In my spare time I’ve been training for a triathlon. Given my asthma, the sympathy weight I gained (and never lost) while my wife was pregnant, and years and years of moderate drinking and light smoking (don’t tell my HMO!), this isn’t exactly something I’m a natural at.
All the books, however, tell me that all I have to do is practice. Run twice a week, bike twice a week, and swim twice a week, going a tad bit further every week; and eventually you’ll be good enough to swim a mile, bike 24, and run 6 in somewhere reasonably close to 3 hours.
Well, I’ve been doing this now for about 2 1/2 months, and despite my skepticism about experts, it actually works. I’m in good shape, and was able to run my first sprint triathlon (1/2 the distance of a full tri) in a decent time.
It reminds me a lot of what it was like 10 years ago, before I’d written my first novel. I wanted to be a writer and I wanted to write novels, but I didn’t know how to do it. I read Stephen King’s book, On Writing, and kind of pooh-poohed his suggestion that if you write at least 1,000 words a day, even if you have no idea what to write about, you’ll get used to the rhythms of writing. Eventually, when the little angel lands on your shoulder and hands you a plot, you’ll know how to exploit it.
Years later, I tried out the Stephen King method (I should point out that Stephen King is neither the only nor the first author to suggest writing to a page count… rumor has it that Ernest Hemingway would actually end each day mid-sentence), and it turned out to be the only way I could churn out World Leader Pretend.
All of this was just a long lead in to get you to take a look at a former writing instructor’s wonderful blog, Michelle’s Daily Dose for Writers & Readers. Michelle suggests a writing exercise a few times a week on the blog, so if you run out of things to write about, take a tip from her.