Milestones -- Or How Did I Get to the Point Where I Know Stuff?

The concept of milestones began back in during the Roman Empire. Milestone is from the Latin, millarium. They were originally stone obelisks make of marble, granite or other stone. They didn't necessarily mark off miles as we know them today, but they did mark off space. Since then, they have become a regular feature of ways to mark length of travel from one point to another (even though now they're little more than metal stakes in the ground). (Milestones). And the point of milestones is that they not only show you where you're going, but they show where you've been.

A milestone is also a term we use to refer to landmarks in our lives to mark where we've been and where we're going, or at least hope to go.

Recently, I've been thinking about milestones and progress in my own life's journey. Sometimes things hum along nicely, or it seems so, and other times it all feels stuck somehow. And sometimes, I don't realize I've felt stuck until an obstruction has been lifted and I'm able to travel along again. The milestones give me a way of gauging whether or not I've made any real progress.

This last month I felt like I'd gotten bogged down somehow and not making any progress. I was getting proofreading and copy editing work, but I hadn't been able to work on any of my fiction and poetry. I would open up files and stare at the stories and have nothing, absolutely nothing, to contribute to them. I felt stuck and frustrated and couldn't figure out how to get unstuck. I'd had a fantastic birthday and was refreshed. And then took a trip to Palm Springs where I had nothing to concern me for several days in a row other than how much time I spent at the pool and how to save the bees that liked to drown themselves in said pool. I brought my novel and short stories to work on, but again I'd open the files and stare and just draw a blank.

My best friend's mom sells Tupperware and one of the things she often says in regards to generating anything is that you can't make soup if you don't stir the pot. It's easy when things are coming in regularly to just accept them and not look any farther for work or inspiration. But even when things are going well, you need to "stir the pot" to see what's out there and draw in energy and ideas for your business and your writing. So, I started poking and prodding myself into action. I queried places where I'd sent work and had not heard back from, looked for work in various new places, renewed my WritersMarket.com subscription, and began hanging out on Duotrope.com more to research possible markets for the works in progress and poetry I'd had sitting on my hard drive for a while.

A funny thing happened. Once I got myself moving, other things got moving, too. I heard back from other work possibilities, and found markets I didn't know were available for my work. I heard back from one place that one story of mine had been accepted and another passed on. I felt energized to look at my old work and see if I could revitalize it, rework it and submit it somewhere else. One place I submitted poetry to didn't want just your average two-three sentence cover letter, they wanted as much as you could tell about mentors, degrees, awards, grants. I scoffed at that, thinking I didn't have anything to offer. Then I started working on that super-duper cover letter and realized I had more in background, had passed by more milestones, then I realized. It made me stop and ponder. It was difficult for me to grasp that I had some major milestones in my own history.

Finally, I received the questions for an interview I'm giving someone and I have yet to finish it. Every time I look at the questions I have to start over answering them, because in the middle of writing I always realize there's more to tell then I'm telling. More going on and more I've experienced than I am giving myself credit for. For years I've just thought of myself as someone who had no experience with all this, and who didn't really know stuff or know what's going on. So, seeing that I did actually have experience made for this huge, "well, huh" moment that I'm still trying to deal with, but is good because it's energizing me to get back to work on all those WIPs that have been sitting around unfinished and submissions I want to get out there.

Last night I was talking to a friend of mine. Listening to her deal with some decisions she has to make I realized I wasn't the only one who doesn't give him- or herself credit for the milestones in their lives. In a lot of ways she was still remembering herself as the student working part-time at a brewery. In the middle of figuring out her life she'd almost lost track of the fact that she was a career professional with lots to offer, and worth more than she gave herself credit for. And we started talking about how it seemed like yesterday when we thought we knew stuff, but didn't really know anything. And now here we were, and we actually know stuff.

When did we become the adults? When did we get past all these milestones to the point where we are the ones in charge? Or as another friend of mine often says, "Who's bright idea was it to make me the mom?"

It reminded me, once again, how important it is to stop and take stock of your life occasionally. And not only look at what you need to work on, but honestly assess how much you've accomplished and be glad of the mileage of your life.

Writing is hard on your health

Cross posted from Blogetary:

I never thought of writing as a dangerous pursuit or past time, unless of course you were one of those journalists who traveled the world on assignment researching things like war torn Cambodia or travel writers who were sneaking into parts of China or Turkey they weren't supposed to be. But I know some writers with serious health issues. One of them died of heart failure as he was working all night on something that had a deadline of the next morning, and another had a serious stroke while sitting at his desk working. Sometimes those issues are just there, but many times it's because of their profession. Sitting at a desk all day researching or writing is hard on your body. It's stressful. Your body likes to move. Your eyes like to watch something other than a screen a couple of feet away that's constantly moving. And always working on someone else's deadline is also a serious strain.

Of course, writers aren't the only ones who have issues from sitting at a desk all day. Anyone - any freelancer or office worker who spends hours a day at a desk, in front of a computer and even on the phone is going to experience things like back pain, eye strain and carpel tunnel syndrome. Today Yahoo put up an article on six problems that people who sit at a desk all day can experience, as well as ways to alleviate those problems.

The most obvious solution to it all is to not sit at the computer all day. It's tempting to just sit there and switch over to Facebook, or tribe.net, or whatever game site you play on and think playing on those for awhile before going back to writing is good enough. But it's not. The best thing you can do is get up, get yourself a glass of water, stretch, go for a walk, go to the gym. In the long run, you'll be more productive.

