Writers in the Storm

by Colleen M. Story

Are you suffering from writing-related pain?

If you spend considerable time at the computer, you’re in pain now, have been in the past, or will be in the future.

Not encouraging, I know! But after being a professional, full-time writer for over 25 years, I know how painful the job can be.

The key is to adopt safeguards and coping techniques that will keep you writing pain-free.

How to Avoid Writing-Related Back Pain

Lower-back pain often develops because of increased pressure on the lower spine, paired with tight hamstring muscles and weak abdominal muscles—all caused by too many hours in the chair.

Getting a good, supportive chair will help, but it’s not going to solve the problem by itself. Consider these tips as well:

• Set a timer and get up and move around every 30 minutes. This helps get the blood circulating again.
• Use a coccyx cushion in your chair—one of those that has the hole cut out in the back. This takes the pressure off your spine when you're sitting, allowing it to float over the space. Make sure the cushion is firm—soft squishy ones may feel great for a day or two, but they won't give you the support you need to avoid pain.
• Strengthen your abdominal muscles. They support the spine. Situps, planks, crunches, and push-ups are all great.
• Stretch your hamstrings. Tight muscles create pain, and sitting (and standing) creates tight muscles. It’s best if you perform some type of stretching routine every night to loosen them up again. For your hamstrings, keep your legs straight and try to touch your toes. Hold each stretch for at least 20 seconds.
• Consider yoga. I started it in my twenties and very highly recommend it for keeping you flexible and out of pain. It also feels great after a long day of writing.
• Stand for at least part of the day. (Don't stand the whole time—it creates other problems.) Your best option is to switch it up—sit part of the time, then stand part of the time.
• Practice good posture. Suck in your stomach! It helps support your spine.
• Exercise daily! Movement prevents pain.

How to Avoid Writing-Related Shoulder Pain

Shoulder pain often develops in writers who are using standing desks. They help you avoid lower back pain, but if you haven’t set them up right, you could be exchanging one type of pain for another.

The problem usually originates with the mouse and keyboard. When you’re sitting, you’re taught to have your hands at a 90-degree angle from your arms. That’s fine as long as you’re using arm supports in your chair.

But if you’re standing and you position your arms this way, you’re asking your shoulders to hold your arms in this position for long periods. After a while, you’ll have shoulder pain from muscle strain and overuse.

Common symptoms include pain in the shoulder, pain that radiates down the arms into the hands, tightness and pain in the upper back and shoulder blades, numbness and tingling in the fingers and hands, and pain in the wrist.

To solve the issue:

• Lower your keyboard and mouse so your arms hang lower in a more natural posture.
• Put your mouse and keyboard in a negative tilt—tilt them away from you. Use a keyboard stand like this one if you need to.
• Take regular breaks to roll your shoulders and ease tension.
• Do some weight training to strengthen your shoulders. Don’t forget to stretch after each workout!

How to Avoid Writing-Related Hand and Wrist Pain

If you’re using the mouse that came with your computer, that’s one reason why you may be experiencing this type of pain. Another is that you tend to type in a tense (rather than relaxed) manner. Or your hands may be too constrained by a regular keyboard.

Some potential solutions:

• Use a trackball mouse that fits your hand and doesn’t require you to move your hand and arm. One like this works great.
• Try a split keyboard. It takes a day or two to get used to, but you’ll pick it up faster than you think. It keeps your hands in a more natural position, which eases muscle strain and helps prevent pain in your hands and wrists. This is a good example.
• Consider typing gloves. They’re made for those with arthritis, but if you’re experiencing muscle or tendon strain in your hands or fingers, they may help. They provide some compression, increasing blood flow while decreasing swelling and providing support. Something like this.

How to Avoid Writing-Related Hip Pain

Hip pain related to writing is usually caused by tight muscles around the hip, not the hip joint itself. (If you think you have hip joint problems, check with your doctor.)

