Learning how to write fiction is hell on the eyes. Staring at a computer monitor for several hours at a time isn’t like gazing into the sun during an eclipse, but it does put heavy-duty strain on ones vision. As writers, we’d limit our ability to describe the world if we could no longer see it. So we should all take steps to keep our eyes healthy.

The general strategy for eye health is simple – Take Breaks! I’m horrible at this. I like to sink into fiction writing and stay there until exhaustion draws me out. It’s far healthier to set a timer and take a vision break once an hour. Simply get up and look at something other than MS Word. 

One specific technique for strengthening the eye’s muscles and relieving the stress is called scanning. In this exercise one simply looks at various objects and allows both eyes to glide over them. Do so without staring and remember to blink. Its a great exercise to do for a couple of minutes after every hour or two of intense writing.

Goal Update:

It’s 1:03 AM, July 1 as I blog this, time to evaluate my June goals:

• Complete the editor’s revision of The Things We Crave – DONE! In fact, the final blue-lines are almost complete, too.
• Complete the outline for Sinister and send to co-writer – 50% DONE! One of the golden rules about writing is Never Start Until You Know How It Ends. I broke this rule. Fortunately, co-writer is very talented.
• Draft the first free e-book Flesh and Bone- 50% DONE. I’m excited to give you this information.
• Maintain the Gym Schedule – writing books took priority over working out. I’ll work on this one. I’m thinking of taking the 100 Push Ups Challenge. Join me?
• Keep Guitar Fingers Healthy – Guitar is so much fun it hardly seems fair to call it a goal. This one’s a given. DONE!
• Blog every day this month – Seth Godin I am not, I’m afraid. I won’t set this goal again. I like blogging, but I prefer to put up content that is highly valuable to writers and creative people rather than post for the sake of posting. If you look at the posts duing June you can pinpoint (exactly) where I burned out. Lesson learned.

New goals coming soon. Hope you join me in kicking ass!

LL