What are common occupational hazards for novelists? Staring at a computer for long hours and sitting still are the most common sources of occupational injury for novelists. Besides eye strain, Utsudo has suffered from neck and shoulder pain in recent years. Massage only brings temporary relief, and her massage therapist warned it would return as long as her posture was poor; long hours of sitting have also caused mild circulation problems in her legs. She reminds writers to get up, walk around and stretch regularly, and take care of their health.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Warning signs after years of writing

It’s been many years since I started writing novels.

Because my job involves staring at a computer for long hours, my eyes bear quite a burden. Apart from that, I hadn’t had any other long-term physical problems—until the year before last, when my neck and shoulders started aching easily.

And it’s the kind of ache that makes you irritable and unable to sit still. I wondered if it was my bedding, but after changing several pillows nothing improved. My neck and shoulders hurt when I wake up, and it’s really uncomfortable.

Massage only brings temporary relief

Eventually I went to a massage therapist attached to a traditional Chinese medicine clinic. The massage worked well and my neck and shoulders felt light, but a few days later the effect wore off and my shoulders were heavy and sore again. That’s when I realized this problem had probably been lurking for a long time before finally erupting.

When I complained about it to a friend, she looked at me gravely and asked if some ghost was riding on my shoulders. You’ve watched too many Thai horror films! I tell you I’m in pain, and instead of pitying me you try to scare me to death!

Luckily, when I weighed myself it was normal—no extra person’s weight (X

A thirty-minute massage at the TCM clinic costs NT$500, which is a bit expensive for me. So on a friend’s recommendation, I bought a heating pad and a small yoga ball to ease the pain. So far they work pretty well, but I have to use them often.

Neck and shoulder pain became part of daily life

When the pain first started, I thought it was temporary. But as it kept bothering me, I realized neck and shoulder pain seems to have become part of my daily life and can’t be completely eliminated.

The massage therapist said that even if massage temporarily relaxes tight muscles, as long as I keep doing the same work and forget to sit with proper posture, it will soon flare up again—that’s what’s called an occupational injury.

Occupational hazards from sitting too long

We novelists often hunker down at the computer for hours at a time, so eye discomfort is a given—I take lutein regularly. But I never expected that long-term poor posture would cause other occupational injuries too.

Come to think of it, the body is remarkably resilient. I’ve written books for so long, and that poor posture surely didn’t develop in a day or two, yet my body endured it for so long before it all erupted. Maybe it had been reacting all along, but so subtly I didn’t notice. If I’d paid attention earlier, maybe I’d recover faster. Now my neck and shoulders hurt every so often, which is really annoying QQ

I’ve also noticed that from sitting for long periods, I have very mild varicose veins in my thighs. Since they’re barely noticeable, I don’t plan to treat them yet, though I hear it’s best to deal with them while they’re mild, so they don’t become troublesome.

Remember to get up and move

All of this is to say: after focusing on writing for a while, get up, walk around, move and stretch, so these pesky occupational injuries don’t come knocking. Writing fees are already so low—if you spend what you earn on treatment, wouldn’t all your work be for nothing?

Take care of your health so you can welcome a brighter future.

FAQ

Further reading

• Previous: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #171: Exhausted by Writer’s Block? Here’s What You Need
• Start from the beginning: Hey! I Heard You’re a Writer on Ghost Island #01: Utsudo’s Debut — A Road to the Dream Covered in Frost
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.