If you feel pain on the outside of the hip and upper thigh or even in the outer buttock, that pain is related to muscle and tendon issues. (Hip joint pain is usually felt on the inside of the hip and toward the groin area, and sometimes down in front of the leg toward the knee.)

The muscles and tendons around the hip joint support that joint and enable you to move. The problem is that writers don’t move them very often! We tend to sit or stand for hours at the computer, causing the hip muscles to become tight and short.

They then pull on other muscles—like your lower back and other leg muscles—causing pain in the hips, and potentially in the lower back and knees as well.

Possible solutions:

• Make sure your chair has a flat cushion. Contoured cushions/seats put more pressure on your hips, as the sides press into the hips. Look for a good cushion in a flat seat.
• Open up the hip angle while sitting. That means do not sit at the perfect 90-degree angle like that good little private school student. You may have been told to do that, but it puts pressure on your hips. Instead, recline the chair a little, or tip the front of the seat forward to ease pressure on your hips.
• Wear supportive shoes while standing. This will help keep your body in alignment, whereas if you’re just working in your socks or bare feet—particularly if your foot pronates or supinates—you’ll be putting extra pressure on your hips the entire time you’re standing.
• Move around more.
• Stretch the muscles around your hips. Find some good stretching exercises here.

How to Avoid Writing-Related Sciatica

Sciatica is a unique type of pain that occurs when the sciatic nerve—which starts in the spinal cord in the lower back, travels through the buttocks, and down each leg to the heel—becomes inflamed for some reason. (Often too much sitting!)

The most common symptom is pain that radiates from the lower back to the buttocks and down the back of the leg to the foot. It ranges from a mild, aching pain to a more severe burning sensation, and may sometimes occur as a shocking, jolt-like pain or a throbbing, pulsating pain.

Prolonged sitting usually makes the symptoms worse, while lying down makes it feel better.

Potential solutions:

• Use a standing desk part of the time (to take a break from sitting).
• Get up and move around more often.
• Use a coccyx cushion (with the hole cut out in the back). Find an example here.
• Get the best mattress you can afford. (A supportive mattress can solve a lot of pain problems!)
• Take daily walks.
• Stretch regularly. Find more tips—including specific stretches you can use to ease sciatica pain—here.

How to Avoid All Types of Writing-Related Pain

Different types of pain sometimes require different solutions, but there are a few things you can do to help you avoid all types of writing-related pain.

• Use helpful tools. Cushions, chairs, mice, keyboards, standing desks, keyboard stands—these can all help you avoid muscle strain and keep yourself out of pain. They are worth the investment if they work!
• Move more often. Movement is oil for your muscles and joints. The more you move, stretch, and exercise, the less pain you will have. Use tools to help you move like jump ropes, walking pads, treadmills, and anything else that makes movement attractive.
• Stretch. Yoga stretches all your muscles and helps keep them soft, supple, and pain-free. Yoga also focuses on the spine, keeping it healthy and loose. If you don’t do yoga, a daily stretching routine will help.
• Take a walk. Walking gets you moving and increases circulation. It’s one of the best things you can do for avoiding pain. Just be sure to stretch when you get back or your hamstrings will tighten up!
• Be “body aware.” If something is hurting, there’s a reason for it. Listen to your body. Adjust how you’re working before the pain gets bad.

Share which safeguards and coping techniques you use or plan to use in the comments.

Why do you write? Get your free quiz to find out on Colleen’s website, Writing and Wellness, where you can learn more about writing pain-free.  

About Colleen

Colleen M. Story is a novelist, freelance writer, writing coach, and speaker with over 20 years in the creative writing industry. Her latest novel, The Beached Ones, released from CamCat Books on July 26, 2022. Her previous novel, Loreena's Gift, was a Foreword Reviews’ INDIES Book of the Year Awards winner, among others.

