Writing is a lot like running

Since I’m trying to get myself geared back up to doing some creative writing, I’ve been spending some brain time trying to figure out what sort of goals to set for myself.

I’d love to say I’m planning on writing a novel over the next 30 days, or that I’m going to write 5 short stories this week, but that would be a lie.

A huge lie.

I’ve been writing regularly since around October/November of last year over on Medium, but not fiction writing.

I know words are words, but that’s like saying that walking is the same as running.

Sure, both will get you from point A to point B, but they require different skills.

Which reminded me of something I’ve been working on - learning how to run.

See, walking is something we learn how to do super early in life.

Once you know how to do it, you are pretty much set - outside of injury creating a situation requiring you to retrain your body (and probably other situations too, but just roll with me here).

Running, on the other hand, is different.

One does not simply go from sitting on the couch regularly to running a marathon. There are steps involved.

One method for improving your ability to run (and in turn things like speed, stamina, and endurance) is interval training.

You start by maintaining a steady walking pace to warm up, and then begin something like a 30 second “running speed” interval. You run for the allotted time, and then you cool down for a minute or two.

Repeat as needed given the duration of your workout, and by the time you are finished, you’ve likely ran more and perhaps faster than you realized you were capable of.

What I know about my fiction writing fitness level is that I am still in the “couch sitting” phase.

I can write words and put sentences together with no trouble at all (my “walking” writing muscles), but I have to be realistic about my expectations.

I absolutely intend to write a novel and complete some short stories, but I’ve got to put in the reps first and build up my writing muscles.

I was going to share my writing goals for this week, but I think I need to focus on just putting in some reps first.

Since I’m restarting this creative writing habit, I’m committing to writing one page a day for this upcoming week.

I have a notebook that I will write in for this week, and I’ll report back on my results next week (and probably during the week on Notes, if you are so inclined to follow along).