Tag: Writing with a Dis-ability

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Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Delusions of Granduer

Last month, I attended an annual writer’s conference to further learn the craft and potentially win an award. Each year, hundreds of aspiring authors gather at this mountainside resort for the conference. Most of us arrived with high hopes for a writing career.

  • Becoming experts in the craft
  • Acquiring an agent
  • Meeting potential publishers

While having aspirations and being ambitious are great, we must also be realistic about how the industry works. Often writers arrive with many goals but not enough understanding or experience. This leads to disappointment.

There is a lot going on during a packed week of highs and lows: classes, networking, catching up with friends, and often interruptions by God all crammed into a daily schedule.

Multiply everything by a couple of hundred attendees and there will be some confusion and disappointment. Barney was wrong. Everyone isn’t a winner. He had delusions of grandeur!

Delusions of Grandeur

“No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.”

Christian Bovee

After my accident, I had a lot of delusions about my health and my recovery. I wanted to return to college to finish my English degree and write my first screenplay as soon as possible.

However, my reality was I had to relearn how to do basic functions of life just to live. It wasn’t until 20 years later that I learned my vision limitations made me legally blind. I was so focused on my goals and hopes, I lost touch with reality.

According to Web M.D., delusional disorder is a serious mental illness where a person can’t distinguish between what is real and what isn’t. Even people without a brain injury can have unreasonably high opinions of themselves.

Let me be clear there is nothing wrong with having hopes and dreams, just having an unhealthy view or need of them. Only by focusing too much on our hopes or goals, we can easily become delusional. Below are a few possible causes of delusions of grandeur:

  1. Bipolar disorder
  2. Schizophrenia
  3. An imbalance of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters
  4. Stress
  5. Social isolation or lack of close relationships

A lot of aspiring writers suffer from delusions of grandeur about writing because they ignore the facts and statistics about writing careers and chances of success. Again, writing isn’t for the faint of heart. A great idea doesn’t guarantee publication. Talent only opens the door, but it doesn’t guarantee anything.

“Only the top 2% of writers make a good living and are successful. Most only make $1000 a year from writing.”

Publishing Perspectives

It can also take years for a new author to get a book published. Most writers know that writing isn’t for the faint of heart or cash-strapped dreamers. Eugene Peterson once said, “Writing is a vocation; it’s not just a way to get published.”

The truth is writers can end up with rejection from agents or publishers because the writing is one thing and publication is entirely something else! Author and speaker Bryant H. McGill once said, “Rejection is merely a redirection; a course correction to your destiny.”

Redirection

One of the common themes I hear repeated at writers’ conferences is, “A rejection is only a redirection.” When things don’t work out like we hope they will in our publication journey and we realize our delusions of grandeur aren’t true. It’s not the end of the world, but perhaps redirection.

When our hopes and plans don’t work out, we are to look at it as a redirection instead of a rejection. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been rejected by an agent I was hoping to impress and found myself sitting across the table from a different agent that was the better fit for me and my style of writing.

At a conference, writers try to choose the right agent, find a path to publication, and on occasion try to determine what kind of writer they are. Sometimes, dreams unravel. Broken dreams aren’t end of the writing journey, but could be a redirection.

It took less than a year after my accident for me to realize that going back to college wasn’t a possibility for me. And not just that, I couldn’t do any of the hobbies I once enjoyed. I needed to reassess and redirect my abilities. After grieving my losses, I learned to focus on my new abilities and new opportunities. I learned new hobbies and developed new passions.

  • Biking
  • Weight training
  • Reading more
  • Writing more
  • Resting more

After spending most of my life trying to fit in with the crowd, I learned to accept that I am different, with different needs and goals. I no longer have to stress myself out by trying to keep up with the Jonese’s. I have surrendered my delusions of grandeur!

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

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Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Take Your Time

We’re almost 3 months into the new year, and unfortunately, a lot of people have already given up on their goals for the year. How are you doing with the goals you set for yourself?

