BUILDING WRITING STAMINA<\/p>\n
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More than a half, maybe as much as\u00a0two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn’t say I have a talent\u00a0that’s special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – – – John Irving<\/p>\n
When I decided to tackle my\u00a0first book, I\u2019d written a number of stories and articles. They were like a\u00a0sprint. But penning an entire book with a theme, characters, story arcs, one\u00a0chapter flowing into the next and ending up somewhere that made sense, was a
marathon. I had no idea if I could do it. Could I keep it interesting? Could I write\u00a0decent dialogue? Did I have the stamina to get through it?<\/p>\n
My inner critic had a field day.\u00a0\u201cWhat do you know about book writing? You can’t possibly write a whole book. You\u2019re\u00a0gonna stop on the middle so quit now before you waste your time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know anything about writing\u00a0a book, that part was true, but I knew all about stamina. I\u2019d been an athlete,\u00a0a professional ballet dancer who was trained to push through exhaustion,\u00a0blisters and sore muscles with a smile on my face. Dancing is a physical
challenge as you work all day long, training, rehearsing and performing.\u00a0Writing is a mental and emotional challenge but at least when I\u2019m writing, I can pace myself according to my own rhythms. I can take a break when I want to, I can\u00a0rest when I\u2019m tired and I can eat when I\u2019m hungry.<\/p>\n
No two writers work at the same\u00a0pace. I have a friend who creates entire books over three weeks of long days\u00a0and sleepless nights. She starts when her deadline is shockingly close and when\u00a0she\u2019s finished, she\u2019s completely wiped out. I could never do that. It would all\u00a0be diminishing returns. My habit is to sit down in the morning, write for four\u00a0or five hours and then I do the rest of my life. I could probably write for\u00a0longer periods of time but I intend to keep writing and I need to avoid burnout.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Stephen King\u2019s novel, Misery, a demented fan traps a writer in her home, breaks his legs, and forces him to pen another book in his series. He\u2019s being forced to write but that isn’t happening to you. You\u2019re not a victim. Nobody is holding a gun to your head. You\u2019re doing it because you want to. During the process, fear and doubt have a way of overpowering desire until you get a firm handle on them. There have been times in my career that I\u2019ve chastised myself with such harsh criticism and judgments, it\u2019s a miracle I survived my own thrashings. But I kept on writing and after a period of time (it felt like forever), I held my first book in my hands. I felt proud of it and I\u2019d built up the stamina to face the next project with less fear and more resolve.<\/p>\n
My students often ask me, \u201cHow\u00a0do I get myself to write? I think about it all the time, but something else\u00a0always comes up and I put it off.\u201d They\u2019re hoping for a magic bullet so when I tell\u00a0then that they need to schedule their writing sessions and simply show up at\u00a0the designated time and stay there, they feel disappointed. I understand, but\u00a0there\u2019s no way around it. You have to show up at the computer like you would\u00a0for any other appointment and that\u2019s how you build writing endurance.<\/p>\n
If you doubt you have what it\u00a0takes to finish a book, if it seems like an undoable task, think about what\u00a0you\u2019ve already accomplished in your life. Maybe you worked your ass off in\u00a0college, doing endless research and pulling all-nighters when finals were\u00a0coming. Do you have kids and a spouse who run you around every morning, no
matter how well or badly you slept? Or no spouse, so it\u2019s all on you? Maybe you\u00a0built a business from scratch and learned to think on your feet. Or maybe you\u00a0spent years caring for a sick relative or friend. All of these things take\u00a0stamina and lots of it. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Staying focused for a long\u00a0period of time requires a generous dose of discipline that eventually turns\u00a0into consistency, if you keep at it long enough. I see \u201cdiscipline\u201d as a hard\u00a0word, suggesting a rigid structure that you take on with unswerving fortitude,\u00a0staying on track when the going gets rough and never veering off the path. It
speaks of impeccable focus, not allowing yourself to stop until you reach each\u00a0short term goal no matter how you feel or what arises to try and get in your\u00a0way. I recall mornings during my ballet training when my mind tried to seduce\u00a0me into skipping a class or a practice . . . just for today. The internal debate, \u201cshould I or shouldn\u2019t I, will I
or won\u2019t I,\u201d was a constant, annoying voice yakking in my head as I showed up\u00a0for classes and rehearsals each day, committed to my career, dedicated to the\u00a0training that was required. I got myself to the ballet barre every morning, ignored my internal whining and protests, and kept my eyes on the prize.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when \u201cconsistency\u201d kicked\u00a0in. It\u2019s a softer word that suggests a way of\u00a0transcending the internal battle altogether. In my experience, if you keep at\u00a0it, discipline will flow into consistency as a natural progression. We all\u00a0crave ease and surrender when we write, but you can\u2019t get there until you walk\u00a0the rocky path leading up to it. After my ballet training had become part of my\u00a0bones, the debate ended and a gentle flow took its place. I no longer had to
drown out the inner struggle because there was no struggle. I got up and went to class. My staying power improved and I embraced my training with no punishing debates or unnecessary pressure.<\/p>\n
Novelist Leon Uris said that in order to\u00a0become a decent writer, you have to learn to close off the loves and hates that\u00a0can overwhelm you and wilt your tenacity. He suggests you build enough stamina
to be with your writing 100%. \u201cThat\u2019s the bloody price,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
If you can dissolve the thoughts\u00a0that are interfering with your writing, if you can place your full attention on\u00a0your work and keep coming back, you will build the stamina it takes to write a\u00a0book over an extended period of time. If you\u2019re solid and focused, that\u2019s\u00a0great. If you’re not, just stay with it and you\u2019ll be surprised at how good it
feels to finish one chapter and dream up the next one. And the one after that.<\/p>\n
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BUILDING WRITING STAMINA \u00a0 More than a half, maybe as much as\u00a0two-thirds of my life as a writer is rewriting. I wouldn’t say I have a talent\u00a0that’s special. It strikes me that I have an unusual kind of stamina. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 – – – John Irving When I decided to tackle my\u00a0first book, I\u2019d written a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2235,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2234\/revisions\/2235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}