Colleen has written three books to help writers succeed: Your Writing Matters, Writer Get Noticed and Overwhelmed Writer Rescue. You can find free chapters of these books here. Find more at her author website (colleenmstory.com) or connect with her on Twitter (@colleen_m_story).

Image Credits:

Top : Image by Arpit from Pixabay 

Last: Image by Standsome from Pixabay 

by Piper Bayard of Bayard & Holmes

Before our characters in the Intelligence Community can save the world, they have to be recruited. While we can accomplish this any number of ways in fiction, reality is a bit more limited.

In the Past

During World War II, intelligence organizations snatched up exceptionally bright, capable students at their time of graduation. As in, snatched up. One scientist my writing partner, Holmes, and I personally know came home from his graduation ceremony at MIT to find half of his belongings loaded up in a moving van. He was met by government officials at his house and swiftly relocated to Los Alamos to work on the Manhattan Project.

Such strong-arm recruitment methods were specific to that time period, when Americans were consciously aware that their country was in great peril. Today, intelligence organizations have less forceful methods of recruiting, such as websites.

Web Sites

One way people join the Intelligence Community (“IC”) is to simply apply on a website. The IC websites provide extensive explanations about the experience and qualities they’re seeking in applicants, as well as job descriptions and application forms. If people do apply, it is best that they not tell anyone, as that would limit their opportunities.

College Campuses

It is also now common to see the CIA, NSA, FBI, etc., recruiting on college campuses from booths on Career Day.

It’s been known for some of these agencies to sit in on interviews students have with other agencies in order to spot or even poach potential talent. In that eventuality, the CIA recruiter would provide the interviewee with a business card and invite them to call.

The IC has Intelligence Community Centers at twenty-one universities across the nation. The IC has targeted these specific universities because of their high rates of student diversity. At these universities, students can apply to be IC Scholars. Also, the University of New Mexico became the first CIA Signature School in November of 2016. Students at UNM can apply to the National Security Scholars Program and earn a National Security and Strategic Analysis Certification.

Many agencies have college internships available, and some of them are well paid, including benefits and potential employment contracts for students with talent, ambition, and the confidence to apply. Desirable majors include everything from geography and languages to engineering and economics.

During the internship, the college student is given training in more than one area and exposure to the Intelligence Community culture. However, the student would not be sent on clandestine missions unless they had previous military experience, and likely not even then.

How the Intelligence Community Does Not Recruit on Campuses

Some folks may recall that a few years ago, a major New York publisher released an “autobiography” of a “covert operative” who claimed to be so brilliant and capable that the CIA pulled him out of college and gave him a mission before he had even completed his training. Yeah, no. Doesn’t happen. The guy is alleged far and wide to be a total fraud, but his book is still on the market. You’ll know it when you see it. (I don’t recommend it.)

That said, a slightly different scenario has been known to occur at college campuses on rare occasions. It is possible for college students with previous military training to be recruited by the CIA to serve in clandestine operations while they are attending college. If the operatives could talk about it, they would have very interesting “What I Did Last Summer” papers in English 101.

Other Roads to IC Employment

As in any enterprise, there is no formal structure for the informal structure. However, if someone has an excellent character and specific skills, the winding path could lead to the IC door.

For example, at times military personnel catch the attention of the CIA. On these rare occasions, the CIA will approach them at the end of their enlistment or contract time to discuss possible employment with them.

Word-of-mouth recommendations can also lead to employment. For example, if a clandestine operator is putting together a team and knows someone with a particular set of skills, that operator may take steps to bring the person into the fold.

Former employees are also a recruitment pool. If a mission involves a talent or ability that a former employee is known for, the CIA might approach that former employee and attempt to persuade them to work for them again, either as a returned employee or as a contractor.

The NSA in particular keeps its able ear to the ground to locate hackers who are suitable for employment, and that agency tries to snap them all up. However, the NSA doesn’t get them all. The CIA recruits hackers as well.