One study shows that 40% of Americans give up on their New Year’s resolutions. Doing anything new is hard for everyone. One of the reasons people give up, is they aren’t getting the results they want quickly enough. We cannot apply the “microwave” mentality to life.

While goal setting is beneficial, having an effective game plan is critical to achieving your goals. Regardless of what your goals are for this year, understand achieving them is a process and processes take time.

Below are a few of the top goals people have each year.

  • Getting in shape
  • Financial freedom
  • Relationship goals

Writers have their own specific goals for the year, I have a couple myself. Goals are great for pushing ourselves to make progress. After my accident, I learned the importance of setting daily, weekly and yearly goals.

“Maybe it won’t be famous. Maybe it won’t be a movie. But that’s not why I started it. And that’s not why I’ll finish.”

Ryan Reudel

As with everything else in life, recovery is a process, it’s best to learn how to take your time.

Take Your Time

I had to relearn everything in life, and how to do them despite my limitations. Disabled persons want to get back to their “old” lives as quickly as possible. However, for most of us, it means accepting the “new” normal.

Sometimes rushing a recovery can do more harm than good. If your body and brain aren’t ready, a disabled person can hurt themselves and will suffer a setback in the process.

As with anyone else disabled persons must deal with growing pains that come with their recovery. There are unnecessary consequences many have to learn the hard way. It took me falling off of the toilet in the hospital to realize just how bad off I was.

Setbacks can make you want something more or give up. Understanding trials are part of the recovery process can help us enjoy the process better. Injuries take time to heal and each patient must do their part if they want to get better.

7 tips for recovering from injury from Social Elite Physical Therapy.

  1. Critical original entry stage –When your injury first takes place, your initial response can have a drastic impact on your overall recovery outlook. For any injury that does not require an instant visit to the emergency room, there will always be a period of time before you meet and strategize with a physical therapist or doctor.
  2. Rest and ice- After assessing your injury, the very first step is to take it easy and rest the affected area for at least a few days. The resting stage can perfectly coincide with the period of time that you set up an appointment with a physical therapist.
  3. Compression, elevation –The second half of the fail-safe RICE method involves compression and elevation. Like step number 2, you should compress and elevate the injury the same day it occurs, or immediately if possible.
  4. Light activity/exercise –If you are still at the stage where you are attempting to self-diagnose the severity of your recent injury, this can be a great step to lightly test the affected area. Make sure to never try your regular workout regimen.
  5. Every case is different –There are so many factors that vary with each person’s body that could affect injury recovery and progression. Every case is truly different. That’s why you need a physical therapist to help guide you.
  6. Balance of injury versus exercise –This can be one of the trickiest steps to execute within the injury recovery process. It’s important to stay in shape, but not at the expense of your injury recovery. Once you have received a diagnosis from your physical therapist or doctor, you will need to strictly follow their guidance for day-to-day activity.
  7. Be aware of setbacks –Recovering from an injury in many cases can be very difficult. There is potential for setbacks. It can be fairly easy to tweak an injury and worsen your condition. Even if it has begun to improve.

The recovery process is a marathon just like the path to publication. Writers must take their time to learn the craft, hone their skills, and polish their writing.

“Assuming you already have your manuscript completed, it can take a writer nine months to two years for their book to be published once a contract is signed.”

Writers Digest

The writing process is long, but it gives us time to become better writers and to grow in the craft.

Grow As You Go

When we rush a process, we lose the time necessary to receive the best results. When we take our time we allow our muscles and skills to grow. Muscles grow and heal when our bodies are resting, not when we are working them.

After my accident I was in such a hurry to get out of the hospital, I didn’t realize the limitations of my eyesight. On one occasion I walked into a door frame while talking to my neuropsychologist.

The doctors decided to keep me in rehabilitation for a few weeks longer until I was better prepared. Novelist PD James observes, “Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other people. Nothing that happens to a writer- however happy, however tragic- is ever wasted.” The recovery process serves numerous purposes.

