Joanne Anderton

Today’s lesson is about compromise. What do you do when your back goes out, while doing something as apparently innocuous as showering, but you still want to finish a book by the end of the month? Why you set up a laptop on two playstation boxes so you can stand up and write, of course.

Observe:

Unbound

Unbound

I don’t consider myself a runner. A runner is someone who runs seriously, who trains, and who competes in marathons. Me, I jog. Cuz ‘jog’ is casual. I don’t do it in the rain, and I don’t stress if I miss a day, and I certainly don’t race against anyone. But still, reading about Haruki Murakami talking about running and writing resonated with me. It’s all in the rhythm.

When I’ve got the rhythm, I can jog for ages, and I enjoy every minute of it. I listen to music. Gully runs along beside me, and all the stress of the day (and the pain in my back) goes away, until I’m nothing but smooth, constant movement. And when I’ve got the rhythm, I can type for hours. I listen to music, and the cats lie next to me (or sometimes on the keyboard). The rest of the world goes away, I don’t even notice the pain in my back, and I’m nothing but the world on my screen and the people in my head.

Right now is not one of those times.

I wish it was. I want that rhythm back. But the big wide world (actually, mostly the big pushy day-job) is tripping me up. So what can I do? Keep running, right? Keep moving forward, keep breathing, until that rhythm returns.

I meant to blog about this last week, but Saturday happened. On Saturday, I woke up with Back Pain. At first, I tried to fight the Back Pain and keep to my writing targets/blogging plans. But Back Pain was not so easily overcome, and I ended up on the couch or the floor, with my beloved heatpack, and Stranger than Fiction in the DVD player. Then we had the annual Sales Conference at work — to which I brought my cushion and a stash of painkillers, just in case — and this is the first chance I’ve had to get back on the computer.

*sigh*

The back is still not as happy as I would like, but it’s calmed down enough to sit at a desk. I have no idea what I did to upset it so much. Maybe I’ll threaten it with a trip to the physio, to remind it what happens when it dares to complain!

I’ll get back to the point, shall I? I’ve been profiled over at the Out of the Frying Pan Facebook page, along with some of my fellow contributors. If you haven’t had a look at the page, I totally recommend it. The book’s pretty good too. A mate at work (aka my unofficial publicist…) bought and loved the book so much that she’s been passing it around the office. I can always tell who’s just read my story for all the ‘awwww’s and the ‘aren’t you cute’s that I keep getting. It’s romantic, it’s a true story, it’s… a tad embarrassing… what more could you want?

Unbound

And now I have wine, and popcorn and M&Ms, and need to decide which movie to watch. All must be right with the world.

Unbound

Not actually as much as I wanted to do, but 10k is still pretty good! A couple of pesky plot problems held me up at one point (I’m still not sure I like this scene but it will have to do for now…). And the back has reminded me in no uncertain terms that it does not appreciate writing-binges thank you very much.

But still, there you go. Hopefully I’ll be able to return to my usual routine this week. The one that’s kinder to my back injury.