Time To Stretch! - March Madness Check-In, Day 3 #WIPmadness

Welcome to the first Monday check-in for March Madness! If this is the first you've heard of our wonderful challenge, you can learn more about it here. It's about setting wild goals and smashing them, while joining in with a community to support you as you go. There are even prizes for participants! And best of all, it's never too late to join in the crazy. ;) 

So here we are. Monday. To the dismay of some, this is the first weekday check-in. So let's start things off with a smile: our first contest winner! Denise Jaden mentioned on goal-setting day that she would give away a first prize to someone who set their goals within the first twenty-four hours.

And the first prize goes to…

Kathleen Smith!
Congratulations, Kathleen! Stop by the goal setting post at http://denisejaden.blogspot.ca/2014/02/march-madness-set-your-goals-wipmadness.html and pick your prize from those listed. Email your choice to d(at)denisejaden(dot)com and we’ll get it out to you as soon as possible.

And if your name is not Kathleen Smith and you did not win, keep checking in regularly! We will be giving away more prizes on the various blogs, but you never know where or when…

^__^
All right. "I hate Mondays" jokes aside, this is also a great day to check in and assess how things are going so far. Did you have two glorious days of productivity towards your goals? What are you looking forward to?

I let a few things take over my time this weekend, more time than I'd expected to spend on them, so I wound up woefully not getting much done until late last night. But the good news is, I have my query letter polished and ready to go, and a list of agents to start submitting to! And I also have some ideas about where I want to take my urban fantasy novel.

In other words, I'm ready to get cracking. But before I do, I thought you all might appreciate some tips to help keep the body as limber as the mind.

See, I'm under strict orders from my RMT to get up at *least* once an hour whenever possible to help keep me from getting too tense when working. And some time ago, when I asked her what I could do to lessen the tightness in my muscles, she showed me four easy stretches (done in the chair, even!) to help keep my muscles limber. So I thought I'd share them here.

Note: all of these stretches should be performed for at least 30 seconds each. Most of them involve making some space before beginning:

1. Fix your right foot on the floor. Place your left foot on your right thigh, sit up straight, then lean forward. You'll feel a stretch in your IT bands. Repeat with the other leg.
2. Scoot to the edge of your chair. (If it has wheels, make sure it's against the wall, first.) Fix one foot on the floor for balance, and then stick the other leg out, locking the knee. Point the toes of that foot upward. Reach forward and grab the foot, or at least as far as you can reach. Stick the butt out for extra oomph. You should feel a stretch in the entire leg. Again, repeat with the other leg.
3. Also on the edge of your chair: grab the outsides of your legs with the opposite hands, so that they're crossed. Lean forward and take a deep breath. Move your legs farther apart for a deeper stretch. All of this opens up the thoracic cavity and spreads the muscles of your upper back. Switch the way your arms are crossed for a slightly different stretch, if you like.
4. Sit on one hand, so that your arm is fixed. Turn your head in the direction of the opposite shoulder, then either look down (like you're sniffing your armpit) or up. Both actions help stretch the trapesius muscle in the neck. Repeat with the other hand.

I hope you find these stretches useful as the days of March go by and the madness descends. Ready to get on with the rest of the month? *cracks knuckles* Let's do this.

And don't forget to check in at Shari Green's blog tomorrow!

Writing vs. Talking About Writing

I love the writers communities I belong to: the Compuserve forums, Magical Words, my beta group, the #wipmadness group on Twitter, and the larger #amwriting Twitter community, too. And of course, my TOEM* in-person writing group. I love it because we can chat about different writing issues, celebrate and commiserate, check in with goals, and just plain connect with kindred spirits.

But lately, I've been more aware of how much of my limited writing time I am devoting to actual writing (currently, this includes editing), as opposed to just talking about writing. It can be so joyful to share with other writers, because they *get* what you're talking about, and if you're a storyteller, sharing with others is practically instinctive. But how much time am I spending *talking* about my novel, and how much time am I actually writing it?

I'm not just referring to the pitfall of talking a story to death, where you spend so much time talking about an idea or a story you're working on that you lose the momentum, the energy to work on the story. I'm talking about spending time talking about the craft with other writers, to the point where most "writing time" ends up going to the discussion, instead of to the actual writing (or editing). It feels like going to the gym and standing around chatting, rather than working out which is what you're supposed to be there to do. (Or even like having extended conversations with another person on the treadmill or elliptical. Seriously, if you can talk that much, how much of a workout are you actually getting?)

This is in no way a complaint about writers being social with one another. This could just be me, too. All I'm saying is, as much as I love and am grateful for all of the groups I participate in and the wonderful people I've met because of it, I personally need to recognize when I'm spending way more time talking about writing than actually writing itself.

The irony that this inspired a blog post, which also robs me of "actual" writing time, is not lost on me. But I've noticed that I'm getting itchy about finishing the rewrites on SIGN OF THE STAR, and I think this is worthy of sharing. So, back to work.

* TOEM = The Other Eleven Months. We're an offshoot of the Greater Vancouver NaNoWriMo community, and we meet year-round. I used to refer to it as O11M, but that was such a mouthful, and thanks to member Rob H., I realize that this acronym is *much* more appropriate.