All Wrapped Up

Today’s challenge is brought to me by my ace wrap. If you’ve ever sprained your ankle or had to wrap yourself with one of these for any purpose, then I’m sure you can feel my pain. The struggle of wrapping it just right so that ace wrap supports the area it needs to properly. Of course there’s also making sure that the little metal things don’t stab your skin as you use them to hold the wrap in place.

My early morning frustrations lay in the fact that I apparently didn’t wrap it tightly enough after re-wrapping myself earlier. Naturally as I hobbled around (since the splint prevents normal walking) the ace wrap unravels and I am left to re-wrap it around my ankle. Plus the way I wrapped it caused the evil metal clasps to be on the inside of the ankle where most the pain lies. Not so comfortable with an air splint pressing that up against it – let me assure you on that one!

So while I don’t want to be one of those people who whine, let alone repetitively over their sprain, may I please just state that wrapping your own ankle is quite the challenge! It’s not only a matter of the aforementioned, but it’s also a matter of not hurting yourself further in the process. Although I’m already seeing and feeling some improvement in my ankle – it still hurts! So I’m finding it a little tricky to make sure I wrap it properly without that nagging feeling like I’m murdering myself in the process.

Now don’t get me wrong here, because I’m still very thankful it’s not worse than it is! My sprain could be so much worse off and though I took a week of being in a funk, I am kicking my own butt back into gear. I got a lot to do and catch up on these days. So much I want to do and I’m not going to let this sprain hold me back…but I am still going to take it as easy as I can, as I do want it to continue to get better!

--XOXO, Jane

Seeking Writing Exercises

I’m sure any writer would understand this, but I’m dealing with character conflict. I’ve been plotting for months this unwritten novel. I jab down little notes here and there over this book that begs to be written. It seems every time I sit down to actually begin the writing process I find myself feeling a little blocked. Like suddenly all my abilities to write come to a standstill and I no longer know how to put words together. My conflict does seem to come to a point with my lead character. A character I shall not disclose the name of or backstory to just yet.

Now I swear it makes a person sound crazy, but again I’m sure other writers out there can relate to this. My muse seems to be the one causing the stall in the actual writing. It’s one of those moments where I feel I need to feel this character out just a tiny bit more. So that leads me to thinking of various writing exercises I should be trying. There’s interviewing the muse, where I attempt to just write and let myself and the character in question have a sit down and go with the flow of things. Don’t stop to correct my grammar, just write! There’s also the 10-minute quick writes. Now a personal favorite to get the fingers and mind pumping is the 10-minute quick write. You write for 10 minutes straight then stop. Doesn’t matter what you write about or how bad your grammar turns out in that 10 minutes. You just write straight through the time, then stop.

Really though I wouldn’t mind looking into other exercises to try. I think it’s time I really start making myself sit down once or twice a day to perform one. Keep the blood flowing as writing is the career I would love to take on. I’m always up for improving my craft and I think finding a handful or more of various exercises to do regularly will really help me with that. Any suggestions?

--XOXO, Jane