A bit of beauty in my neighborhood.

I have a work in progress and felt my plot had some gaping holes in it. So in January, I took a writing class on plots. One of the assignments was outlining along a very constructive plot point path. I used my WIP and found that the assignment helped. Then I got feedback from the instructor with further suggestions.

It took me until late March to mull over the suggestions and get to work on rewriting and revising.

After spending countless hours sitting at my laptop, I decided to mix in some simple exercises. (My former writing mentor Gerald Petievich once told me that writers need buns of steel.)

I began leg exercises for strength and balance. They are from my PT when I had knee surgery post ski accident. I’ve been reading that falling when we get older is not a good thing. Once elderly start falling, they usually don’t last long. So why wait? I break up my writing with those exercises.

Then I decided to do something about my flabby arms. I started with three pounds weights and now I’m at five. But I have a sharp pain in my neck and shoulders. I was on the phone with my daughter yesterday and she said, “You’re not doing the exercises correctly.”

“How do you know?” I asked. After all she isn’t here.

She said, “Because you sit with your shoulders around your ears. You aren’t engaging the correct muscles.”

I explained that my husband (her dad) showed me how to do them. She insists he doesn’t know how, either. Well, she is coming by for a short visit, dropping off Waffles the Pug while she goes to a destination wedding in Portugal. Maybe I can get some private instructions from her.

In the meantime, I’ve got a pain in the neck and shoulders. Maybe I should stick to legs?

Do you find you need to get up and move after sitting at the computer?

What exercises do you do?