compared it to "sparks shoot(ing) up to the brain". It's easy to see why we keep drinking it. But if you drag yourself out of bed without a cup of joe, chances are you're becoming dependent on it. It puts your body into a state of emergency, making you irritable and twitchy, and if drunk at the wrong time, it can cause a ruthless cycle of insomnia. 

When you make coffee, keep in mind that the half-life of caffeine in the body is about six hours. If possible, only drink it in the morning. 

Honoré de Balzac

Literary sufferers: You may think you have a coffee problem, but Honoré de Balzac would beg to differ. An obsessive worker, Balzac would drink up to fifty cups of thick black coffee a day to fuel his hours of writing. If he couldn't wait for his brew, he'd chew a handful of coffee beans. He suffered from some major health problems, including sky-high blood pressure, stomach pains and hypertrophy in the left venticle of his heart. He died at 51. Check out his essay, 'The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee'. Max Wallis, author of Modern Love (shortlisted for the 2012 Polari First Book Prize), told me that as a student he would get through three big cafetières per day, only sleeping between 3 and 6am. Jonathan Swift and John van Druten were also quoted on their love for caffeine. (Van Druten said "I think if I were a woman I'd wear coffee as a perfume". Cool story, bro.)

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Eye strain

Properly called asthenopia, eye strain comes from staring at something up close for a long, long time – in a writer's case, that's usually a manuscript. It's caused by the ciliary muscle at the front of the eyeball, which contracts when you're relying heavily on your eyes to complete a task. This causes your eye to become irritated. You might get blurred or double vision, red or dry eyes, or a headache. Eye strain doesn't generally cause lasting damage to your eyes, but it causes an annoying, dull pain and can seriously inhibit your concentration. 

The best way to avoid eye strain is by giving yourself regular breaks from the computer screen and focusing on a distant object. I try to take a break from writing at least once an hour and go for a walk, or look out of the window. Eye drops help, too. Make sure you work in a well-lit room. If you wear glasses, you can pay a small amount of money to get an anti-reflective coating on the lenses (suggested by Mohsin). This helps reduce glare and allows you to work for longer without straining your ciliary muscle. Lenses with this coating will have a slight blue-green tint to the light reflections on their surface.

A great piece of software, recommended by virtuefiction, is f.lux. I just downloaded it and it's brilliant. The light emitted by your computer screen is designed to resemble sunlight, which is great in the day – but at night, the harsh, bluish glow can strain your eyes and keep you awake, as your body thinks it's still daytime. If you get f.lux and give it access to your location, it detects the time of day and after sunset, it will give the screen a warm, orangey tone, like indoor lights. It's already made my eyes feel better.   

Aldous Huxley

Literary sufferers: I haven't found any specifics for eye strain – I think we can safely assume that most writers have had it – but there are lots of cases of eye problems among the literati: Aldous Huxley (visited the therapist William Horatio Bates after an attack of keratitis and later wrote the book The Art of Seeing detailing his experiences), Emily Dickinson (suffered from an unknown eye affliction – possibly uveitis – that caused sensitivity to light, beginning in autumn 1863, for which she received treatment from Boston opthalmologist Henry Willard Williams) and James Joyce (plagued by eye problems throughout his life, including uveitis, glaucoma, cataracts and conjunctivitis) among them.   

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Migraine

Migraines are my blessing and my curse. I really ought to thank them, because they gave me the idea for clairvoyants to be identifiable by their aura in The Bone Season. I first started getting them in 2009, during my A-Levels. The first time I had one, I staggered to the optician and begged them to stop me going blind. As it turned out, I was experiencing a sensation called scintillating scotoma, which is basically a big, glimmering, multicoloured obstruction in your vision. (The picture in the left is an artist's impression of a scintillating scotoma by Tama Blough.) Scotoma can manifest in a variety of different ways – partial loss of vision, for example – but for me, it's like a kaleidoscopic firework show bursting in the front of my eye. I drew heavily on my experiences with migraine to invent the visual aspects of The Bone Season, including aura and the spirit sight. So thanks, migraines. 

