In an interesting post on Japanese cell-phone e-mailing (not instant messaging, it turns out), Mark Liberman said something which made my thumbs ache:
I was told that a well-known violin soloist, Senju Mariko, is also a novelist, and does her writing by cell phone, because this enables her to integrate her writing into her busy daily life.
She wrote a novel by texting on her cell phone!? Maybe it helps keep her fingers warmed up for playing violin?