Below is the list of ailments from the article and suggested ways to alleviate them:

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Problem: The tingling, numbness, itching or even sharp pain caused when a nerve that runs through the forearm is compressed by swollen ligaments and bones in the wrist.
Prevention: Stretching and other exercises may help release tension in the wrist.

Lower-Back Pain

Problem: Sitting for hours on end, particularly if you have bad posture, can be devastating to your body over time if you don't get moving on a regular basis.
Prevention: Besides being better aware of your posture as you're sitting at your desk, getting regular exercise including abdominal strengthening activities should relieve some of the pressure on your lower back.

Other Joint Problems

Problem: The human body is meant to move, and staying in one position for too long can make joints feel tight.
Prevention: Besides getting up from your desk at regular intervals and walking around a bit, the Mayo Clinic recommends a number of stretches that can help loosen up your hips.

Eyestrain

Problem: Office workers who spend hours a day staring at a computer screen might tell you that after a certain amount of time, their vision gets blurry and their eyes generally become more sensitive.
Prevention: Increase your font size so you don't have to squint, suggests Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - News) (though the font on this informative page might cause readers to do just that). You may also want to rest your eyes frequently by looking away from your computer screen and reducing any glare on your monitor, the Mayo Clinic suggests.

Bacteria

Problem: "The desk, in terms of bacteria, is 400 times more dirty than your toilet," University of Arizona microbiologist Dr. Charles Gerba told WebMD (NASDAQ: WBMD - News). "People turn their desks into bacteria cafeterias because they eat at them, but they never clean them. The phone is the dirtiest, the desktop is next, and the mouse and the computer follow."
Prevention: If you frequently eat your lunch at your desk, you may want to make sure you have hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes to wipe down your work surface daily. That can also protect you from germs sprayed into the air by your coughing and sneezing coworkers.

Stressful Situations

Problem: Stress can be a problem at work regardless of how physical your day-to-day activities are, but those who do exert themselves on the job can actually use some of their activities to ease their stress. If you're chained to a desk, however, you may be even more likely to have stress-related outbursts. About 22% of U.S. workers say they've been driven to tears because of workplace stress and 9% say that stress has led to physically violent situations, reports RJC Associates, a career development firm.
Prevention: Smaller stressors can be handled with breathing and relaxation techniques at your desk or a break outside of the office, but some conflicts may call for mediation by an unbiased party. And believe it or not, video games have been suggested as a method for easing workplace stress, according to CareerBuilder.com. With the job market recovering and more companies hiring, however, it's starting to look like new job prospects could be a promising way out of stressful work conditions as well.

Story Time at Putt Putt Productions…

Another story time episode from Putt Putt Productions. This is the story Slow and Steady Wins the Race published in the April 2009 issue of Beyond Centauri. Hope you enjoy it!

Trying to Figure Out What to Blog...

Cross posted from Blogetary.

Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out what to blog about and I will just ignore it for awhile because I don’t feel like I have anything worthwhile to say. I didn’t realize that many fiction writers also have this same problem. However, in the Writers Market newsletter they had an article (well, blog post) on what to blog about when (as a fiction writer) you’re not sure what to blog about. You can read it here on Jane Friedman’s There Are No Rules. One of their suggestions includes sharing interesting information or thoughts related to research or themes in what you’re working since we’re usually doing research or observing different things.

I’m never quite sure about that. I feel like I’m jinxing something if I write or talk about what I’m working on too much, or what feels like too much. But as Friedman points out, this is one way for a writer to build their platform. And it helps draw people in if they know the type of stuff you’re working on.

Why do you read?

A lot of writers talk about why they write. In fact, there are some pretty famous writers who've got some good quotes on the topic:

W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965): We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to.

Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992): I write for the same reason I breathe – because if I didn't, I would die.

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940): Writers aren't exactly people... they're a whole lot of people trying to be one person.

Why a writer writes is a common and varied topic that could be bandied about at length just about anywhere. In fact, next time you're in a writers group and you're not sure what to talk about, just ask everyone why they write. You won't get anyone to shut up!

But another question that needs be asked that probably supersedes why a writer writes is why do they read? Many writers (and others who are avid readers) remember the first book that made them fall in love with reading. They remember the books that changed their lives or the ones that they have reread every year for the last 5, 10, 20 years. And it's this love affair with reading and books that first kick started a lot of writers writing.

I was thinking about this the other day when a friend of mine and I were talking about the books we read. We both read a lot. He prefers nonfiction such as biographies, history, inspirational and self-help books. I prefer fiction, heavy on the genre, and a little lyrical poetry and humor thrown in. We both read a lot, but for different reasons. I read to escape (obviously) and he reads to connect. Yet, as different as our reading material is, we can connect with each other and other readers on what we have learned from our reading. As readers, we will always have that desire to go back to searching for yet another great book that could change our life for the better, or give us insight into a part of ourselves that we have yet to understand, or to inspire us to try hard to be better at our music, art, writing, business, teaching or ... what-have-you.

You don't find that kind of satisfying read on the internet, at least not in 140 word bits about life's insipid details. You only find that type of satisfaction in a piece of art; words strung together in a thoughtful, meaningful manner.

It could be in a paperback at the beach, a hardback from the library, an ebook on your ereader, or a downloaded audio book from iTunes or Audible.com. It's still a book. You, despite your busy days and other demands on your life want nothing better than to read that book. Whatever the case, and whether it's to connect more with the world, learn more about it, or escape from it, you just know that you have to read that book.

But, next time you're in meta-type, philosophizing mood, ask yourself, why do you read?