Migraine comes from the Greek word ἡμικρανία, roughly translated as "half-skull", referring to the tendency of migraine to affect only one side of the head. It's thought to be caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, specifically low levels of serotonin. When serotonin levels drop, the blood vessels in the brain spasm and contract. This is the phase of migraine that causes aura in some migraineurs. This contraction is followed by sudden enlargement of the blood vessels, which causes the pain. There are also various environmental, dietary, physical and emotional factors that can trigger a migraine. Bright lights often get me. When I get a migraine, it feels like the front of my skull is several sizes two small. You might also experience a sensitivity to light, nausea and vomiting. 

There are a number of treatments for migraine. I take a drug called sumatriptan, which stimulates the production of serotonin. You can either take the pills when the migraine starts, like I do, or take pills regularly to prevent migraines coming. I often find myself getting one when I write. I always know when it's coming, because I'll be working on a chapter and suddenly won't be able to see whole sentences – letters will suddenly go missing, sucked into the little blind spot that will grow into a scotoma.

Miguel de Cervantes

Literary sufferers: Creative types are apparently more likely to get migraines. Literary migraineurs of the past include Emily Dickinson (sometimes assumed from her 1863 poem 'I felt a Funeral, in my Brain'), Miguel de Cervantes, Virginia Woolf, Rudyard Kipling ("One half of my head, from the top of my skull to the cleft of my jaw, hammers, bangs, sizzles and swears"), Lewis Carroll and Charles Darwin (he called migraine his "hereditary weakness", and was unable to attend his father's funeral because of it). 

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Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)

Often linked to writing, RSI does what it says on the tin. It's a musculoskeletal condition caused by repetitive tasks like typing, lifting, or using a phone keypad – tasks which involve you overusing certain muscles and tendons. I get bouts of RSI when I work on a manuscript for hours at a time over the course of several weeks. 

RSI is easy to prevent. You'll feel it coming: stiffness in your fingers, sore wrists, painful muscles and joints in your arms. Part of prevention is ensuring you have good posture when you write. Ideally, your wrists should not be bent in order for your fingers to reach the keys. You can buy a wrist rest, usually soft or filled with gel, to keep them in a neutral position. This is placed in front of the keyboard. I use the Fellowes Crystal Keyboard Wrist Rest from Staples.  

The most important thing to do is to take regular breaks. Still, if you write a lot, especially to tight deadlines, it's worth buying yourself a little anti-RSI kit. Be sure to include wrist braces for when your wrists get painful. I use the cheap 'n' cheerful Elastoplast Sport adjustable supports from Boots, but there are lots of different kinds, each providing different levels of support. Another handy remedy is cod liver oil. It's often used to ease the joint pain associated with arthritis, but it can also help with RSI. You can take it in liquid form, but it tastes as rank as it sounds. I use the Seven Seas brand and take it as a capsule, one every day. Just don't bite the capsules, no matter how much like bottled sunlight they look. You can also try soaking your hands in Radox and warm water. 

Related conditions

Two conditions thought to have similar causes to RSI are focal dystonia and carpal tunnel syndrome. I haven't had either of these, but fortunately people have been kind enough to share their stories. Jesse Abigail suffered from focal dystonia in her hand at age 21, caused by writing too fast and for too long. She attributes it to having ADHD and writing from a young age. FD, also called writer's cramp, can lead to loss of fine motor control in the hands, curled or stretched fingers, and a myriad of other symptoms that can interfere with writing. Treatment will vary, depending on what caused it.   

If you glance at the top of this blog, you'll notice the lovely header. Its designer, artist extraordinaire Leiana Leatutufu, got carpal tunnel syndrome after a particularly enthusiastic drawing stint. CTS is caused by pressure on the median nerve, which gives feeling to the side of your hand your thumb is on. This can cause numbness, tingling and pain in the affected hand and wrist. Leiana recommends getting a mouse with a trackball to avoid it.    

Albert Schweitzer

Literary sufferers: Franco-German philosopher, theologian and organist Albert Schweitzer. Schweitzer is thought to have suffered from focal hand dystonia, though he was never formally diagnosed. He used special pens to combat the condition. The cramps in his arm were triggered by handwriting, meaning he struggled to form coherent letters – but it didn't affect his famous organ-playing.

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Do you suffer from an ailment related to writing? How do you cope with it? Has it helped or inspired you in any way, like my migraines?