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This is a real long shot but... any writers who see this who have hypermobility or a hypermobility disorder, please feel free to share your tips! How do you make writing sessions comfortable for your body?

Sincerely, a person with g-HSD whose pinky knuckles have a personal vendetta against touch-typing.

Non-hypermobile people please feel free to share this around<3

Hello! These are all the ways I make my writing sessions more comfortable for myself (I have HSD).

Handwriting

For a start, I keep lots of different writing equipment on hand. I go from pencils to fibre tips to fountain pens to rollerballs to ballpoints on good days. They're all different thicknesses so that it doesn't matter if my ability to grip things fluctuates.

I also have a few sponge grips that I put on pencils and Bic Crystal pens to make them softer and larger to hold, so that my finger joints don't collapse. I live in the UK so I got these grips from The Works; for some reason it is much cheaper to get hold of a pack of 10 already attached a pencils (removable) then it is to buy them individually. Be careful when you're sharpening pencils if you have skin involvement, because I can only sharpen about eight pencils to a pinpoint before my hand starts to blister. Take breaks, and avoid sharpening all your pencils at once.

In primary school, I was made to use Stabilo ergonomic pens and those didn't work at all for me; my hand can't sit in that shape without my finger joints bending back. Nobody noticed, and they just kept telling me off for not holding my pen correctly! (I wasn't diagnosed until I was 22 but the signs were all there in my childhood.) I guess having an unconventional hand posture is another way I accommodate my hypermobility when I'm writing, but I've developed my own by accident.

Fountain pens need a special mention, because there are so many different types, so there's something for everyone. They also generally require so little pressure to make a mark on the page that they are often good for hypermobile people who can't press hard. I tend to avoid pens with a triangular grip, and those that have metal parts in contact with my hand (they conduct the heat out of my fingers, and I get really cold really quickly).

The best pens I've found for my hypermobility have been the Kaweco Sport, the Faber-Castell Grip 2010, and -surprisingly - the cheapest calligraphy pens from The Works, with the fine nib. I got a vintage Waterman Flash set a free market in Belgium a few years ago, and that works really well for me too, but I don't know how easy they are to come by. @mamoru has a lot of really informative posts about fountain pens, and will certainly be able to recommend you something more effectively than I can. (I do know now that Kaweco is a bit dodgy, but only found out since I got my pen.)

Computer writing

I have a Bluetooth keyboard that connects to my phone or my tablet, and that's very lightweight, so that I can write in bed. It's less useful now that I use Scrivener, because I have Android devices and there's no app for those, but if you had an iPhone it probably wouldn't matter. I carry the keyboard with me when I am going on long journeys because it's useful to be able to write when I'm on a train, and it's much lighter than lugging around an entire laptop. This also really helped me when I was at university! I didn't have to take my computer to campus every day, because I could just go into Google Docs, type my notes, and paste them onto my laptop when I got home. A lot of back pain saved, I think.

I also use the voice typing function on my phone and tablet, especially when I have a lot to write, or want to write on days when my hands are just not cooperating. Yes, I still have to correct the occasional word, but it's better than having to type the whole thing on a day when that's causing me pain. I believe Scrivener also has a voice typing function, but I haven't tried that out yet, because I've been lucky in the last few months and haven't had too much pain in my wrists. This post, however, was voice typed on my phone!

(Less helpful for you, personally, but may help others?) Learning to touch type made my life a lot easier; when I put my laptop on my laptop desk, I can sit however I need to, and don't need to look at the keyboard. That makes it easier to change position frequently when I'm writing. My physiotherapist says that just about any position is probably safe to sit in, as long as you change it soon enough.

General

I often write in bed so that I can lay down, or - if I've got my laptop - on my lap desk. That makes it easier to write on days when my fatigue is getting in the way; it's one less thing using my energy. I have a wooden desk with adjustable legs and a hinged top, so that I can type on a slanted surface. That takes the pressure off my wrists a bit, and make it easier for me to see the screen without having to strain my neck.

