Hello, my fellow authors! It took a long time to get to be able to call myself that, but I did it!

My road to publication was a little different than others—you see, I have SMA, which stands for Spinal Muscular Atrophy. It makes you unable to walk, weakens your immune system and muscles, and causes you to get tired easier. While I use a wheelchair to get around and need help a lot, I still do everything I want to do.

It does make you have to take a different approach to do those things. When I first started writing, I was using an onscreen keyboard to type. I can’t use an actual keyboard and didn’t want to have someone else type it out for me. Too many spoilers and not enough privacy that way. Then I tried speech to text software. Sounds like a good idea, right?

Wrong.

Another side effect of SMA is making your voice weaker so you don’t have as much projection as you normally would. Which means that Siri, Alexa, and other voice recognition software very hard to use. The one I tried took forever to type the words it did understand, and then wrote gibberish when it didn’t. It was so frustrating that I kept putting off writing because I didn’t want to fight with it.

Then came Google Drive.

I can actually type on my phone faster than my laptop. I had been trying to figure out how I could write on my phone for a while, but still needed to figure out how to move it back to my laptop when I would finish a chapter. Then one day my brother showed me Google Drive and I never looked back. It’s how I’m writing this now.

There are other obstacles SMA causes when it comes to writing. If my fingers get too cold, it’s harder to move them. Which means it’s harder to write. And if I get worn down I have to take a day or two off so I don’t get sick. Getting sick with SMA means it hits twice as hard and, if you’re not careful, can put you in the hospital.

Having SMA means you have to work smarter, not harder. It makes you have to come up with creative solutions to problems and figure out what works best for you. Because even SMA isn’t cookie cutter. Some people are stronger than me, others weaker. So what works for me might not work for someone else.

Yes, I have SMA. Yes, it takes me longer to write. But no, I’m not going to let it stop me or define me.

This blog isn’t dedicated to SMA. It might come up every now and then, but I’ll be talking about everything to do with writing. From tips for new and veteran writers, my own experiences, and everything in between.

Because I’m not the girl with SMA who writes. I’m the writer who just so happens to have SMA.