Today’s post is part of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, a blog hop hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh.  It’s a way for insecure writers like myself give each other advice and encouragement.  Click here to see a full list of participating blogs.

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Yesterday, I wrote a brief post about the work of Pierre and Marie Curie, the famous physicists who helped determine the true nature of radiation and radioactive elements like uranium.  In my life as a writer, I often find my roll models among great scientists rather than great writers, and the Curies are no exception.

The Curies had a goal: to figure out what was so special about uranium.  This goal became the obsession of their lives, and they sacrificed a lot to achieve it.  As they worked, the Curies made many startling discoveries, such as the discovery that uranium is not the only radioactive element.  In fact, among all the radioactive elements they studied, they found that uranium was one of the least radioactive.  It’s also thanks in part to the Curies, who in their ignorance touched and handled samples of uranium, polonium, and radium with their bare hands, and who kept these things in their home, that we now know how dangerous radiation can be.

As a writer, I have to stick to my goals just as much as the Curies stuck to theirs.  I’ve had to make my own sacrifices, and where the Curies surrounded themselves with radioactive samples, I surround myself with notebooks, dictionaries, and thesauri.  And just as the Curies’ research led to discoveries they never expected, my writing has led me in directions I never thought I would go.

P.S.: Hopefully nothing about my writing is as deadly as prolonged radiation exposure, but I have developed at least one writing related illness: carpel tunnel syndrome.