In summary, the IC is sometimes open-minded and versatile, and occasionally the personnel manual gets tossed out the window.

The Recruitment Process

If an applicant passes the first round and their application moves forward, the next step is a battery of tests online. These could include personality tests, intelligence tests, essay questions, or many other elements depending on the organization and the job that is in question.

The third round could include a phone interview, which could then progress to background checks, polygraphs, and face-to-face interviews in DC. The entire process can take well over a year to complete, and two years is not unusual.

Note that I said polygraphs plural. The vast majority of candidates must take more than one and sometimes up to three or four. For most employees, it is one of the most dreaded experiences in the IC. Polygraphers are very good at what they do, and it’s normal for people to cry and immediately call their parents to apologize at the first opportunity following the experience. It is rumored, however, that some old operations folks make it a sport to try and get their polygraphers to cry, and those venerated veterans are also very good at what they do.

Each organization has its own recruiting and intake process.

This means that if someone works for years at the NSA, for example, and they want to move over to the CIA, the CIA will conduct its own background checks, interviews, polygraphs, etc. This is because different organizations have different security requirements. Sometimes, things can be fast-tracked for someone who is urgently needed and already has a clearance, but the process is still the process.

The Self-Selection Downfall

Some people in the IC will not appreciate me saying this next bit. I say if they don’t like it, then push to change it.

The Intelligence Community, State Department, and all other government agencies and organizations are self-selecting for locals or people of means. This is not by any directed intelligent design, but because of a huge hole in the system. New government employees must live locally or have many thousands of dollars on hand to get set up in the DC area.

Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland are expensive places to live. Anyone moving from somewhere else must be able to front their moving expenses. Once they get there, they must buy a very expensive house or rent a very expensive apartment. Even if someone has roommates in a tiny space, it’s going to be expensive. There are also the utilities deposits, wardrobe purchases, expensive vehicle registration, and taxes, etc.

Moving expenses are reimbursed up to a certain amount, but that takes time and paperwork. On top of that, new employees must be able to support themselves long enough to get to their first paycheck.

This incredibly expensive reality leaves a huge untapped pool of talent on the sidelines and favors those with the means to survive the transition to the DC area. This means that many genuinely culturally diverse people cannot find a place in the halls of the IC. Meanwhile, the self-selected, better-financed crowd continues self-selecting through a financially onerous process and wondering why they don’t have more diversity in the room.

Just saying.

Two Absolute Recruitment No-Nos

#1 - The Intelligence Community never blackmails anyone to work for them as an employee.

Never. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a hoot of a series and movie, but no. The IC doesn't do that. The organizations already have more applicants than positions. More importantly, someone who is being blackmailed can’t be trusted.

#2 - The IC never approaches minors to recruit them.

Sorry to disappoint, but Cody Banks isn’t real. The Intelligence Community is not allowed to discuss specific job opportunities with anyone under the age of eighteen.

I realize that Young Adult writers often want the CIA to approach individual brilliant or talented high school students to recruit them, but that would literally never happen. However, the CIA might have information at high schools advertising its college internship program.

Young Adult writers have two options:

First is the realistic option. The character can enlist in the military at seventeen and, through test scores and demonstrated abilities, be selected for a top-secret military intelligence program. With intense training, they could be in the field by the age of nineteen. This is extremely rare, but it is possible in the real world.

Second, YA is fiction, so writers can always just make something up. My only ask is that writers please respect the very real people who serve in the Intelligence Community in their portrayals.

Do you have questions about recruiting in the Intelligence Community? Have you written characters who are spies? If so, how did they get recruited?

REQUEST:

We'd love it if you took a moment to tell us what military, intelligence, self-defense, or other topics you would like us to address in the future down in the comments. We want to serve your needs!

