I’ve heard it said before, that some people have a way with
words. And maybe that’s true, or at
least to a certain extent. But I think
more often, at least in my experience, it is rather the case that words will
have their way with you.
You see, I can’t really just sit down and make these words
come out on the page. It doesn’t always
work. The words have to be there. They have to come. And then I can only hope I’ll be in a place
and state of mind where I can record them on the page.
See like right now.
This sounds forced, or at least it feels forced. The words have stayed away for quite some
time now, and time too has been playing tricks with my mind. This isn’t working.
At least it hasn’t seemed to have been for the last few
weeks. It didn’t seem to when I tried to
sit down and write this past Sunday afternoon (when the above words eeked out
past my writing guards). So I closed the
computer and hoped for words to come again.
And last night I opened my computer again, and the words didn’t want to come,
and I almost closed my computer again (if the words didn’t want to come easily,
then maybe I would just shut the door on them altogether so that they couldn’t
come out at all…it’s silly but that’s where I’ve been at.)
Anyway, I ultimately ended up sitting for a while with my
computer open, my fingers poised over the keys, sometimes moving to and fro in
a rhythmic, even dance, other times pausing, stopping, stuttering,
backtracking, tripping over the keys in an awkward cha-cha.
But I made myself sit with it for a while, because, well…
Because writing is
kind of like running. And time is kind
of like laundry.
Because they are. And
this is what came of those midnight strokes (and some next day midnight editing…).
Here’s why writing is
kind of like running. And time is kind
of like laundry.
If you want to be a better runner, what do you have to do?
You have to run. Even if it’s slow, even
if it’s painful, even if it’s raining, even if you’re busy, even if it
sucks—lace up those Nikes (or Asics or New Balances or whatever) and just do it (pun very much intended).
Similarly, if you want to be a better writer, what do you
have to do? You have to write. Even when you have the worst case of writer’s
block (the shin splints of the writing world—but no really, if you actually
have shin splints, don’t try to run through them, unlike writing, you’ll suffer
more with trying to power through shin splints than trying to force the pen
across the page…), even when you lack all motivation and have no ideas and no
time (or at least try to convince yourself that these are actually valid
excuses), even when it sucks—pick up the pen, hunker down, and just do it (okay, that time the pun doesn’t
work quite so well; I tried to make it fluid, I promise—I sat for a good 127
seconds thinking and racking my brain and trying different sentences on for
size…but, alas…it just wasn’t going to work—it didn’t quite fit, and you know,
you should never try to run with shoes that don’t fit, you should never try to
squeeze in a sentence that doesn’t quite “fit”…).
Now, it’s true that good writers don’t just write. They also read. And they read a lot. This helps with acquiring and fine-tuning
one’s technique, finding one’s own voice, widening one’s perspective, gaining ideas/knowledge,
and all that jazz…
Sooooo, essentially: Cross-training.
If you’re a runner, you definitely have to run, and that is,
indeed, your primary focus. But I can’t
tell you how many times I’ve come across the importance of cross-training in my
reading/research about running in just the past few months. Cross-training changes your perspective, adds
some variety to your routine, gives you a change of scenery, targets and makes
muscles stronger that will help you run faster, more efficiently, what have
you… and all that jazz…
See, you can’t just write, you have to cross-train, too.
Piggybacking on that idea, if you want to get better at your
craft (whatever that craft may be—running, writing, cooking, painting,
doctoring, lawyering, figure skating, take your pic…), look to the experts for
help and advice. You can learn a lot
about running by reading what experts have written about running or just by talking
to other runners. And, too, you can
learn a lot about writing by reading what great writers have written, sure, but
also by reading what they’ve written about writing itself and the writing
process.
Moreover, having a training plan is pretty key if you have
an end goal for running that you’re working towards (i.e. 5k, (half-) marathon,
etc.). But it’s not just for official races
that you need a routine/training plan.
If you want to get better, stronger, faster, you have to keep working at
it daily (maybe not running every day, persay, but doing something for running
that helps you with your running game, each and every day).
