Working Out and Writing: the Metaphorical Saga Continues

After my last post, which came off as a bit of a downer, I thought I'd try my hand at doling out some actual tools to help you a. work out or b. write more. As motivating as being told to "just do it" is, hindsight suggests there may be more tips worth mentioning, and these are those:

1. Pool Your Resources

Look around you; who else is writing? You've got at least one writer friends, right? No? Are there groups, clubs, general hangouts which you could frequent to keep this whole writing thing at the forefront of your brain? My sister is a personal trainer, so I asked (demanded) that she put together some workouts for me. I have a friend who I met on what was essentially a blind date for screenwriters and she has become my number one motivator when it comes to my writing. Find your people, get involved.


2. Create Expectations

There are expectations you have of yourself, of course, but I find that those mostly just serve to impose overpowering guilt on oneself when those expectations are not met. Being accountable to yourself exclusively does not work; you have to find a way to get other people to impose your expectations on yourself. I made that sound tricky on purpose, just for fun. It's actually insanely easy!

Use your resources, tell them what you're working on and ask them to read what you have and then give them a timeline as to when you'll have the next part done. That's it; now you have someone to hold you accountable and to encourage you on. My sister put her time and effort into making me a personalized workout plan; do you think I'm just going to piss all over that because I don't feel like doing burpees today (fair warning: you will never feel like doing burpees, they are the scourge of hell and should not be allowed to be a thing)? My friend took the time to read over my treatment and give me feedback and encourage me on, should I just be like "great, thanks a ton, I'm pretty much going to forget all about this now."

No!

3. Get You Some New Digs

Now that these people are aware of your plans to write/workout, you have to actually do those things. This is surprisingly hard, even in the face of disappointing friends and family and yourself. So go shopping! I have no scientific evidence to back this up, but buying a new workout tank increases the likelihood that you will actually workout by about 400%. About a month ago I was in a writing slump, so I went to Target and bought two Moleskin notebooks and a nice Sharpie pen and set it on my nightstand and I've been writing every day since. It just works for me. If you don't want to spend money (we can't all be wealthy nurses and social workers), make old things look new. Find an old t-shirt and cut it into a tank, pull out an old notebook you forgot about or just clean up your damn desk for once! Make it work.

4. Set A Routine

You have to know when you're going to do this stuff. You can't be all "I'm going to write at some point today," because the vagueness of that statement pretty much ensures that you won't. You have to be more concrete. "Today I'm going to write from 6pm until 9pm and then I will watch Game of Thrones as a reward." I've started scheduling my writing sessions by the week; every Sunday I program writing blocks into my calendar. I do the same with workouts; I set myself up to go on autopilot in that transition between not working out and working out, not writing and writing. "It's 6pm, time to write; the schedule says so."

Sitting in front of your blank page long enough for your friend to paint you that way is still writing.

5. Don't Go Overboard

You really don't want to go from couch to working out every single day and eating only plants and legumes in one fell swoop (or ever, if you're me). You're not going to suddenly be writing five hours a day if you're used to five hours a week; it's just not sustainable. Little by little, though, you can increase your threshold. This week I worked out three times, and that was something I had to build up to. Next week I'll bump it to four times. Writing through coffee and a muffin on my days off was my starting point. Now it's every day, in some capacity at least. You can make small changes; everyone can. And if you can't, maybe this is not what you really want.

A General Note

Maybe if we stop chanting to ourselves the mantra of how writing is so hard, or burpees are the shortest path to certain death, we may think differently about doing it. If the idea of actually writing is too overwhelming then just simplify. Don't visualize the actual act of writing, just think of sitting at your desk. Walk over and sit down. Put that computer on your lap. That's it. That's writing, or it will be very soon. Put your workout clothes on and walk into the gym or yoga studio or poll dancing class or whatever it is you've decided to get into. Don't right away start thinking about how hard it's going to be and how much you're going to sweat and grunt and burn - just walk in the doors. That's it, the rest is automatic. Muscle memory will take over; your mental faculties will kick in and words will appear at your fingertips.

If you want to be fit, workout. If you want to be a writer, write. These are fundamental principles that are guaranteed to work. There's not much more to be said about it.