How Proper Body Position Fuels Health and Creativity

by Susan Watts

As both an author and a martial artist, I’ve learned one lesson that applies equally to writing and training: your stance shapes your strength. In martial arts, even the most powerful strike means nothing if your balance is off. In writing, the same applies. Poor body position can drain energy, cloud focus, and shorten your creative sessions. The mind may write the words, but the body carries the process. When you respect that partnership, you protect not just your art, but your long-term health.

Posture as Foundation

Think of your writing posture as a martial arts stance. Sitting upright with shoulders rolled back and chest open allows better breathing and reduces the tension that creeps into the neck and shoulders during long writing sessions. When you slouch forward, your body pays the price.

Here’s the hidden enemy: forward head tilt. Your head weighs about 10–12 pounds in neutral alignment. But for every inch you tilt forward, the load on your neck multiplies:

• 15° tilt → 27 lbs of strain
• 30° tilt → 40 lbs
• 45° tilt → nearly 50 lbs
• 60° tilt → up to 60 lbs

That’s like hanging a heavy kettlebell from your neck all day. Over time, this posture leads to “tech neck,” tension headaches, fatigue, and even early wear on spinal discs. In martial arts, we try to never throw a punch with a bent back or dropped guard. In writing, we should never try to create with a collapsed stance.

The Desk as Your Dojo

The dojo is arranged with intention—space is clear, tools are ready, and alignment matters. Your desk should reflect the same discipline:

• Chair height: Adjust until thighs are parallel to the floor, feet flat. Add a footrest if needed.
• Monitor: Place the top of your screen at or just below eye level, about an arm’s length away. This helps prevent forward tilt.
• Keyboard & mouse: Keep them close, elbows at your sides, wrists neutral (not bent up or down).
• Lighting: Natural light is ideal. If that’s not possible, use a lamp angled to the side to reduce glare and eye strain.
• Space discipline: Clear clutter. One inspiring object (a quote, a photo, a talisman) is better than a pile of distractions.

A properly set-up desk protects your spine and frees up cognitive bandwidth. Instead of wasting energy shifting, fidgeting, or fighting discomfort, your body becomes quiet and steady. That’s when creativity has room to move.

Movement as Recovery

In martial arts, no one holds one stance indefinitely. We pivot, shift, and flow. Writers must learn the same. Sitting for long periods locks joints, slows circulation, and fogs the mind. The solution? Micro-movements and breaks.

• Every 30–45 minutes: Stand, stretch, and walk.
• Wrists: Rotate them gently or stretch fingers wide, then make a soft fist.
• Shoulders: Roll them backward in big circles to open the chest.
• Spine: Stand tall, interlace your fingers overhead, and reach up to lengthen.

These short resets improve circulation, loosen tight muscles, and reset your focus. Just as a martial artist regains energy between rounds, a writer can reclaim clarity between pages.

Breathing and Mental Focus

Posture is the framework, but breath is the fuel. In martial arts, a fighter who panics and breathes shallowly tires quickly, loses focus, and makes mistakes. Writers face the same battle: shallow chest breathing fuels tension, anxiety, and mental fog, while intentional breathing grounds the mind and restores clarity.

Why Breath Matters for Writers

• Oxygen to the brain: Poor posture compresses the diaphragm, cutting oxygen intake. Less oxygen = less mental stamina.
• Stress regulation: Slow, deep breathing activates the parasympathetic nervous system, reducing stress hormones that can cloud creativity.
• Focus sharpening: Controlled breath narrows scattered thoughts, allowing you to move from “mental noise” into flow.

I’ve listed below a few practical breathing techniques you can try:

1. Box Breathing (Calm & Center)
   • Inhale through your nose for 4 counts.
   • Hold for 4 counts.
   • Exhale slowly through your mouth for 4 counts.
   • Hold again for 4 counts.
   • Repeat 3–5 cycles.
     Steadies nerves before a sparring match or before tackling a blank page.
2. Reset Breath (Break Writer’s Fog)
   • Inhale sharply through your nose.
   • Exhale in a slow, audible sigh through the mouth.
   • Repeat 2–3 times.
     The equivalent of shaking out the arms between rounds. It releases tension and resets the mind.