Fingerless gloves are a good way of cushioning the wrists (the cuffs are thick, but, because they're fingerless you cans still grip the keyboard). I've been thinking about getting (or making) wrist cushions for writing, but because I use a laptop, I can't go for anything that actually fixes to the keyboard. At the moment, fingerless gloves are my best option. If you can knit, opt for a fingerless glove or convertible mitten pattern, and make the cuff twice as long as it needs to be, so that you can fold it back on itself and have even more support for your wrist. Go for natural fibres so that they'll wick away moisture, and remember that cotton will not keep you as warm as wool will, so may be a better option for summer writing gloves.

Sometimes I lay down with the lap desk, but, when I do sit up with it, I try to prop myself up with lots of pillows. Cushions at my lower back provide the bulk of my support, and one behind my upper back / against the headboard protects my head if I want to look up to think for a bit. I also have a hot water bottle in a padded case that I place against my lower back, so that there's some heat to help my muscles relax. It also provides just a little bit more support, but it's the heat that's most helpful for avoiding stiffness when I try to move.

I find sitting is a better option than laying down when I have a choice, because it's easier for me to move my legs and change position if I'm not actually underneath the desk. (If you're going to use a computer in bed, please consider getting a lap desk, and ideally run with vents in the top, so that the heat from the computer has somewhere to go.)

I know a lot of people with hypermobility use finger braces. I personally don't, because I type so fast that if they're not properly fitted, they just fly off. Fitted braces are currently too expensive, relative to how much I need them, so I don't have any yet. However it's something I'm keeping in mind, and they may help you. Remember: you can buy them for individual fingers and don't need to buy a full set of 10.

I'm hesitant to suggest yoga for hypermobility, but sessions that focus on strengthening the muscles in the hands and wrists may create more support for your joints and prevent a few dislocations over your lifetime. Whether or not you do dedicated yoga sessions, it's important to keep your hands strong and supple of your writer, so squeeze a stress ball or sponge to strengthen your fingers, and do weightlifting motions with something in your hand. It can be a can of beans, it can be an empty water bottle, it can be a stress ball that weighs nothing, or it can be a dumbbell if you want. It's more important to get the shape of your hand right when you're doing these exercises so that things are in the right position, than it is to be lifting anything particularly heavy. Even a stress ball - held in your hand and "lifted" backwards and forwards - will strength and the muscles that flex your wrist. Exercises for strengthening the muscles in your shoulder and back may also help. My physiotherapist would say it's best to avoid extending the joint as far as you possibly can, and we don't need to extend the range of motion as much as we need to build strength within the range we already have. Find out how far you can move your wrist comfortably without it clicking for popping out and do your strength training within that range. You might find you get a bigger range of movement because of it.

Finally, and it's not so much a hypermobility-specific thing as a "writing with chronic pain" thing in general, the Pomodoro Method forces me to take breaks, stretch, and move about a bit. I'm lucky enough not to have POTS or vascular involvement, but I do have Raynaud's disease, and blood pools or gets trapped if I sit in one position for too long. I work well when I write for about 20 or 25 minutes, rest for 5 or 10, and then write for another 20 or 25 minutes before I have another break. Like this, I can do three or maybe four sessions of writing before I really need to stop and take a longer break. You might need to adjust the timing to make them shorter, or you might be able to adjust them to make them longer, but the Pomodoro Method's timings are a good place to start.

I hope something in here is helpful! This is just what works for me, but writing is so much more soothing since it's become a lower-pain activity for me.

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The importance of boycotting

Keep this in mind for all boycotting. From doing it for Palestine to DR Congo to whoever else needs our support.

Seeing footage of the aftermath of the flour massacre in Gaza is so painful

"Where is my daughter? Tell her I don't want flour anymore"

"My brother was shot holding a bag of flour. He kept holding on to it so they kept shooting him"

"Why does flour have to be stained with blood?"

Over 100 have been killed. Every single one of them hungry. Every single one of them has someone waiting for them to come back with the bag of flour.

Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war against innocent civilians. Israel ambushes starving Palestinians and shoots them. Israel is not fighting a war to defend itself. This is another episode of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza.

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Tumblr is doing some stupid AI shit so go to blog settings > Visibility > Prevent third-party sharing.

You have to do this for each side blog separately by the way, in their individual blog settings (where you set the avatar etc.)

Found on @/landpalestine and @/wissamgaza on Instagram.

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