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Being a writer can be a very rewarding career. If you write well and people enjoy a writer will be promoting literacy, enjoyment and education. No greater joy can occur then hearing a parent say "my child hated to read, until he started reading your books." Every compliment and favorable review encourages a writer to write more and makes them feel good about their occupation. However, it isn't all sunshine and roses.

Not many people would consider writing as a dangerous job. I don't think it would ever hit the "Top 10 Most Dangerous Lists." I think the most dangerous with being deep-sea fishing or crabbing. And being a writer will never be an occupation seen on Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" but there are occupational hazards that go along with writing.

Falling in Love: If a writer is really good, they will create believable characters. These characters are believable and real, in a sense, to the readers. So imagine what the writer feels? The writer created this character and probably spent more time then the reader. Intimate hours were spent in the development and writing of that character. A nurse falling in love with a patient (or vice versa) is an occupational hazard and known as "Florence Nightingale Syndrome." Perhaps a support group for writers falling in love with their characters should be formed, something like "Bronte Sisters Syndrome" or "Shakespeare Syndrome."

Grief: Grief over loved ones is never easy. When that loved one never existed outside of paper, well it is even more difficult. Killing off a character is never easy and can cause grief to the writer. Worse yet, is that no one in the "real world" will send a sympathy card or even think twice about the writer's pain. Perhaps this should be "Romeo and Juliet Syndrome?"

Paper Cuts: Oh come on, you've gotten them before. Don't tell me that they don't hurt! Especially those paper cuts that hit in the fleshy part between the thumb and the pointer finger. A writer constantly has to have a supple of band-aids on hand. I am of the mind-set that these should be tax-deductable for writers. I have also heard and tried a tip that says when out of band-aids, rub a little chapstick on the paper cut. This seals the cut and the air doesn't hit it, therefore it doesn't hurt. Chapstick and Band-aids: these are going on my next tax form as deductibles.

Dislocated or Strained Shoulders: This is slowly becoming a hazard of the past as more people tend to create and write on the computer rather than the old-fashioned

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