Discipline for Longevity

Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. So is martial arts. Both require discipline not just to show up, but to protect the vessel that carries us forward. By treating posture, desk setup, movement, and breathing as training, you ensure that your creativity doesn’t come at the expense of your health.

The discipline of stance is a form of respect for the craft, for your body, and for the words waiting to be written. A strong writing stance can help you maintain a lifetime of stories.

Takeaway: Treat your desk like a dojo. Align your stance. Protect your neck from the hidden weight of forward tilt. Move often. Breathe with intention. With discipline, your body becomes not a barrier, but a partner in the creative journey.

I will be discussing more about how movement meets mood in the Creating Creativity online conference, October 24-25, 2025. You can check it out at www.penandpotential.com.

About Susan

Under the pen name Michelle Allums, Susan Watts has authored a young adult urban fantasy titled, The Jade Amulet and is currently writing the sequel. Her short stories are also included in the anthologies Christmas Roses and Forever and Always.

Susan has dedicated over four decades to training in multiple martial arts styles and holds the impressive title of a five-time US Karate Alliance world black belt fighting grand champion. Through her karate school, she is able to impart martial arts and life skills. Susan also incorporates her martial arts knowledge into her writing. An avid triathlete, she keeps in shape by running, biking and swimming. She lives in the country with her husband, where they raise animals and enjoy being outdoors. Susan also has three grown children and numerous grandchildren. In addition, she is a CPA and VP of finance for a company in her hometown. 

You can connect with Susan on social media or her website.

Featured image from Depositphotos.

by RJ Redden

There's a specific kind of brain-splitting moment that happens when something you've only held in your imagination suddenly exists in physical reality where other people can experience it.

I know because I've had it twice in my life, and both times left me suspiciously moist around the eyeballs. (Sawdust. Definitely sawdust.)

The First Time: Walking Into My Own Set Design

Way back in the day, I did set design for theatre. The process went like this: get the concept approved by the director, build a physical model to show the actors and designers, then everyone goes off to do their part building it.

Weeks of construction. Painting. Problem-solving. Adjustments.

And then one day, I walked into the theatre from the audience entrance and saw actors rehearsing on the completed set.

MY set. The one that had only existed in my head a few weeks before.

My brain short-circuited. How are there characters moving through a space that was only in my imagination?

Then logic kicked in: Now it's in reality. Now other people can have their own experience with it.

The sawdust must have been particularly bad that day. Really aggressive sawdust. Probably pine.

The Second Time: Building an RPG of My Fictional Tavern

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.

I run a content creation community centered around a fictional interdimensional tavern called the Come Wright Inn. There's a mysterious ninja content creator named Scribbling Sensei. A snarky celestial warlock barkeep. A clockwork owl named Professor Hoot who communicates through specific hoot sequences and occasionally faceswings at particularly frustrating situations.

(Yes, faceswings. Just like a facepalm, but Hoot doesn’t have those. He's a very dramatic clockwork owl.)

My community members love these characters. They reference them. They quote Professor Hoot's hoots. They ask what RJ the Barkeep would say about their creative struggles.

And I thought: What if they could actually play in this world?

Not read about it. Not imagine it. Actually PLAY in it—make choices, go on quests, interact with the characters, earn XP, collect official Come Wright Inn items.

Here's what I did NOT do: spend months learning game design, Unity, programming languages, or hire a development team.

Here's what I DID do: I opened Claude (an AI assistant) and said, "I want to build an RPG of the Come Wright Inn."

We started designing it together. Characters. Mechanics. Quest systems. The whole world-building architecture.

Then I moved over to another software (Replit) to continue building and refining.

And now? It halfway exists. It needs more refining, but it’s featuring heavily in my upcoming release plans. 

