Andrea Hayes is the author of Pain Free Life, a step by step personal pain management programme that she has developed in her search for a pain-free life. Here, the author shares her writing journey with RTÉ LifeStyle.
After years of unanswered questions Hayes was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder. Since then she has written the book which explores the power of the mind and challenges the language of pain. Here, she discusses her writing journey and shares her top writing tips!
My writing journey…….
Like most people I had romantic ideas about writing a novel but sadly all my wonderful characters and plot themes remained all in my head, I hadn’t managed to transfer the story to paper yet. However something deep inside was prompting me to write my story about my life living in chronic pain.
In December 2013 after a hellish year trying to cope with my crippling daily pain, an MRI scan revealed I had a rare neurological condition called Chiari Malformation 1, in addition to my spinal stenosis and disc degeneration.
Up until then I hadn’t really spoke about my pain publically so in the spirit of New Year challenges I decided to do something that terrified me. At the beginning of 2014, I went ‘public’ about my pain.
I wrote a deeply personal and candid article about my daily agony and submitted it to Woman’s Way editor Aine Toner who miraculously loved it and within a week it was printed in the nationwide magazine for all to see.
The response to the feature was unprecedented; many people contacted me from all over Ireland thanking me for being so open and honest about my experience, it seemed my raw account of living with this daily torment resonated with a lot of others.
My big gesture to go public about my pain was a massive leap for me and really began a chain reaction of events that lead to me writing my book - Pain Free Life; My Journey to Wellness. Making my resolution in 2014 to write daily about my journey was central to my success and the completion of my book. It has been an extraordinary journey of healing and wellness.
My Top Tips for Writing
- Stick with it and write every day, you can’t edit what isn’t written, you cannot read over empty pages.
- Even if you think your writing isn’t very good, keep writing. For me the line ‘write what you know’ kept me anchored in place in a sea of doubt and uncertainty. It was my story, it was true for me so I just tapped away at the computer and got it onto a page.
- Choose a medium that feels right for you. That could be a special folder on your computer, audio recordings on your phone, a blog or an old-fashioned journal. Do it your way because that’s what will work!
- Sometimes it helps to create a comfortable space or a specific time to write. If you can set aside time to do it every day it will probably work better. I always write after I come home from morning mass or my morning walk with my dog dash and I spend a couple of hours before I collect my daughter from school, maybe returning to edit or reread later in the evening when everyone is in bed.
- Writing is re writing, and editing and re-editing! The whole process isn’t for the faint-hearted, but if you believe in yourself and believe in your story it is richly rewarding.
- Honestly if I can do it, I promise you, so can you. If you ever had an inkling that you might want to write, my advice is get started today, it won’t write itself.
- Finally, seeing the evolution of your script into a real book is quite illuminating and makes all the hours at the computer worthwhile. Good luck.
Pain-Free Life; My Journey to Wellness – Mercier Press www.andreahayes.ie
