Treadmill desk observations

It's been 7 days of using the treadmill desk for all writing projects.  Since beginning...

1) I have logged 42.5 miles at 1.3-1.7 miles per hour, walking between 5-7.5 miles per day. Yes, this nerd is tracking data on a calendar.

2) I have not fallen off once, though the first day, there was a potentially epic circus-like spill.

3) I have had much more focus, even during some of my less exciting projects. My body shuts up when I give it something to do, allowing my brain to work.

4) I have dumped one mug of tea which did not hurt either computer or treadmill but was close enough for a good scare and a new location for all beverages.

5) I have simplified my already simple wardrobe to exercise pants, hoodie and tennis shoes.

6) I sleep better but dream weirder.  

7) I take less ibuprofen.

8) I don't have the 4:00 PM stupor and can still speak in complete sentences at 7:00 PM.

This is not a replacement for sweaty, heart-thumping exercise (shudder)-- it replaces sitting, and it takes about 5 minutes to get accustomed to working this way.  If you are in my neighborhood, stop in and check it out for yourself.  If you're not, watch the video of author Arthur Slade on his treadmill desk on YouTube or just google "treadmill desk" and you'll find plenty of believers.

Charlotte's Web

When I think about the way to begin a story, I lift up the best hook in the whole wide world, crafted by E.B. White...

"Where's Papa going with that ax?"

But as I mentioned a few years ago, did you know Mr. White had to work through several versions of openings before he landed?

Here are his alternate openings...

1. A barn can have a horse in it, and a barn can have a cow in it, and a barn can have hens scratching in the chaff and swallows flying in and out through the door -- but if a barn hasn't got a pig in it, it is hardly worth talking about. I am very Glad to say that Mr. Zuckerman's barn had a pig in it, and therefore I feel free to talk about it as much as I want to. The pig's name was Wilbur. 

2. I shall speak first of Wilbur. 
Wilbur was a small beautiful, nicely behaved symmetrical pig living in a manure pile in the cellar of a barn. He was what farmers call a spring pig -- which simply means that he was born in springtime. But there is no use talking about Wilbur until we have looked into the matter of the barn itself. The barn was very large. It was very old. 

3. At midnight, John Arable pulled his boots on, lit a lantern, and walked out to the hog house. The sky was clear, the earth smelled of springtime. Inside the hog house, the sow lay on her side; her eyes were closed. Huddled in a corner stood the newborn pigs, eleven of them. They had their heads together, in a circle, like football players before a play. 


I have to remind myself (often) that an opening is the pop of a gun when a race begins.  The reader doesn't have to know what time the runner woke up, or what he had for breakfast, or what the weather was like.  The reader wants the immediate sense that the race is beginning. We're taught not to be "blurt-ers" when we talk to people, but in writing beginnings, that's almost what it is.  E.B. White blurted, in a sense, launching the story with a big, concerning question.  


Here's the beloved author and his wife, Katharine along with their dachshund, Minnie.

  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Not being a flowers and oversized Hallmark card kind of girl, my husband gave me the best gift of love he could.  Two days of work to build me a customized treadmill desk which I've wanted for over a year.  He's a good, good guy and has a way of knowing what gifts speak love most.

Stay Focusd

I'm entering a busy time of writing projects and school visits and decided that I needed to step up the level of self-discipline by way of an external tool.  In other words, I am weak.

Enter "StayFocusd",  a free app for Google Chrome.  You can set how much time to allow at each of your usual internet haunts, and once your time is up, you're blocked for the rest of the day.  The screen that flashes if you attempt to visit said site--let's just use the New York Times for example, contains the large, unnerving question, "SHOULDN'T YOU BE WORKING??"

Ditto

Children's book author, Daniel Pinkwater:

"My method and theory of art:  I have this desk.  When I spend a number of hours per day seated at it, I usually end up having written or drawn something.  When I don't sit, I don't write or draw because when the writing or drawing comes around, I am fooling with the dogs, talking on the phone or fixing the stairs.  My artistic production is of higher quality than my imagination, skill, or intelligence would suggest, which leads me to believe that those faculties have very little to do with it.  I would not take a million dollars for that desk."

Woot!

Happy Like Soccer (May 2012) is a Junior Library Guild Selection for Spring!  What a team effort!  Thanks, JLG!

Words

On long, dull road trips, we sometimes play a game with country music.  Each of us picks a word common to country songs, such as beer, honky-tonk, bar, pick-up, girl, etc.  Points, along with hoots and hollers are awarded every time a person's word is mentioned.  It's not a particularly exciting game, but we do have some good laughs as we hear the same words re-hashed and served up in a new tune.  All you country music lovers out there, I like Taylor Swift.  I do.

I just finished reading Markus Zusak's book, "The Book Thief", which is right up there in my top ten books of all time.  Maybe in the top three. They're wrestling right now for position. Talk about evocative writing, a thrilling, tragic plot and some of the most unique and thoroughly real characters you'll ever meet in a book.

Here are a few quotes...

“It’s a small story really, about, among other things: 

* A girl 
* Some words 
* An accordionist 
* Some fanatical Germans 
* A Jewish fist fighter 
* And quite a lot of thievery” 
______________


“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.” 
______________


“A DEFINITION NOT FOUND 
IN THE DICTIONARY 
Not leaving: an act of trust and love, 
often deciphered by children” 


_______________


“Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day. ” 


_______________

"...he stood around the bed and watched the man die-- a safe merge from life to death.  The light in the window was gray and orange, the color of summer's skin, and his uncle appeared relieved when his breathing disappeared completely.

"When death captures me," the boy vowed, "he will feel my fist on his face."

_________________

 In The Book Thief, one of the major themes of the book is how Hitler used and manipulated words to evoke terror and hatred.  Those words seeped in and festered,  and lead to the action of the annihilation of six million Jews.

To contrast, Martin Luther King, Jr. used words to lift the veil and expose the fracturing of the nation. He used words to spur love and courage and risk.  Through words and fury, his dream became our dream. Can I tell you how happy I was when I heard they were changing one of MLK Jr.'s quotes on the memorial to be his exact words, rather than a paraphrase?

All of our words, however chosen and arranged, written or spoken, have power.  We can make them count, or throw them to the wind or to the gutter.


One last quote from my new hero, Markus.  

“I like that every page in every book can have a gem on it. It's probably what I love most about writing--that words can be used in a way that's like a child playing in a sandpit, rearranging things, swapping them around. They're the best moments in a day of writing -- when an image appears that you didn't know would be there when you started work in the morning.”