On the same side of a different coin, if you want to write a
book, you probably have deadlines you’ll need to meet and a schedule/routine
you’ll want to follow to help meet that deadline and writing stamina and gradually
build up to it. But even if you’re not
trying to write the next great American (or Greek) novel, if you want to be a
writer you have to actually write, and if you want to improve your writing, you
have to write more and more, dig deeper, push your limits, push yourself.
And as with running, you can’t stay stagnant with the same
routine week to week. You have to ramp
up your mileage, increase your weight/resistance, push yourself past your
limits. You’ll never get stronger if you
don’t. Of course, you have to be smart
about it and not overdo it. Bananas are
amazing and they go a long way in helping/preventing cramps while/after
running, but I don’t know how much help they’ll be for writer’s cramp… And of
course, being smart about how/how much you run/write is where a solid
training/writing plan comes in to play…
A few more points of comparisons.
Running is an individual sport—no one else can get out and
run for you (as nice as that would be some days). Writing is often also seen as a rather
solitary endeavor. If you start relying
too much on others in your writing you start running into the dangerous and
fine line of plagiarism.
That being said, with running or writing, you can’t always go it alone. Find a community. It helps.
So, so much. The miles I run with
friends feel so much easier and more enjoyable than the miles I run plugged
into my phone. And, I’ve found, my pace
and motivation improve significantly with a buddy J Same with writing. Having someone to read your writing or talk with
about your writing or even just to process things with outside of and/or in
conjunction with on the page—it just helps.
And, too, while some might be more athletically inclined, or
those to whom writing may just come a touch more naturally, no one is born
destined to either write or not write, run or not run. It’s not decided that you must be a runner or
that you will never be a writer. Even
the most athletic runner still has to train, still has to work hard, still has
to run to be a runner. Even John
Steinbeck had to sharpen his pencil a time or two: he didn’t just sit down one
day and crank out The Grapes of Wrath
out of thin air.
If you want to be a writer, start writing. If you want to be a runner, start
running. Be smart about it, seek out
help, practice, stick with it. Just do it.
And on the days you can’t seem to muster up the motivation to do it, just go
and do it anyway. Nobody has to know
your pace for that run—all that matters is that you went. Whether it was an hour or 10 minutes, 12
miles or 2. That’s still more than you
would have done had you left your sneakers in the corner and your feet curled
up under your blanket. What matters is that you went. Because you are a runner.
When you can’t find the right words, when there’s too much to write about so
you just don’t write about any of it, when writer’s block becomes a very real
thing, when you “don’t have time” (you do, you’re just choosing not to use it
for writing right now), when you haven’t written a blog post in 3 weeks
(*cough, cough…), when you’re staring at a blank page and that blinking cursor,
when you’re staring at a page partially filled with words that feel forced and
that same cursor still blinking, you still have to write. Because you are a writer.
So that’s part of where I’m at right now. A runner focusing on becoming a runner and a
writer struggling to write. The other
part of where I’m at has to do with time and underwear (but only a tiny bit
about underwear and really only for the sake of analogy)…
Last night I did laundry (well, it was two nights ago now,
though there are still shorts and shirts hanging on the drying rack in the
corner of my room, so…). Anyway, I
thought that I had just done laundry last week, but judging by the state of my
clean underwear supply, it had been closer to two, and I was due for another bout
with the good, ol’ Celsius-sporting, longest-cycles-ever, water-leaking washer
and dryer. Luckily no one else was vying
for a dance with these two dashing devils in white, so I slipped in for a spin
(cycle) and a whirl and voila! now I have clean underwear again.
It’s funny. Each day,
you reach into your underwear drawer (or box, as the current state of my closet
and storage affairs stands) and you grab a fresh pair, not really thinking much
about what number that is, how many pairs are left, the passing of time,
whatever. But then all of a sudden you
look and there’s maybe one or two pairs left (if you’re lucky) and you realize
that your underwear stash has officially dwindled and that time has actually
passed.
And that’s the kicker. Time passing. Because in the midst of the day, the week,
the month, the school year—it can feel so absolutely, utterly, and incredibly long. You take each day as it comes, a new pair of
underwear, a new pair of socks, that favorite shirt (again…) until all of a
sudden you’ve accumulated all of these days under your belt (and all these
wrinkled clothes in your laundry hamper).