My imaginary tavern is a place people can actually visit and have adventures in.

Cue the sawdust. (Definitely oak this time. Maybe some mahogany.)

"I'm a Writer, Not a Game Designer!"

Maybe you’re channeling your inner Dr. McCoy right now. Maybe you said it out loud with the full dramatic hand gesture and everything.

"I'm a WRITER, not a GAME DESIGNER!"

(But you're also secretly leaning forward in your chair, aren't you? Intrigued despite yourself? Yeah, McCoy would do that too.)

Here's the thing: I'm not a game designer either.

But game designs—like world designs, merch designs, card game designs, and all types of creative designs—follow certain formats. These formats can be learned. These formats can be worked with. And more importantly, the blanks can be FILLED IN by you, using the details you've already created in your stories.

Your fictional world isn't hurting for design expertise. It's crying out for you to translate the details you already know into a different medium.

Think about what you already have:

• Character personalities and dialogue patterns
• World rules and internal logic
• Conflicts and resolution paths
• Emotional beats and story arcs
• Visual descriptions and atmosphere

Every one of those things is world-building infrastructure that can be translated into almost any format.

What Else Is Possible?

Once I realized I could build an RPG, my brain started spinning with possibilities.

I could create a Cards Against Humanity-style game using my community's inside jokes and content creation struggles.I’m toying with the name Inn Appropriate Situations. ("Professor Hoot's disapproving hoot" as a card? "Scribbling Sensei's mysterious cape transformation"? The combinations write themselves.)

I could design an idea generation card deck—physical cards people could shuffle and draw from when they're stuck on content ideas. Shuffle, draw, get unstuck. It's like tarot for writers, but with less mysticism and more "oh THAT'S what I should write about."

I could commission a line of bobblehead characters. Scribbling Sensei with his transforming cape. Professor Hoot with his adjustable spectacles AND a faceswing action feature (press the base, watch him dramatically swing his wing to his face in copper-feathered disappointment). RJ the Barkeep with her cosmic drink shaker that maybe glows in the dark because why the hell not.

And here's the kicker: I can actually DO these things. Not someday when I magically acquire new skills. Not if I win the lottery and can hire a team. NOW. With the tools available RIGHT NOW.

Because AI isn't replacing creativity—it's removing the technical barriers between your imagination and reality.

The Real Shift: From Pages to Experiences

For most of writing history, if you created a compelling fictional world, readers could only experience it one way: by reading your words and imagining it themselves.

Want readers to spend more time in your world? Write another book. And another. And another.

But what if your readers could:

• Play a game set in your world
• Use a card deck that channels your characters' wisdom
• Display a bobblehead of their favorite character on their desk
• Participate in an interactive experience that extends your story

These aren't distractions from your writing. They're expansions of your creative universe.

They're ways for readers to have their own experiences within the world you built—just like those actors rehearsing on my set all those years ago.

The Technical Stuff (Way Easier Than You Think)

I'm not going to pretend building an RPG took five minutes and zero effort. It didn't.

But it also didn't require me to:

• Learn to code from scratch
• Take game design courses
• Understand complex software
• Hire expensive developers

What it required was:

• A clear vision of what I wanted to create
• The details I'd already developed about my world
• A conversation with an AI tool that could help me structure it
• Willingness to iterate and refine

The AI didn't create my world. I did that through years of writing and community building.

The AI translated my vision into a format I couldn't have built alone—at least not without investing months or years learning entirely new skill sets.

That's not replacing creativity. That's amplifying it.

What's Hiding in Your Imagination?

Here's my question for you: What world have you built in your writing that's just sitting there on pages, waiting to become something readers can actually experience?

What characters have you created that people could interact with, play as, or keep on their desk?

What inside jokes, wisdom, or world-specific logic could become a card game, a tool, or an interactive experience?

The barrier between "I'm just a writer" and "I'm a world-builder who creates multi-dimensional experiences" is thinner than it's ever been in human history.

You don't need to become a game designer, a product developer, or a tech expert.

