Guest Blogger, Andrea Buginsky, stops by chat about writing with a disability

Andrea Buginsky has enjoyed writing since she was a kid. Once in college, she decided to turn it into a career and earned a BA in journalism. She has been writing freelance for several years now.

Andrea has always wanted to write children’s books. She loves fantasy movies like "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter," so she decided to try writing one of her own. She is excited to announce her first publication, The Chosen, a young adult fantasy.

As writers know, writing can sometimes be hard. You have moments when you want to write, but don’t have time. You have moments where you have the time to write but no idea what to write. You even have times when a huge deadline is looming and you’re working day and night to meet it. These obstacles and more can make your writing life a hard one. Not to mention the publicizing and advertising that comes with it. But you suck it up and do what you have to do for your writing career because it’s what you really want. The same goes for dealing with a disability.

Writing with a disability has its own obstacles: you have moments when you are too tired or too sick to work, and your body is telling you you’d better go lie down – now! You have a strict schedule to follow for taking medications, eating properly, doing your physical therapy, and keeping your doctor's appointments. Then you have the days that may stretch into weeks where you can’t even get out of bed. So what are you to do when this happens and your work is piling up? Work around it.

Like anything else, you learn to cope with the limitations of having a disability. For me, it’s a heart condition I was born with. My whole life I’ve had to deal with feeling tired all the time, having moments where I’m short of breath, dealing with abnormal heart rhythms, and needing to take time off when I’m not feeling well. I missed a lot of school because I got sick easily and stayed sick for up to a week or two. But I always did my makeup homework while I was home when I felt up to it. Writing is the same.

For me, there is no one time of day or week that I schedule to be my writing time. I write when I feel up to it. When I feel enough stamina to sit in front of my computer and just write. A lot of the time, I won’t even notice how much time has passed, until I look at the clock when I feel I’ve written enough for that session. I don’t keep a particular schedule. I sleep when I’m tired, eat when I’m hungry, watch TV when I need to relax, and write when I feel like sitting at my computer and letting my muse take me on a ride.

The truth is, writing with a disability probably isn’t too different than writing when you have a full time job or a family to take care of. You determine when’s the best time for you to get your work done, and you do it. The same goes for my marketing. When I feel up to it, I write blog posts, update my website, update my Twitter and Facebook status, or chat with other writers online. The Internet is probably the greatest invention for a disabled writer. It allows me to do everything for my writing career from the comfort of my own home.

If you think you can’t handle a writing career because you’re disabled, I’m here to say you’re wrong. You can do it. It takes some time to get used to it, and to try to plan the best you can around your disability, just like you do the rest of your life. But if I can have a published book out there, then so can you. Good luck!

Andrea Buginsky is the author of The Chosen, available from Solstice Publishing.

Find Andrea:

On her website

On Facebook

On Twitter: @andreabuginsky

Thank you, Andrea, for your wise words and best of luck with The Chosen :)