Writing 90,000 words is no cake walk for anybody, but Liz Nugent, a top author in the United Kingdom, made it happen despite the challenges that she faces as a woman with dystonia.
Express, a news syndicate in the UK, describes her story.
As the news site describes, Liz had a terrible head injury as a child falling 10 feet down a flight of stairs.
After a four month stay in a hospital, with spells of unconsciousness, an operation, and an induced coma, Nugent was released.
And that’s when she started feeling the effects of dystonia.
In the hospital, it was discovered that Nugent had suffered from a brain hemorrhage, one of the most common ways for a person to develop dystonia.
Her new symptom fully made itself known when she tried to do something every child does on a regular basis, write. Liz describes to Express her first experience trying to jot on a piece of paper, “I would try to pick up my pencil, but my right hand would close around it in a vice-like grip.”
These changes made her school-life difficult, but this dystonia survivor resoundingly reassured herself that she is a “fighter.” Although, that’s not to say that she didn’t throw herself the ever-so-popular teenage pity party from time-to-time. And later in her life, she found it difficult to maintain a job—drifting around menial work.
While finding brief moments between her full-time jobs, Liz finally discovered her true passion, writing. After 7 years of typing with just her left hand on her computer, the then budding author produced a classic, Unraveling Oliver. At the time, Little did Liz know that she just created a UK best-selling thriller that was recognized as the 2014 best crime fiction novel at the Irish Book Awards.
These days, Nugent is about to wrap up her second novel, and though dystonia doesn’t make it easy, she knows it’s possible, even saying that her condition has helped shape her style.
“Most writers I know write way more words than they need, but I don’t write a single world that I don’t have to because it costs me physically.” -Liz
Although there is no cure for dystonia, there are treatments to lessen the spasms. Fortunately, though, Nugent doesn’t view herself as disabled, and won’t let dystonia define her.
“But if I could inspire someone with dystonia to realize they can achieve their dreams,” she said, “that would be amazing. If I can write a book with one hand, so can anyone else.”
See Liz’s full story featured on the UK based news site Express.