About Piper

Piper Bayard and Jay Holmes of Bayard & Holmes are the authors of espionage tomes and international spy thrillers. Please visit Piper and Jay at their site, BayardandHolmes.com. For notices of their upcoming releases, subscribe to the Bayard & Holmes Covert Briefing. You can also contact Bayard & Holmes at their Contact page, on Twitter at @piperbayard, on Facebook at Piper Bayard, or at their email, BayardandHolmes@protonmail.com.

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Though crafted with advice and specific tips for writers, SPYCRAFT: Essentials is for anyone who wants to learn more about the inner workings of the Shadow World.

“For any author, this is the new bible for crafting stories of espionage.”

~ James Rollins, New York Times Bestselling Author of The Demon Crown

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Image Credits

All unidentified images are sourced from Canstock 2023

Top "Hiring" Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash

by James R. Preston

”Left, James, swing left!”

I pushed off and swung left just as a boulder the size of a refrigerator hurtled down the cliff toward me.

One of the principles of adult training is called the WIIFM, which is an acronym for What’s In It For Me. It’s fair for you, reading this essay, to ask that question, and I think I should answer it before I tell you what happened with the boulder. 

Why should you, as a writer, pay attention to gaming?

Well, first, it’s a big part of the entertainment world. How big? Last year the revenue generated by video games was more than that of books, movies, and music combined. That’s right — combined. Grand Theft Auto V has raked in more than three times what Avatar has earned. Three times.

Anything that important that relies on story for its success is worth some study on your part, and the big games have that in common — a good story. 

The stories good games rely on are insanely complex.

 Here’s a brief synopsis of Half-Life, one of the simpler adventure games. Your name is Gordon Freeman and you’re a physicist working in a secret lab buried deep underground In the desert somewhere. 

One morning you are assigned to test a sample; everything goes wrong and there’s a dimensional tear that allows creatures from somewhere else to enter our world. Many of your colleagues are killed or injured. 

One of the survivors begs you to get to the surface and get help. So far, an ok story, not particularly unique. Just wait . . . Getting to the surface is difficult but it’s only the beginning of your problems. The story has humor and interesting characters. For example, one of the scientists in the Men’s’ Room asks you to throw him some toilet paper because his stall is out. Hint if you play the game: it’s good to help him. 

From there on it gets complicated.

Classes of Games

Let’s look at the different kinds of modern computer games. One kind is valuable for writers. 

Regular games moved to the screen. 

 Chess and checkers can be played online against a human opponent or against the computer. While they can be fun, they’re not what we’re going to talk about because they have no story. 

Simulations 

 Do you want to drive an 18-wheeler or fly a jet? Try American Truck Simulator or Microsoft Flight Simulator. Again, interesting, and I am a fan of American Truck Simulator, but they’re not the subject of this essay either.

Adventure or Role-playing 

 Ok, these are the games we’re interested in. Examples include Half-Life, Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, and Grand Theft Auto V. All the best games in this genre are popular because they have a good story. This kind of game is what the scientists on The Big Bang Theory play. Typically, you’re dropped into a world and given a quest, a problem to solve.

These games are First-Person Shooters (FPS), Third-Person, or a combination of the two. 

The game creators constantly must answer the dreaded, “What happens now?” It’s possible to learn from their examples. Three things I’ve learned are listed below. (I know, I know, that boulder is still rushing toward me. We’ll get back to it.) 

Number One: the Boss Fight

In gamer talk that’s the battle with the last, most powerful enemy. It always comes last. Studying how problems are arranged in games can help you when you are deciding what comes next. In all good games — and in your stories — the biggest problem is solved last. 

In the movie version of Goldfinger James Bond fights Oddjob, but that can’t be the end of the story because he must deal with Goldfinger himself. That’s the Boss Fight and it comes last. 

When you think about conflict, whether it’s battling a martial arts expert or the heroine deciding to trust the mysterious stranger, the big fight has to come last, and ideally each fight or decision leading up to it is harder than the one before. 

