Terescia's thoughts and such.

In the June 2008 edition of Scientific American magazine in the Neurobiology section, the article “The Healthy Type” by Jessica Wapner brings up the link between expressive writing and health when it states “…besides serving as a stress-coping mechanism, expressive writing produces many physiological benefits. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients, and even speeds healing after surgery.”

This got me to thinking about all the benefits I get from writing, whether I’m blogging, composing articles, or writing fiction. I do experience an almost euphoric sense of well-being when I’ve written something. Is the euphoria a result of my satisfaction of having completed something or a result of my having expressed myself? Some of this might be related to the phenomenon of being in “the zone” but I don’t only write when I’m on a roll. Sometimes I work at it and yet I still feel good after having done it.

I can’t say much more about the physiological effects of writing, but there are some benefits that are easy for me to define.

• Blogging makes me feel connected to other people. Even if no one comments on a post I’ve made, there’s a sense of community whenever I put something up on my blog. I never feel like I’m writing to a void. I always imagine someone reading what I’ve written and this gives me a sense of well-being that sticks with me for a while after I’ve posted.
• Writing boosts my creativity levels. Once I begin writing, I gain momentum. Ideas come to me like rain to earth and the creative energy spreads to other parts of my brain. I start to think creatively on many different planes, solving problems and questioning assumptions.
• Using a keyboard keeps my fingers limber. This might sound like I’m trying to be clever, but I truly believe that keeping my fingers moving is a way to fight off stiffness in my finger joints. Now, I’m many, many years (I hope) from having issues with things like arthritis, but one key to relieving symptoms of this inflammatory disease is to keep your joints limber by using them.

I’m sure there are other benefits to writing that I’ve missed. Consider sharing your own ideas about how writing benefits you and your health. Does it help you fight off illness?

Resources:

• Scientific American, June 2008

A few weeks ago, I moved Thoughts and Such from one hosting account to another. In the transition period, I screwed something up, and since I’ve been so busy working I haven’t had time to fix it until tonight/this morning.

Not that my ideal use of my time is to fix a broken blog at three-thirty in the morning, but I couldn’t sleep. I do try not to waste valuable time trying to get back to sleep once I wake up, but even for me, three-thirty a.m. is a little early. However, these days, I’m very lucky to feel energetic at all. I have to take it as it comes….three-thirty a.m. or one p.m.

It is nice to be typing again. I realize I’m very close to the bottom of the heap when it comes to being a prolific blogger, but at least I do post at least once every six months or so. That has to stand for something. :-)

AHHH!  A moth just popped me right in the face. Apparently it thinks my computer screen is a  lovely warm fire.

Anyway, now that I’ve gotten this off my mind, I think I’ll head on back to bed. Maybe I can catch a few more winks of sleep before I have to get up bright and early this morning.

Have a great rest of the night!

As authors, our number one goal with a blog is usually to get readers to notice us, our books, and our writings. It’s important to remember though that not everyone who stumbles upon our sites is going to be friendly.

I read this post this morning, and it brought home to me how careful you need to be when it comes to blogs and websites for authors. Authors, more than most, need their websites and blogs to reflect them and their books in a way that pulls readers into their worlds.

There’s an article I wrote about having a “professionally personal website” that I never got around to posting, but I’m going to quote it here.

“…be careful about giving out too much personal information. Talk about your family if you want, but keep it brief, avoid mentioning full names (in fact, consider pseudonyms for your children), and don’t talk about personal subjects that might make your visitors uncomfortable. Sure, you hope your readers want to know a little about you, but you’d do well to remember that some readers will be put off by too much personal information. And not to belabor the point, but don’t talk about personal subjects such as marital difficulties.”

Although I wasn’t talking about issues of safety and privacy, nor about blogging, in this article, these same principles apply. If you put out too much of your personal business on the web, you could be asking for trouble.

Blog safety is important for authors.

Tips to keep us safe on the web

Use a post office box or your publisher’s address when you give out your address on your website or blog. Readers like to write to authors on occasion. We want to be safe, but we don’t want to make it impossible for readers to contact us.

Ignore comments that seem threatening or strange. Delete the comment, block the user or email address, and move on.

Plan ahead for the worst. If someone figured out where you live, do you have measures in place (like a security system or neighborhood watch program) that would alert you to someone stalking around your home?

I know it seems vague and unlikely, but cyber stalkers exist. Darren Rowse can attest to that fact and does, “‘Stalker’ is such a harsh word and one not to be used lightly but in December of last year I realized that I had one.“

I need more writer friends, but I feel weird about just putting anyone on my list of links.

This is to all the writers I know. If you wouldn’t mind being my “writer friend”, let me know so I can link you up. :-)

I’ve tried to put myself into the frame of mind of a reader today, and visit multiple blog sites for ideas. But the only thing I truly got from the experience was a knowledge that as a reader, I would be very disappointed with my blog.

Regular updates are important, and I have some mighty bad posting habits. I’m an erratic blogger at best, and an unreliable blogger at worst.

So, since I never did get around to making myself any new year’s resolutions–of any kind–today is as good a day as any to decide to up the ante on my blogging.

My 2006 New Year’s Resolutions:

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve officially moved my blog from Blogger to WordPress, although the link is the same (http://www.teresciaharvey.com/blog).

The move was quick, but I haven’t yet had time to work on my template, so the new blog pages look pretty generic at the moment. We’ll see if I have time over the next few days to get it in order and put up something a little more in keeping with the look of my website. As plain as it is, I love the simplicity of my website. Black and white, with few distractions. And then there’s HEA, which I love just as much, even though it’s not as simple a look.

At any rate, it might take me a while to get it finished, since I’ve begun building a new home as of today…with my husband’s help, of course. :-)

At some point this week, I intend to switch my blog from Blogger to WordPress, because WordPress will allow me to house all the bits and pieces on my own website. As my CP knows, I have more than one issue when it comes to control, so this is going to be a wonderful thing. :-) If I crash my site, though, don’t worry. I’ll fix it as quickly as I can!

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I’m supposed to be writing, otherwise there’s no point for me to still be awake. There’s a warm bed and a warm body waiting for me on the other side of the closed door a few feet to my right. My punishment for ignoring it is the cold twisting through my body. My fingers keep skipping across the wrong keys and I have to backtrack to get the words right, but 12:22 doesn’t seem so late really. I remember when it was nothing to stay up until 3 am reading a good book or writing. Those days are probably gone forever now that I have kids who think 6 am is late.

I’ve been listening to music with my headphones while I work, but I’m not writing. Sometimes the words just won’t come. And sometimes the words are there, but I find ways to stave them off. I often wonder if this means I don’t really want to spend my life writing stories I can’t be sure anyone will ever read.

Only my critique partner sees them, but I’ve kept this latest story close. She’s seen only a few chapters here and there.

I’m supposed to be heading downhill. I’m past the 3/4 mark, and I’ve finally concluded there’s no such thing as going downhill when it comes to writing.

From the first word to the last, it’s like pulling my own fingernails out. And yet… I can’t imagine my life if I were to stop. Even if someday I gave up the quest for publication, I would write something. For such a terrible, torturous thing, writing gives me some of my favorite moments.

There’s nothing like laughing out loud as I read something I wrote. And when I cry as I type, I know it means something. My writing is better for it, even if my computer isn’t.

I’ve never actually spit anything out on my keyboard while reading my own material, but I’ve often wondered if that rush of joy wouldn’t be worth it. I hesitate to say a laugh could ever be worth $1,282 but part of me wants to say just that.

I really think I need to find a new CD.

Although, getting some sleep might be the better answer.

Blogging – the better way to putz