Workout Writer: Mind to Muscle Focus (Self-Awareness)
By Kathryn Magendie | June 10, 2017 |
Klah Ankoor The Manifesto
Creative Commons
When you put your “mind to muscle” you are more effectively training your body, and your mind. To know what muscle(s) you engage is much better than mindlessly jerking around some weights. And if you are using soup cans like some magazines advise, stop it! Go buy you something that says, “I’m working out. I’m awesome! I’m so gorgeous and now I’ll be strong too!” (Suggestion for beginners: stretch bands are a gentle but effective way to start a strengthening regime—they’ll work as hard as you do).
When you push, you engage your chest and triceps. When you pull, you engage your back and biceps (picking up a bag of groceries or a child? there you go). Walking up a hill, your hamstrings (the big muscle at the back of your leg) and your glutes (that’s your bee-hind, y’all!) take on the load; when you go down that hill your quadriceps (the muscle group at the top of your thigh) say Hello There! All the while, your core muscles—those important beautiful muscles in your stomach, waist, back—are holding you up, improving your posture, giving you a long confident appearance. Have you ever stopped to notice? If you are like a lot of writers (this one included), often our minds are wandering, wondering, zippity-do-dah-daying in Other-Worlds, forgetting about the one we live in.
Pay attention to your body. Take a walk and notice the feel of your leg muscles, notice the air filling your lungs, notice the way a breeze touches your face, the sounds you hear, the very you of You, the very earth of Earth. Your body is a stunning biological machine, your brain an incredible fascinating mysterious organ, so give yourSelf some respect, my friends. Sitting down to your manuscript, you will remember those sensory details and they will enrich your writing. Trust your Personal Trainer Novelist Kathryn.
When you care about your body and what you do to it and with it and what you put inside it, the world becomes sharper, clearer—you can still tap into your angst if angst is what you need to write from, but it will arrive from a position of Clear-Headed Power. You move better, sleep better (insomnia? try exercise), have better sex (a strong body and sex?: WHUPOW!) , and, yes, write better—sounds good, doesn’t it? I’m not talking about finding a mountain where you sit in lotus position and eat nuts and seeds all day. Even a few changes will bring to you surprising results—because our bodies and minds crave our devotion. We devote to our families, friends, critters (when’s the last time you walked your dog? really? that long? dang!) work or play, writing (and that is also work and play), and often neglect care of ourselves.
Our writing lives depend on our ability to be self-disciplined. To be focused. It’s so often a self-motivating profession. That same strength and focus you give your body can be effectively used when you sit down to create. Consider your first crap-a-doodle-doo-doo draft. It’s a mess, flabby and weak. You flex that writing muscle to character development, place, tone, voice, plot (or whatever you want to call What the Story is About), gaining in strength and confidence as the story becomes healthy and pink-cheeked.
Writers often are Self-Conscious instead of Self-Aware. There is a difference, my wonderfuls. Let’s take a moment to consider the difference between self-consciousness and self-awareness: *do you see the difference yet? I’ll wait . . . .*
It is important to know that your actual body and your actual brain need your actual consideration to be actually strong and healthy, focused and alive and kickass. Shoot, if you want to be the clichéd “Tortured Writer” who drinks coffee all day and vodka all night while munching junk food and forgetting to comb your hair or move for fifty-galleven hours then falling into a restless four-hour sleep, arise, and start it all over again and dammit that works for you, then be my guest, but what if I’m right? Hmm? What if you become—gasp—healthy, by movement and self-awareness and good food! And that healthy body and mind change the course of your destiny *cue soaring music*. We will always find a way to be tortured, or tortures will be visited upon us, so why not control what we can?
Deciding—choice choice choice!—to be healthy and strong, to put your mind to your muscle, to be (self-) aware of where you are at the very moment you are in it, will make you a better writer because it makes you a better everything.
Will you make a healthy change today to better your life and your writing life? Okay, then what is your first actual action?
Author, Content Editor at Edge of Arlington, and along with Angie Ledbetter, former Publishing Editor of The Rose & Thorn online journal.
Her short stories, essays, poetry, and photography have been published in print and online publications. Her novels are available in print and ebook. TENDER GRACES, Magendie’s first novel, was an Amazon Kindle Number 1 best-seller.
She lives in the Smoky Mountains in a little log home in the Cove at Killian Knob in Maggie Valley, Western North Carolina with her wonky-toothed little dog named Bear. Trees surround her. The mountains hug around her. Critters love her. Crows follow her around the Cove. Bears stare at her through her window. One day she’ll finish another novel.
Some or all of this is true.
Kathryn, can’t tell you enough how much your message resonates with me! Especially love the muscle group breakdown as I’ve often thought of different lateral skills as muscles in analogy: writing itself (biceps), revising (triceps), reading (pec workout), leading a balanced life (core workout) and so on. I also strength train regularly and my running or waking time is as important on my schedule as writing — in fact I set an appointment on my calendar for these things to reinforce that they are nonnegotiable. Health, wellnness, proper sleep…we bring to the keyboard what we carry, and out it goes along side the bundle of creativity. I can’t tell you how often the *one* thing I was missing or that wasn’t working in my manuscript was seen after a walk, or a nap.
Love your “muscles in analogy” …! YOU GO on the healthy lifestyle!
Yup! — and I find it interesting that my dry spell of writing coincided with my slipping in to some bad health habits. Or even “not as healthy habits” — once I began to run again, work with weights, Pilates/yoga-fusion, eating better, etc etc etc – things began to fall back in place in my writing. Hmmmmm!
