Even though the sun has now come out, Got His Hat On, as the old song says, it doesn't feel very spring-like to me. That's because I've got a rotten cold.I was back in work for one week (after my lovely sabbatical leave) and I picked up this horrible bug that meant I couldn't breath at night and felt like I'd run a marathon every morning. Anyway, it's fading now but I did learn a few things from it.
Firstly, having a few days doing nothing (not even reading or writing ) isn't the end of the world. Secondly being ill gives you a good insight into the situations for characters who are ill or certainly suffering in some way. And finally, don't let someone with a nasty cold make you a coffee.
Anyway, focussing on the second point, there are lots of times where you want to write about difficult situations for your protagonist or antagonist (or even secondary characters) and you need to have a good handle on what he/she would really do or say when shot in the guts or dying or a mystery disease or now reaching 150 years old, or whatever. The point is that it's not always easy to put ourselves in their (unhappy) shoes, especially if you are sitting in a coffee shop with a nice hot Americano and granola flapjack. Most of us can't live through all the events our characters face, but all of us are ill at sometime.
So, next time you are sick, do some free writing. Put down your thoughts on how you feel and what it is like to be poorly. Keep them in a folder called Poorly Thoughts, or something. And go back to them when you want to write the words of a dying man or an injured soldier or a woman with the bubonic plague or a wizard who has lived for a thousand years or whoever...