And you realize how much time has passed. And you wonder where it went. And you do laundry.
I seriously thought only one week had passed in the span of
two. Earlier this week I was emailing
someone and mentioned my last blog post, thinking it’d been just a week since
I’d last written. But no. It had been two. And now it’s been three.
And we’ve been in Greece for 7 weeks.
Just let that sink in.
And then at the end of those two weeks, after the laundry has
piled up, where do you start? how do you begin to tackle the mound—each t-shirt,
mismatched sock, and pair of shorts bearing wrinkled testament to a day, an
adaventure, the moments lived in them…And where do you start? Darks? Lights?
Towels? Sheets? It can be truly daunting. And the longer you wait, the higher the mound
of laundry grows, and you can try but it’s hard to keep pushing the shirt
sleeves and pant legs and crumpled socks back in the drawer and under the rug,
so to speak.
Now, I’m not just talking about laundry here. See, I’ve been writing during these last few
weeks, but I haven’t been writing here.
And so these moments lived, these potential blog posts sprouting in my
head, they’ve just been piling up in the laundry hamper of my mind. And now I don’t really know where to
start.
But you have to start.
Just write, right? Get out and
run. Just do it.
If nothing else, that last, lone pair of clean underwear can
be pretty persuasive in getting your butt into gear and get started in the
sorting then washing then drying process.
(putting the clothes away is another story… ask me again in another week…).
I’ve been letting the business of life, my tiredness from
working and running, distractions like movies and eating and sleep, and a
perceived lack of motivation/sheer dauntedness at trying to tackle the mound of
my writing laundry—I’ve been letting all of these distractions and excuses keep
me from writing. I’ve told myself time
and again this past week that I don’t have time (I do have time, I have 24
hours in a day, I’ve just been using them for things besides writing). I’ve let this “lack of time” and “lack of
motivation” stand as excuses for not writing.
And they almost won out again tonight. (and again on the night after, when
I’m trying to edit this post…).
But I’m a runner and so I went out and ran 12 miles today
(well, I ran/jogged 11 and walked 1 as a cool down, in part because of a short
situation that resulted from my doing laundry last night, but that’s another
story…and, well, I guess now it was yesterday I went out and ran, but anyway—details,
details you could get lost…).
And I’m a writer, too.
So I sat down and I wrote tonight.
And I wrote about running and writing and underwear because that’s what
I know and that’s where I found meaning and that’s where the words decided they
would go.
I’ll do my darnedest, but chances are good that there will
come a time when I run low on undergarments and have to scramble to do
laundry. I’ll renew my writing efforts
in earnest, but there are bound to be lulls.
When they hit, try to keep running/writing/laundering.
Because time is
weird. So run, write, live every moment
you have…
And finally, since time is weird and three weeks have passed
and I have a bunch of clothes that need to dry (and an inefficient dryer that
takes three hours to turn clothes from sopping wet to merely damp), let’s hang
these moments out to dry: snapshots of the last three weeks in Greece…
~*~
Sunrises help make the morning walks down to the busses a
little bit nicer.
~*~
One of the classes did reports on the new teaching fellows for a big bulletin board.
~*~
Had a blast with some friends dancing through the streets of downtown Athens with some boombox-sporting bananas at the Decentralized Dance Party.
Definitely something to experience--at least once in your life...
~*~
I ran a bunch. Did almost 20 miles, the peak point of my training program, tapering down now before the big day in 3 weeks!
~*~
Tried a bunch of new recipes and baked a bunch with a friend—including this smiley zucchini cornbread.
And a greek salad or two (or twenty...)....
~*~
Walked to “The Mall” in Athens. Took a detour through the grounds of the 2004 Olympic complex. Saw some Olympic swimmers (well, some swimmers swimming an Olympic pool, same difference right?)
~*~
And so much more. Every day there is something new to explore, learn, discover, experience, try, process, eat, share, enjoy. Just trying to make the most of each and every moment of this adventure of a lifetime.
Now, to keep running. And writing… (and of course keeping up with the occasional load of laundry). :)