:)
The link between physical and mental health and good writing has always confounded me. As a journalist, I did some of my best work on deadline, mainlining coffee and junk food. Still, I might have done even better work with more sleep and a better diet. Since I changed to a healthier diet a year ago, I’ve never felt better and my fiction writing has reached a new level. And then there is the mental side. You mention the tortured artist. A few years back, Jeff Tweedy of the alternative rock band Wilco weighed in on that topic in an interview. He challenged the tortured artist theory in a 2012 interview, in which he described the concept of the tortured artist a “damaging mythology,” and one that harmed his own battles with addiction, anxiety, and depression. I tend to agree with him. Writers need to draw on painful experiences and go to dark places, but that doesn’t mean they need to intentionally mess up their lives or engage in unhealthy habits to feed their muse. Good stuff here. Healthy food for thought. Thanks, Kat!
I always believe that one needs to be able to rise above that dark to see it more clearly, then and only then can you really effectively stab to the bone of it to get to that marrow and write about it with control.
I’ve had my moments – eating crap, drinking too much, depression, anxiety, blah blah blah blah! And I grow BORED with my own pity-assed-party real quick. It’s tedious and boring to me to live negatively. Exercise and eating well and being grateful serve me well.
Kathryn–Writing can’t seriously be done on a treadmill, or while towing an infant in a rickshaw while cycling. That’s why it makes good sense to urge writers to take care of themselves. But I have to say, listening to people talk about their fitness routines makes watching grass grow seem riveting. I’m more interested in stories about obsessive/compulsive writers who are so caught up in what they’re doing that they resent having to shower or eat, let alone exercise. And I couldn’t help noticing that your biographical note describes you doing lots of things in your little log house–but makes no mention of exercise. What, briefly, is your own regimen?
I find people talking too much about anything to be like watching grass grow-and that includes their writing routines *laugh* Just say’n. Now, if it’s Neil deGrasse Tyson or one of his colleagues – he/they can talk ALLLLLL day and I will never grow bored.
Who doesn’t like a story about obsession and general all-purpose cray-cray. I’ve expressed mine enough here and on my FB page and personal blog. Dang. You don’t wanna be all up in my head.
Actually, my bio says I am a “sometimes personal trainer” – nuff said on that in a bio!
I walk – a LOT. In my Cove on my Mountain. Up steep inclines, through woods, down dark and shaded paths. I run/skip/hop/walk at our little Lake Junaluska. I punch the weighted bag (hard – and with furied RAGE!). I lift weights. I do stretches. I am one of those weirdos who loves exercise and pushing my body. I drink Green Drinks that I make myself full of kale and other crap for which people turn up their noses. And fruit/yogurt smoothies. I try not to eat a lot of processed foods but sometimes I devour junk food and ice cream and chocolate-MMM! I’m not a saint!
Every day – without fail – I move move move. And this comment is a whole nother blog post.
Just finished my breakfast of berries and Greek yogurt, whole wheat toast and–sorry–coffee. Most days I ride my bike to work. Staying healthy.
This morning I woke up at 5am in a semi-sleep. What a productive time! Some plot problems fell into place. Dots connected.
I wonder, then, if in a way a brain workout is the opposite of a physical workout. Body: work it. Brain: lull it. I find that if I am writing well, I’m also better motivated to take care of my body. Another reversal.
What do you think?
OMG! I’m not bashing coffee – lawd! Anyone who has spent time on my FB page knows my love of my morning coffee. I’m not bashing vodka either – just in moderation, at least for me.
If I didn’t have my coffee, or my ocassional treats, no – I can’t see a life like that at ALL. *grins*
My brain works against me so maybe that’s why I am so focused om my body’s health and control. Besides it makes me feel awesome!
I think what you said about “brain lulling” is apt and insightful and cool.
good for you on the Greek yogurt and berries – it’s a great combo. And keep drinking that coffee – it’s good for us, really it is! And who cares if it ain’t? Coffee – not continual pot after pot of it however – is AWESOME.
Great post, Kathryn. Two of the things closet to my soul are good health and writing. Though never athletic, I could take my body outside and walk, and sometimes with headphones and sometimes with the birds to cheer me that’s what I’ve done. (I recently climbing Sentinel Dome in Yosemite, through snow–a highlight.) But that adventure did not afford me what regular walking often does–the spark for images, ideas, even conversations that my characters might have. It’s creativity on two levels as my heart rate increases and my lungs enjoy a workout–because my brain does too. And of course, they are connected! When eating watch the sugar–but dark chocolate is a must.
I envy your Yosemite adventure! And in the snow – dang!
Sleep and walking are two areas that bring me creative PONK! Walking brings the idea and sleep works things out. Simply said of course!
Pass the dark chocolate but can I have some caramel to go with it – my biggest struggle: sugar! But I do watch that pretty well.
As promised, my over-active, obsessive, compulsive brain over-worked and thought and pondered my post and it wasn’t until this morning – while walking Lil Bear at the beautiful Lake Junaluska (exercise helps me think) – that it hit me:
In my post the words Power, Healthy, Strong, Self-Aware, Kickass, Paying Attention, Choice, Respect, etc, are there and apparent and real.
Nowhere in my post are the words or the implication of: lose weight, overweight, weight, skinny/thin, or of self-denial of the gooey good things in life (food drink fun). Because, my friends, that’s not what my message is or was or ever will be.
Now I feel better. My highly intelligent but extremely over-active chaotic THINKS WAY TOO MUCH brain (and of course nowhere in my update was the word: Perfection/perfect), can Let This One Go. *strides off, head held high, on her powerfully strong thighs*