You need to be willing to have a conversation with tools that can help you translate what's already in your imagination into formats you never thought possible.

The Sawdust Moment Awaits, Grasshopper

That moment when you walk into the theatre and see actors moving through YOUR set?

That moment when you load up a game and see players making choices in YOUR world?

It's the same moment. The same brain-splitting, reality-bending, suspiciously-moist-eyeball moment.

The only difference is how much easier it is to get there now.

Your imaginary world is ready to become real. Your readers are ready to experience it in ways beyond the page.

The only question is: Are you ready to build it?

Want to hear a bit more from me? I'll be diving into writer’s block at the upcoming Pen and Potential Creating Creativity: The Soul of the Storyteller conference. Come ready to rethink what's possible. I’ll see you there!

About RJ

If your audience engagement feels like you’ve been screaming into a black hole, then RJ is your digital fairy godmother. Her wand wields AI, chatbots, and augmented reality to create engagement so addictive, your audience will forget Netflix exists. She also speaks fluent human in a world obsessed with algorithms.

Find her online at blackbeltbots.com.

Top Image by Deleyna via Midjourney.

by Ami Hicken King

Reviews create angst. Writers don’t love asking for them and readers often dread writing them. Here’s the thing:

• It’s not that your readers don’t want to support you, it’s that they don’t know where to begin.
• It’s usually the dreaded refrain of: I don’t know what to write!
• It’s a truism that surprises me.

Readers put a lot of pressure on themselves unnecessarily, eventually working themselves into a lather by wanting to do it “right.” They create a writing overlord in their minds that stops them before they begin, overcomplicating the process. Help your readers by asking this one question:

What would you tell a good friend about this (book, product, class, etc.)?

If you have readers in the same boat of review dismay, I have more exploratory questions that you can copy and paste to jump start the process for them. Asking (and answering) these kinds of questions could have some of the following benefits:

Reader benefits:

• Helps them get a foothold into their reviews.
• Shows them that they already have something to write.
• Reminds them that what they have to say is important and helpful.
• They don’t have to start from scratch because their answers are often a review as is or can be adjusted for a review.

Review benefits:

• It’s a more genuine response and flows easier.
• Lights the way for other people with similar interests or curiosities.
• Frames reviews as creating a community/reader-to-reader altruism (away from stilted attempts to people please).
• May relieve some pressure.

Your readers want to help and intellectually know that a rising tide lifts all boats. Emphasize simplicity—this turns the iceberg into an ice cube, so to speak, so readers can get on to helping not only you but other like-minded folk who want to read what you have to offer.

Below, I have some questions that you can copy and paste for your readers.

Dear Reader, does leaving a review make you feel like this?

Reviews are hard. I get it. Are you stuck on where to start or are you overcomplicating the process?

Let’s think about reviews in a different way.

A review is leaving an honest opinion so that other readers can make their own judgement call. They can be attracted to a work that might suit them; be drawn into something different than they normally read; or say “no thank you” in advance (this isn’t a bad thing, by the way). It’s like a conversation.

Reviews light the way for others to find books or products that will suit them (or show others that this is not for them, so they won’t be disappointed). You are helping to create a community, sometimes a community of superfans.

Start with simple questions:

What did you like?

What didn’t you like?

What would you tell a friend?

A review doesn’t have to be a great critical analysis (go to town, if that’s your jam). But, do not leave a book summary because you are not sharing anything the reader can’t get from the author. A summary (of sorts) is the book blurb’s job—if the blurb is not doing its job, well then—that’s your review!

A review is something from one reader to another.

How can you write something so someone else will be curious about the book you’re reviewing? It comes from your personal experience, feelings, and reactions to the book.

Remember, a review can be as short as a sentence or two. It's how you feel, not what you think others will want to read, or even how your ego wants to sound. That’s what gets missed in the anxiety of review writing.

I’m going to repeat that:

It's how you feel, not what you think others will want to read, or even how your ego wants to sound. 

