I’m sure we’ve all heard it. Stretching is good for you. If we believe the exercise gurus it improves our flexibility. It improves muscle balance around a joint thus improving posture. It reduces the chance of injury. It increases the blood and nutrient supply to muscles and cartilage, thereby reducing muscle soreness after a workout. 

I’m sure it’s all true. It just requires a lot of effort. Of course, so does exercise which is why it often ends up on the bottom of the to-do list. (Way at the bottom.)

Making myself write something beyond my comfort level is a form of creative stretching. I expect it is good for me but not always high on my fun list.

I’ve been stretching a lot these past days. (Creatively, not physically.) I have the privilege of being asked to write an editor-driven continuity. For those of you who don’t know, that means the editors plan a series of books, in this case 6 contemporaries, and 3 historicals. They develop the basic story idea for each book then assign them. This series is about a fictional town in Alaska built during the Klondike gold rush. The book I have been assigned is about a native woman familiar with natural healing and a doctor interested only in science.

Like I say, it’s been a stretching experience. I’ve researched the Klondike gold rush (at least I was somewhat familiar with that.), the Tlingit Indians, the gateway cities of the gold rush, medicinal plants of Alaska, medical practices of the 1800s, and on and on.

I guess it’s good for me. Or is it? Look at this video of a man doing some stretches and decide for yourself.  (here’s the link in case the clip doesn’t work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS8GNWensHc&NR=1)

By the way, watch for the upcoming series Treasure Creek. The contemporaries come out later in 2010 and the historicals in early 2011.