Contract Worker has a post called 6 Weeks to a Better, Stronger, More Energetic You. Rico is going back to doing push ups - a particular form of exercise I really have no interest in at all, but it did get me thinking about physical fitness.

First, I applaud Rico and anyone who is doing anything to improve their physical fitness. We are animals, after all, and we function best when we move a lot.

Writers, of course, tend to sit around a lot, at a keyboard, maybe moving their fingers… I know - that’s what I do the most of. And it shows. But it shows less than it did because I too am on an exercise program. I do 10 or 15 minutes of self-directed, learned it in a book yoga stretches three or four mornings a week. I also get the gym regularly, usually three days a week where I do 25 minutes of cardio on a treadmill, then spend another 20 or 30 minutes with machines and weights.

No, I’m not looking like I’m twenty again, but I do have more energy than I did before I went back to working out. I also have a bit more stamina at the computer and I’m 90% convinced my mind works better too.

So writers, if you’re not getting out there and getting some form of regular exercise, I strongly suggest you gently begin to do so. You’ll be glad you did.

Write well and often,

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qa
Do you have a question about freelance writing? Ask Anne, The Writing Pro - that’s me ;) Ask in the comments or send an email and put Q&A in the subject line so I can sort it out from spam and I’ll do my best. Meanwhile, you’ll find some Q&A’s here.

http://www.bizzia.com/category/ask-anne-the-pro-writer/

Arghhhhhh!

Last week I drafted another sample chapter for a client who is having trouble deciding exactly what they want in the book I’m ghosting. At least I’m 99% sure I did, but somehow I didn’t save it. I ended up emailing the original sample of that style, which she and her adviser had seen before. They wondered why I sent it and I wondered why I hadn’t heard anything one way or the other.

Makes me slightly crazy, or think I am. And yes, I know it happens to everyone once in a while, and yes, it hasn’t happened to me in ages so I guess I was overdue. And yes, re-creating it will probably result in a better chapter. But darn!

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

Image from http://www.sxc.hu

It’s far from the end of the world, but I had just finished printing out some 96 pages of an edit from a ghostwriting client when the phone rang, and sure enough, it was his secretary telling me another version was coming. It’s arrived, and when I get back from buying more paper, I’ll print it out.

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

I have a vague memory of hearing long ago that computers would be come like appliances. I suppose that’s like the promise made even longer ago that we’d all have paperless offices.

These thoughts come because the Logictech Trackball I use rather than a mouse started acting strangely today. I couldn’t scroll reliably, nor could I move cards in solitaire. Of course, I wasn’t sure it was the trackball, but everything else seemed fine and since they cost less than $25 it seemed worth a try. Which meant a trip to the store, etc. etc. etc.

Sure enough, that solved the problem, and like it happens, now I’ve got a new problem. The new trackball feels so loose! The old one was, well old, probably four or five years or more. Apparently, both the marble and the bed it rests in had gotten worn, gradually; that slowed it down some. This new one has me scooting past words, highlighting more than I intended, and overshooting almost everywhere on the screen. In other words, I have to get used to a piece of equipment working well ;)

Write well and often,

Two newsletters:
Abundant Freelance Writing - a resource for freelance writers including 3x a week job postings.
Writing With Vision - for those who want to get a book written.

We freelance writers and editors tend to spend hours and hours at our computers… we have to, but there are ways to do it in a healthy manner.

RealMuscleOnline.com started a two-part series today called Blogger Health - Health Sins Computer Users Should Avoid. Although aimed at bloggers the excellent suggestions there work well for any writer or editor.

Write well and often,

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I bought my first computer, an Apple II+ back in the ‘80s I think it was. It had to be specially ordered because I wanted to run WordStar, an early word processing program, and that required… oh never mind. No hard drive, just two floppy’s. It took me two weeks to figure out how to get a sentence from the screen to the printer. But it checked my spelling!

I used DOS, the precursor to Windoz (my only curse in the world is “May Bill Gates and his wife be using his software) and still miss command lines once and awhile – because it was so direct. My first hard drive seemed a miracle and I’ll have to admit I miss the lean software limited memory gave us.

This is all on my mind because yesterday I agreed to allow Adobe reader to be updated. Geeze that was convoluted. And last night I renewed my Norton’s Anti-Virus. What a goat dance. It insisted I dump Zone alarm, told me twice it couldn’t complete the install because I hadn’t restarted my computer… I had, I had. I gave up around 7 p.m., turned everything off and figured I’d probably be trying to get through to support this morning.

But no, this time it let me finish the install, but then insisted it had to do a virus scan of my whole hard drive. That’s still going on in background, which slows everything down to what, molasses?

This version goes after spyware as well as viruses, so, if it ever finished, I suppose I’ll be glad. So far, it’s found and “fixed” one item… no clue, no clue at all what that might really mean.

Meanwhile, the dishes are done, the floors swept, everything is picked up and I’m frustrated as heck because I’ve got some writing to do… I do remember when it was a whole lot simpler… true of most things these days I suppose.

Write well and often,

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The internet has thoroughly spoiled me. I send files as attachments to my clients and they send edited, commented versions back to me. It’s become so routine I forget not everyone knows how to do this.

A client recently sent me a word file that was 11 pages of little squares… don’t you hate it when that happens? Of course, it’s impossible for me to tell in San Diego what went wrong on the east coast. I remembered my client has a teenage son. A brief discussion with him and I expect the file to arrive in a couple of hours as a real word file, with no little squares. Not only that, the son can teach his dad the way to attach the file from the home email rather the much more complex method of copying to a disk, taking the disk to the office and emailing from there.

I love it when the solution ends up being easy.

Write well and often
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It’s almost time to replace my computer. And, as usual, I’m both looking forward to it and dreading it.

How do I know it’s getting time? Because, as a Windoz user, no matter how often I clean up my disk, defrag and all those tricks, it’s slowing down… and my relatively new flat screen moniter is starting to drop out some colors… I understand that’s typical.

Choosing technology is always kinda fun and I’m debating about desktops vs. laptops. I have a desktop now and I certainly want what I think of as desktop power. But I also love the notion of being able to take my computer with me… not very often, but from time-to-time. Plus a laptop takes up so much less space.

And now there’s the whole operating system issue. I’m not a fan of Windows, although XP was certainly an improvement. Next month Vista will be ready for the public, but I doubt if I’ll switch that soon.

I’d love to go to Linux, but I’m not sure about that either… I’m a pretty good end user, but I simply must be totally compatible with word. sigh.

But the thing I dread is getting my files and programs over to the new one… seems like there’s no easy way to do that… or is there? I’d sure love some suggestions.

Write well and often,

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