Number Two: the Sherpa

Meanwhile, back at the cliff face, I’m still hauling myself up while my Sherpa Logan, who has made it to the top and didn’t even have the decency to make it look hard but I’m not holding it against him, at least not much, coaches me. Writing is not easy. Most of us can benefit from advice. In gaming talk that’s somebody who knows the ropes (LOL, reference back to the cliff) and who is willing to help newbies. 

By reading this blog you’re already on the right track. If you decide to follow my suggestion and spend some time gaming, look for someone who has experience, who is a bit farther down the writing road than you are. One of my sherpas was an LAPD officer and talented writer named Paul Bishop, author of Citadel Run among other police stories. His comments as we went over the opening to my second thriller are still things I keep in mind. Side Note: he wanted to illustrate a point about firearms, reached down into his boot top and pulled out a small revolver. Yes, it’s true: I’ve had a reviewer pull a gun on me. 

Number Three: Details 

The folks who create games — if they are good — put a great deal of time into accuracy. The people who created Mount and Blade studied and practiced sword fights so they would get the moves down right. You can find videos of their training on You Tube. If you are writing anything with that kind of combat, you would do well to take a look. As with studying simulations, always double-check your facts. 

Ok, the boulder.

I pushed off from the cliff face, it missed me and with Logan’s help I made it to the top. That’s an example of a common misconception about gamers. Most modern games are team efforts, with groups from four players on up trying to work together to solve the problem or win the battle. 

I was playing a sword-and-sorcery game with Logan and his brother Chase. We were jumped by a gang of ogres and, while I won my fight, I was separated from my teammates and hopelessly lost. I heard Chase say, “I’ll go back and get James. I know where he is.” It’s a cooperative effort. 

What’s Next, or a few Suggestions. 

 If I have persuaded you to take on an adventure game, I have some suggestions, specific games that have something to offer. 

Half-Life

 A classic. One that a newbie (that’s you) can master given time. It’s linear; you solve one problem and move on to the next. There’s no going back. There are sequels that carry the story forward. 

Red Dead Redemption 

 Welcome to the old west. Think Fistful of Dollars. It’s new, detailed and very interesting. This is an example of an open world game in which you can go wherever you want. One lady, writer for the LA Times, logs on goes fishing. She finds it very peaceful. 

Grand Theft Auto V

 The fifth iteration of this epic is a huge seller. While it has a great backstory, I’m hesitant to recommend it because the language is really really raw. You have been warned. 

Fallout

A post-apocalypse world filled with, well, just about everything. In this one you get to select the traits of your character, which is not a bad way to think about your own creations. How persuasive are they? Are they strong?

• Put the most important and hardest fight or decision last.
• Find a sherpa to give you advice and help you along the way. 
• Use games for details but exercise caution and verify everything. 

 If you have an interest in checking out this form of entertainment, a good place to start is www.steam.com

Steam sells games, but they also have reviews, samples, and frequent sales so you can try out a game at a reasonable price. And if you study the reviews, you’ll see that games with good stories get good reviews. As we say so often here on WITS, story matters.

So that’s it.

These are the gems I got out of games that helped my writing, and that I believe can help yours, too. At the very least it’s a break, a different way to study that which we are all devoted to -- the story. Good luck and may your health points always regenerate fast. 

Now it’s your turn. Have you played any of these games? Was it worthwhile? Please share any games you love that I missed down in the comments!

About James

James R. Preston is the author of the multiple-award-winning Surf City Mysteries. He is currently at work on the sixth, called Remains To Be Seen. His most recent works are Crashpad and Buzzkill, two historical novellas set in the 1960’s at Cal State Long Beach. Kirkus Reviews called Buzzkill “A historical thriller enriched by characters who sparkle and refuse to be forgotten.” His books are collected as part of the California Detective Fiction collection at the University of California Berkeley. 

Find out more about James at his website.

Image credits

Top: Image by Simon from Pixabay 

Second: Image by NikSonFik from Pixabay