  • Allows the body to heal
  • Helps us understand our weaknesses
  • Helps us to grow stronger

Likewise, a writer’s journey takes time. As writers, we understand how important it is to grow our platforms and brands. Writers also must learn the craft, develop their voice and learn how to polish their writing; each of these is why we must take our time.

Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

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Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Gifted

Now that Christmas has come and gone, most of us are enjoying the new items we received as gifts during the holidays. I remember when I was a kid, I would spend the entire day playing with my new toys, it didn’t matter if I had anything to eat that day, I just wanted to have fun.

Gifts are useless if we don’t put them to use, isn’t that why we want them in the first place? What good is a new car or bicycle if we’re not going to go anywhere on them? We have each been blessed with gifts; some material, others physical. Even the simplest things in our lives can be gifts.

Disabled persons have unique gifts that most people don’t understand. Unfortunately, most of us don’t consider them gifts, because they make us different from average people.

  • Experiences
  • Expectations
  • Encouraging stories

In the brain injury community, there is a saying, “Every brain injury is different.” There are different forms of brain injuries, each with different effects on the body and mind: concussions, strokes, traumatic brain injuries, and acquired brain injuries. Each of these affects the individual’s ability to function. For the last 25 years of my life, I’ve learned to appreciate each day for the gift it is.

Gifted?

Most people look forward to and expect big things in life, as I stated before persons with disabilities understand that the simple things in life are a gift also. If you have ever gone through a health struggle, you have experienced this realization that we take for granted so much in life.

What most people take for granted, disabled persons cherish. We all have different gifts and abilities that we must learn to appreciate and celebrate. Even within the writing community, there is a diversity of experiences, voices, and even types of writing.

5 Basic Types of Writing Found in Literature

  1. Narrative writing
  2. Descriptive writing
  3. Persuasive writing
  4. Expository writing
  5. Creative writing

It is common for these categories to overlap as writers attempt to convey their message, but their purpose for writing remains. A writer’s goal is always to communicate, but these are the different ways we flex our writing muscles.

“Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and the only thing you have to offer.”

Barbara Kingsolover

If you have ever broken a bone in your body, you know how quickly your muscles weaken; you also experience the agony of being limited to certain actions. A flexible writer is like a flexible muscle.

Flexible writers have the ability to flex their writing muscles and different ways to convey a specific thought. The gift of the written word is often taken for granted by many people.

Let me encourage you by saying this, if everyone wrote and communicated beautifully through this art, we would all be jobless because no one would need us.

“Writing is a hellish task, best snuck up on, walked on the head, robbed, and left for dead.”

Author Amory McDonald

Writers Write

In the early days after my accident, I spent a lot of time wanting to walk again, but I wasn’t able to even attempt it. It was then when I first heard the word ambulatory, which is the medical term for being able to physically move on your own.

If you’ve ever watched little children learning to walk, you know they don’t start out walking, they must first learn and be trained to walk.

Stages of learning to walk:

  • Creeping
  • Crawling
  • Stepping
  • Pulling up
  • Cruising

Each phase is meant to build up a child’s strength and muscle memory, the gift is when they finally pass each stage of the process.

A writing career works the same way; writers must first learn the craft and then begin writing. Writing a lot is the only way will build our muscles. But, as Jerry B Jenkins teaches, “Don’t start your career by writing a book or a large project, even the best writers have to start somewhere.”

Every writer must build their writing muscles, even if they are gifted!

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Martin Johnson
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Uncategorized Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Appreciate the Little Things

As I spent Thanksgiving by myself this year, I had some time to reflect on not just 2022, but my life since my accident. Part of me grieved the things I lost due to my disability. Those things aren’t in my life for a reason; I gained new skills and insights that appeal to me more now.

I purposely choose not to entertain things I used to enjoy because I know it would only disappoint and depress me more now. If I choose to focus on what I cannot do, I become bitter and ungrateful. Instead, I choose to concentrate on what I can do and try to get better at it.

Because not everyone in life gets a second chance, last month a childhood friend died in an accident, leaving behind his new wife and children. I can choose to grieve forever or learn to be grateful for the gift of today that I have. 

