This is just a reminder to make sure you take care of your greatest instrument, your hands. Make sure you take breaks in your typing, do a little stretching, massage, heat or cold as works - and most importantly, try to maintain good posture and ergonomic typing positions... after all, the last thing we want to have happen is for our hands to give out halfway through our novel!
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;) tag0
NaNo '08: Search & Rescue - 104K/50K - in revision
NaNo '09: TFJ1: The Fox's Fight 57K/50K - finished; TFJ2: The Trickster's Trade ?K/50K - WIP
0 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 07 14
as someone who has suffered from a severe case of tendonitis many years ago (and still has to be careful), i wholeheartedly agree.
35,016 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 07 56
Thirded!
If you find your wrists starting to ache, go buy an ergonomic (split) keyboard. They're not that hard to get used to, and they're way better for you.
Something to think about for after NaNo: I used to have a lot of problems with my wrists. Several years ago I switched to the Dvorak keyboard layout (as opposed to QWERTY)...wow! Made all the difference. I'm still more careful than I used to be, but I couldn't type nearly as much if I weren't using Dvorak.
You can use a regular keyboard for Dvorak - just change the Windows language settings. The labels on the keys won't match (unless you change them yourself), but that won't matter if you're touch-typing. It took me about six weeks of practice, IIRC, to get back up to speed. Now I type as fast as I did before, maybe faster. I have to hunt and peck when I'm on someone else's computer, though!
----------What comes after NaNo? National Novel Publishing Year! http://www.nanopubye.org
50,832 / 50,000
nov. 4, 2009 - 21 40
I think when my roommate gets his own computer, and so I can mess wtih my own keyboard, I might switch to the Dvorak setting. I've been thinking about it for a while. XD
----------TorontoNaNo.org/WordWar: Drew
Twitter: @bdoing