Take These Broken Wings, And Learn to Write Again…

Happy Wednesday, Bloglandia!

If you tuned into this blog post thinking it’s going to be about my attempts to “Weird Al” that classic Mr Mister song from the 1980s, sorry to disappoint.

It’s actually about my arm.

As in the body part attached at my shoulder.

I know, a bit of an odd topic, but it’ll all make sense in a moment.

Don’t worry, my arm isn’t really broken.

That might have hurt less.

Instead, I’ve managed to do some serious damage to the deltoid muscle of my left arm.

And if you don’t know what the deltoid is, it’s that part of your arm where they typically jab you with flu shots and other vaccines.

Now, I’d LOVE to tell you I injured my arm doing something cool like rock climbing, trying to surf a gnarly wave, or rescuing kittens from a burning building.

But I can’t.

Because me, being super klutz, managed to injure my arm….wait for it, wait for it…. cross stitching.

Oh, the shame.

As I mentioned in February, I’ve become a total junkie for cross-stitching the past several months. Something about all that stabbing is very therapeutic…and far too enjoyable (you may want to alert the authorities, I’m not sure).

I normally do small projects. Cutesy little things like this….

And this…

These projects go fast and the small size means the fabric weighs next to nothing.

But lately I’ve been working on a stitch-a-long project that is done on a relatively big piece of fabric, which makes for a very heavy hoop to hold.

What to do when trouble begins? Ignore it!

It started with a small ache in my deltoid. I figured it was nothing, so I kept stab stab stabbing my way along.

Then it got worse, so I switched to a smaller project to see if that helped.

It didn’t, but stupid me kept on going. Seriously, the stabbing is addictive.

Adding insult to injury…or something like that

This also coincided with me working on two first drafts of two different books at the same time (because I’m insane!), which meant lots of typing at my likely non-ergonomic desk.

By the end of the week, I was in absolute pain. Lifting my arm out to the side? Ha! Taking a shirt off without grimacing in pain? Double ha!

I stopped stitching. No big deal. It’s just a hobby.

But I could NOT stop writing. I needed to get those two drafts done by the end of the month, so taking a couple weeks off to recuperate was not in the cards.

The only solution, since I couldn’t type without risking further injury, would be to go old school (cue 1980s music) and write by hand.

It’s creatively satisfying, but oh so slow…..

I used to write all my first drafts by hand, and I still do for short stretches. If I’m feeling stuck, I’ll sit down with pen and paper and write out a scene or two to get things going. And I do all my plotting, notes, and weird brainstorms by hand as well.

I’ll also write by hand if I need to sort out a tricky section in a rewrite. There’s just something very creatively satisfying about writing by hand (plus, the paper is so much easier on my crappy eyes)

But for the most part — even it doesn’t give as much satisfaction and even if it kills my eyes — to save time, I now do most drafting straight into the computer.

And let me tell you, it does save time.

Because although writing by hand did help my deltoid heal (mostly), it REALLY slowed down the creative process.

In three hours of writing by hand the other day, I wrote only about 1800 words. It can take me less than an hour and a half to type that much on the computer.

Which is why, the past few days, I’ve gone into grin-and-bear-it mode and have started typing again.

I’ve moved from my desk to sitting on the floor with the laptop, well, in my lap. And somehow, even though I typed a whole helluva lot in the past few days, this has worked.

My arm is slowly (slowly, as in sloths move more quickly) getting better and I managed to complete both drafts. Yay!!!

However, I’m still not able to stab anything, so you might want to keep me away from sharp objects until I’m fully healed.

Have a great (and healthy) week, everyone!!