My Non-Writing Strategy
It has been a week since writing here, there, or anywhere. Not just this site, but the number of emails and the attention to my book has been sparse. Normally when I take time away from work, I make it a goal to not do anything unless it’s via my phone. This reduces the impact on family time. With the latest smartphone though, I am able to do quite a bit still. Yet, I was still able to not respond to emails or put content down for the book.
Maybe my kids are rubbing off on me, but I can rattle off 23 (I just did in my head) reasons (excuses?) for this happening. It’s always to come up with these reasons, but gathering the constant energy to overcome and bust through these can be a challenge. The list of excuses grows the more I think about it, so I should just spill out the top 5 excuses for not writing over the past week:
- Family in town
- Starting a new job
- Using treadmill as a workbench to stain bookshelves
- 4 degrees outside
- 6 dozen holiday cookies to eat
There is one thing to have a full schedule and then there’s having no energy left when you do find an opening.
This morning I made a trip to the airport to drop off inlaws from their holiday visit. From there, it was to the coffee shop by the office and two hours of writing time. The goal was to do the quick tour of my normal websites and then dive into some book writing. My intention was to write the story of my first marathon experience. Once again, I was feeling it elsewhere.
I started scrolling through my book and stopped at a point about conversations with non-running friends. This triggered memories of encounters, discussions, and stories that I had to get out of my head. Recounts of fantasy football drafts and hallways conversations came flowing out. It was a good reminder of why I run. The impact and reach running can have is more then I recall. At the same time, it makes me glad that I am writing these stories down as it seems I forgot more then I remember these days. In a way, that makes me the ideal distance runner: I forgot the pain from the race.
My writing strategy is apparently a lot different then most. Just as with running, I’m not a writer by nature. It is something that has evolved over time and been refined. I don’t know what the right way is. In running the only right way is to move forward towards the finish line. Maybe the same goes true for writing.
For the process of writing a book, some authors attack a chapter at a time. They take their readers on the journey from the beginning to the final scene. The writer writes as the reader would go along, but knowing what the end will bring.
For my process of writing a book, I began with a run. I visually listed out the chapters with a short description for each. When it came time to add words to the chapters, I started one big document. It appears I like to dump all of my thoughts into one bucket, then go in and sort, separate, and organize them. This doesn’t seem to be the most efficient method, as with each running dump of words, I don’t know how I will ever be finished. Between having many memories, stories, and ideas, getting them organized is becoming the bigger challenge.
I know that I’m making progress as the chapters are starting to form. There is a looming deadline date out there and I am determined to hit it. Even though it may be an unconventional process to write a page in 3 different chapters in a morning, it’s all forward progress.
