Stretching the mind

Today, I’m grateful for work that I enjoy, that uses my abilities, and that stretches my brain. (It also fills my wallet, which I’m also very grateful for.) Yes, these describe my writing, but I’m applying them today to my freelance business. Lately (as I mentioned before), I’ve been working on an index to a book about Heidegger — which turned out to be a trilingual index (not counting the couple Latin entries that wandered in) that dealt with lots of heavy concepts (such as the Being of beings), words that Heidegger invented (Reluzenz), and discussion of everything from limits, politics, and death to the difference between transitive and intransitive uses of the verb “to live.”

I also have two proofreading jobs going on right now — one on software that I know and love, and the other a travel book. These aren’t as difficult, but they pull on different parts of my brain — different language knowledge, different facts, different organization.

Together, all of these things keep my brain sharp and help me to think in new ways — which, with luck, I can translate to my fiction. Even if not, I enjoy the work for itself. What more could I ask for?

What are you grateful for today?

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4 Comments

  1. I am grateful that I’m NOT working on a trilingual index. 😀
    I just finished final editing on Wraith, book two in the novella Carriena Oracles series, so it will be out in a couple of weeks and still working on book two of my Well of Souls series. Then I’m going to concentrate on my epic fantasy!

    • Believe me, I’m also quite grateful to be done with said index.

      Nice work on the editing! Sounds like you’re just moving along on all fronts. 😀

  2. How great to be able to enjoy other aspects of writing. A coleague of mine calls her job ‘the salt mines’. All she wants to do is write fiction. You should consider yourself one of the lucky ones to see the good in what you do.

    • Oh, I definitely consider myself lucky. As I said, I’m grateful. That’s not to say I don’t sometimes wonder why I agreed to a particular job (or feel like I’m trying to quarry rocks with my head), but overall, I know I’m fortunate.

      If I were making enough money from my writing to do only that for work, I would probably maintain at least part-time work because of the ways it works my brain and gives me new plot bunnies. (Check with me on that in a few years!)

      Thanks for commenting!

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