” When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. “ 

Philosopher Marcus Aurelius

I have learned to be grateful for the small victories since my accident. Things that I once took for granted until I lost them.

  • Being able to smile.
  •  Eating on my own
  • Simply walking

For a disabled person, it’s the small victories that give us hope, bigger goals are more challenging and harder to accomplish. After relearning how to talk and smile, I was content not to return to college or my old life, I chose to focus on the simple things of life.

Appreciate the Little Things

Audre Lorde stated, “We are all more blind to what we have than to what we have not.” Before my accident I was so busy with getting from school to work and having a social life that I never bothered to tie or untie my shoes, I just slipped my feet in and out.

I took for granted that I could tie my shoes and chose not to until I had to tie my shoestrings. It two weeks for me to retrain my left hand to tie and untie my shoes, and button and unbutton my shirts. Still to this day, it takes me more time to accomplish those tasks than the average person.

Brain injuries affect people’s fine-tuned motor skills drastically, so we must celebrate the little things that we can accomplish. The same principle applies to our writing careers. We will never achieve our goals without first making small achievements because we won’t be prepared for the bigger picture of a writing career.

Below are some small steps writers can take from author Jerry B Jenkins

  1. Don’t wait to call yourself a writer.
  2. Don’t quit.
  3. Write from your passions.
  4. Work at it every day.
  5. Create your water’s website.
  6. Look for opportunities.
  7. Seek like-minded writers.
  8. Network, network, network.
  9. Focus

Jerry Jenkins also advises writers to never start their careers with big projects like a book, they start with smaller projects like articles, reviews, or a blog. One of the takeaways I learned from going through rehab is to start with smaller goals before attempting larger tasks.

Large endeavors can be too physically or mentally overwhelming for persons with brain injuries before they are ready to attempt them. Smaller victors keep us motivated and help us get stronger in the process.

Before trying to walk after my accident, I had to do physical therapy in my hospital bed and work my way up to trying to stand for certain periods. A month and a half of lying flat on your back causes the body and muscles to become weak.

I can still remember the excitement and gratitude I felt the first time I was able to walk from my bed to a chair in my room. After months of getting around only a wheelchair, I was very grateful to be walking again.

“The best way to show my gratitude is to accept everything, even my problems, with joy.”

Mother Teresa

Grateful

As I look back to those months following my accident, I am grateful for the hard times I went through, because not only did they make me stronger, they help me realize how much of a gift the simple things in life are.

Cartoonist Bill Keane said it best, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present.” Trust me, I no longer take for granted the simple little tasks of life. I learned to appreciate what most people don’t think twice about.

I have to work twice as hard to do what most people can do without putting much thought into it. I have fallen and failed a lot, but I understand disappointments and setbacks show us where we need to get stronger and improve.

This year I didn’t achieve my main goals of landing an agent or getting a book contract, but I can still celebrate the small victories.

A couple of my achievements from this past year:

  • Attending another writing conference and speaking in a class about my book.
  • Publishing my first article for Focus on the Family.
  • Growing my YouTube channel to over 1000 subscribers (over 450 new this year to date).
  • Growing my Twitter account to over 3000 followers.
  • Getting a chance to speak on PJnet.tv.

These victories may not be all I wanted for this year, but they are special and I consider them a gift that I even had the opportunity. Nothing in this life is guaranteed, so I urge everyone to treat each day like it is a gift.

“Life is precious, and when you’ve lost a lot of people, you realize each day is a gift.” Sometimes the best gifts come when we learn to appreciate the little things.

Meryl Streep
Martin Johnson

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com  and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Categories
Writing with a Disability (Different Ability)

Proofreading

Often, what we intend to say never comes through in what we write. Sometimes our enthusiasm inhibits the thoughts we are trying to communicate. Unless you’re one of the writing savants who never makes a mistake, you will have to revise your writing—you will have numerous drafts.

Multiple drafts ensure that your takeaway is clearly communicated. Revisions require rereading our writing.

Continue reading “Proofreading”