Review readers are looking for key words that resonate with them. Use those in your review. Like humor? Talk about that.

Examples:

• I had to go into the other room to read this because I was disturbing the peace. This novel was hysterical, and I couldn’t stop laughing. (This reviewer loved the book)
• While this wasn’t a humorous novel, there were parts that made me snort and chuckle. I enjoyed the contrast. (specific example of something reviewer liked and perhaps something that sets it apart from others like it)
• My husband enjoyed this author’s sense of humor, but I tend to like ____ better. (Perhaps reviewer didn’t love the book but didn’t dismiss it outright/was kind about it)
• If you like witty banter, I think you’d enjoy these characters. (technique comment)

For those who want more exploratory questions, I’ve listed some below. You don't have to ask yourself all the questions. The questions above are a great start and can produce material for your review. Keep in mind that even small parts of your answers could provide you with a review.

Find an answer that floats your boat? Done. That’s your review.

• What was something you liked, enjoyed, or appreciated? Maybe even laughed at?
  • It could be a character, scene, element, sentence, saying, etc.
• Was there a feeling the novel invoked or perhaps a specific scene or character?
  • Were you sad to leave that world? Were you satisfied about one element and dissatisfied about another? Happy for a character? Want a sequel? Share that.
• Did you learn something new? Get excited about something? Great! That’s something to chew on and potentially include. Excitement is contagious (and fun, just saying).
• Did something bother or confuse you? Honestly, the book reviews where someone’s clutching their pearls about something are the books that I take a second look at, especially if I’m on the fence. Because, you know, people are curious and want to know.
  • If it’s nonfiction and you’re confused, maybe you weren’t the target audience, or the blurb wasn’t on point. Kindly phrased, that’s helpful feedback.
• Were you surprised by something? Shout. It. Out. (no spoilers, please)
• Or did something specific strike you? One reviewer liked some specific phrases, and another wanted more of a specific character. One even wanted a specific character to have his own book. These were comments in actual reviews. They shared what and why. Interesting and helpful.
• Who do you think will enjoy this book (or product—some of you may be leaving reviews for classes or small businesses)?
  • Why?

Remember, this comes from your heart and that’s the best review you can leave.

Write the way you’d speak and say what you mean. Being truthful doesn’t have to be “mean” and liking a book doesn’t necessitate being overly effusive. People can tell when you’re being honest and that counts for a lot, even if you think your review isn’t great or important.

You are a torch bearer—you are shining the light on the path for others. That’s not a complicated action, but it’s important. Your real response demonstrates your humanity and your helpfulness.

Fun fact: Your voice matters and it helps authors and other readers tremendously. You are an important part of this process.

Bonus points: Magnify your voice and the love. Leave reviews in multiple places. (Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, the author’s website—you get the picture).

Pro tip: save yourself some time and copy and paste your review to multiple platforms.

So. Darn. Helpful. (and very much appreciated!)

Think back to all the times you’ve read something helpful; were given a different perspective; or someone’s light lit up the best path for you. Shining your light helps others find their tribes and in turn helps authors be seen. Every review counts because we live in an economy of numbers, but what counts even more is a genuine response to another human’s work. You have that power, please consider exercising it!

Writers, where do you land in the spectrum of review land? How do you feel about reviews?

About Ami:

In Ami's world, all is not as it seems...

Her historical fictions series, Lawlessness & the Law, is a mix of western, romance, and political intrigue. There are also some snappy dialogues and a funny animal or two. A lover of whimsy, laughter, history, and animals, she blogs about general observations, shenanigans, and historical tidbits, ranging from off-beat to serious. Ami is a collector of curiosities, ideas, and perspectives, riding a fine line between adhering to rules and being a scofflaw.

You can often catch her with a hot beverage in hand, talking to her dogs, or watching the birds in her yard and the clouds in the sky.

She loves connecting with people and hearing their stories.

If you’d like to see a pic or two of what she sees, find her on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest @amihickenking or on her eponymous website.

Top image from Depositphotos.