Run Like Your Novel Depends On It
When having your butt in the chair isn’t working, try moving it instead.
Author Steven Pressfield is one of my favorite no-nonsense resources for writing encouragement and support. Steve’s like a merciless middle school gym teacher fluent in the language of woo. His bite-sized pieces of advice always leave me feeling like I’m on the hook for my own destiny without the need for self-flagellation.
Here’s one of my favorite of Steve’s philosophies as I work on my first novel:
“Put your ass where your heart wants to be.”
You want to be a novelist? Simple. Plant your bottom firmly in front of your preferred writing device and get to work. Write the novel. One word after the next. As Steve says in this blog post, “[t]hat’s the trick, there’s nothing more to it.”
But what if something’s wrong with your heart?
I’m not talking about something requiring the care of a cardiologist. I’m talking about those times when you’re showing up every day, but your words fall flat. You’re uninspired. You hate your novel. The story is all wrong. You feel like telling your characters to f*ck off with their miniscule, made up problems.
You’ve been at it every day, but you feel like you’re no further ahead than you were yesterday, last week, last month, ohdeargod, last year.
It hurts. You can feel the disappointment accumulating in your chest, squeezing the life out of you. It’s really hard to breathe. Something is wrong with your heart. No, like, seriously, somebody call 9–1–1.
If you’re a fledgling writer like me, determined to finish your novel no matter what, you don’t dial 9–1–1. You ignore your maybe heart attack, and once the panic subsides, you return to the page, butt-in-chair admonishments racing through your head.
You tell yourself this is the only way to move forward. Butt in damn chair, doing the damn thing.
No, seriously. There’s something wrong with your heart.
I’m guilty of this always, but with the end of another year of writing staring me in the face asking hey, honey, whatta you got to show for it, my butt-in-chair-write-or-die mania has been more intense than usual. I’ve taken up beating myself up every moment I’m not writing. My right eye has taken up twitching.
It’s December. Holiday festivities and interruptions to routines abound. As do other people’s end-of-year-look-at-everything-I-accomplished social media posts that can leave you feeling like all of your hard work got you diddly squat. If ever there were a time to give ourselves a break, it would be now.
But we can’t. Our hearts hurt. Progress is slow, but it’s the only cure. And there’s only one way to make progress. So we put our butts in the chairs, wishing, hoping, praying that the work, the process, the simple act of writing itself will eventually set us straight.
Yeah, still not working? Maybe we should look into that heart problem.
Set your heart free.
Prayer. Mediation. Journaling. Repeating mantras of self-love and acceptance while staring at yourself in the mirror. All of these activities have been found to have a positive impact on a person’s emotional well-being. In other words, these things will help your heart.
I’ve dabbled in most of them, but mostly I do the thing that works best for me.
I run.
“When the legs go fast, the heart goes free.”
— Oiselle
Running has been the only thing that has continued to stoke my creative fire and keep me sane while I try to slay the beast that is my first novel. Before it got cold here in Pennsylvania, I’d go outside for a run and come back with full scenes outlined in my head. With my heart still pounding, I’d type pages of notes at the kitchen table. My laptop would be slick with sweat by the time I was done. I’d be breathless with new prose, dialogue, plot devices.
I never get this type of inspiration when my ass is where my heart wants to be. I do all my best writing when I’m not writing, computer or notebook far, far out of reach.
Maybe you’re the same? Maybe you need to set your heart free by making your legs go. Maybe you’ve figured out that the only way you can tap into your subconscious is to focus on moving your body. Preferably fast.
But maybe you had a shitty few weeks. Maybe you failed NaNoWriMo, which left you feeling depressed. Or you had a November full of sinus pressure and sleepless nights. Maybe you were out of town for Thanksgiving and all of your favorite running socks were dirty.
But then you came home, you did the laundry and finally went to the pharmacy to get some cold medicine. You rolled into mid-December with a bit more energy and the positive intention of getting back on the wagon. So you got out of bed early or stayed up late, butt-in-chair style, trying to stranglehold yourself back into your good writing habits.
Maybe you thought you were making the right choice by putting your ass where your heart wants to be. Day after painful day.
Maybe you forgot you do all your best writing when you’re running.
It’s okay. I did, too.
You can fix this.
(1) Put on shoes. (2) Get heart right. (3) Put ass back in place.
Repeat.
And with all of those butt-in-chair demons begging for your attention, don’t forget that, for you, there is more to it.
Don’t forget the first two steps.