This weekend, Avengers: Endgame was released in theaters. The end of an era, and yet, we know that superheroes are not likely to die out anytime soon.
But did you know something?
As a writer, you have the power of the Infinity Stones within you! The power of mighty heroes!
You’ve been imbued with the Tesseracts power. Your forehead bears the Mind Stone on its crown. Your blood courses with gamma radiation. Your hand holds a pencil, and your fingers touch the keys of which only the worthy can wield. You live to build yourself a suit of armor to wage battle against forces not of this world!
Do you feel it? The call to assemble?
Now, let’s do the courageous and creative thing! Let’s take that electricity flowing through you, and ground into the world of reality.
While this world might not necessarily be the wild and colorful world of superheroes, this is where you make your entrance. Your mind carries that wilderness, and that color. Those powers reserved for the strong and powerful are yours! It’s a matter of bringing it into the world.
… But, even superheroes can’t become powerful overnight. Everything about what they are comes from a source. Sometimes it magical, or scientific. However, most of it either comes from, or is supplemented by, years training and practice! At the gym. In the dojo. On the proving grounds!
Of course, let’s not worry about “years” of training. As truthful as this is, those words never really help us in the present. We can only worry about now.
So, why not get started?
Training to Become a Writing Superhero!
Now I get it. Most of us writer types don’t enjoy the idea of drawing parallels between writing and something like… going to the gym.
Most of us HATE going to the gym.
Who wants to waste time causing discomfort to ourselves on a regular basis? That the kind of thing crazy people do!
You’ll notice an interesting thing, however.
If you ask someone who works out regularly, you notice unique traits in their personality. They’ve built a routine around it, not simply because they have to do it, but because they seek it. They enjoy it.
Not because of how they feel before it, but how they feel during and after, knowing that they’re building themselves up through a just bit of pain and sweat.
Exercise often starts as a discouraging, uncomfortable activity. Once you get beyond the voice in your head that kicks and screams, your mind begins to see something coming out the other side of that barrier. It sees progress. It sees drive and determination. It sees movement toward a goal, and over time, you discover a new voice in your head that craves the push towards that goal. An encouraging, stern, and aggressive voice that’s reaching out saying “I have purpose. I matter. I am strong.”
So, with all of that said, I present to you a theory. A mode of thinking, if you will. Something to add to that arsenal of encouragements you’ve stock-piled for that spiritual war you’ve been waging against writers anxiety
And that is… you need to think of your creativity as a muscle.
And writing as exercise!
Just like any other muscle, it requires a number of things in order for you to shape it in a healthy way. It requires the exercise necessary to build up strength and put that muscle to the test. It needs flexibility to allow you to be agile, and capable of new ways of movement. Finally, it needs nutrition in order to burn fuel, and replenish it throughout the healing process.
A routine for writing exercise!
Establishing Your Training Routine!
In essence, the rules being a good writer follows the same as any other artistic skill, and the same as any hero in training! You need to establish a routine, and time to warm up, exercise those skills, push them further, and wind down.
Typically, you could imagine training would go a little something like this:
- Changing into your workout/training clothes.
- Perform some breathing exercises.
- Stretches to get your muscles warmed up.
- Do a regular workout. Lift something. Do some sprints. Throw Mjolnir around. Etc.
- Pivot to focus and push one area. Upper body. Legs. Cardio. Punching. Hammer-play. Lightning!
- Wind down, Rehydrate. Locker room.
If we were to see the same pattern through the lens of writing, it might look like this:
- Change into your writing mode.
- Perform some focus-oriented exercises. (Read)
- Writing prompts to get your muscle warmed up.
- Do some good ole fashion writing! Get your ideas flowing. Write up half a page. Outline your next section.
- Pivot to focus and push one area! A specific chapter. POV development. Word count. Rewriting (only once you’ve finished the first draft.)
- Wind down. Rehydrate. Read or Netflix.
If you see this example and wonder where the time for something like this comes from, well… it is either made, or it is improvised. It’s fine to just pop open your laptop and write. Days occur where you might only be doing outlining. Or you might not be doing much of anything.
What matters most that you are pushing yourself where you can. Every effort accumulates.
Three Infinity Stones of Writing
Prompts give you flexibility!
Prompts are an awesome way to get your mind into the flow of putting words on a page. It’s about taking the time to allow your brain to go wild, and discover a flow for channeling words in a more fluid manner. The greatest part is that what comes out the other end doesn’t need to be any good. These are the stretches that make the workout more natural!
Writing is your exercise!
The most prolific writers are credited with saying “Keep your butt in the chair, and write.” … And it’s true! The only way to build up your strength is to commit to it with focus and determination. Every bit of strain you feel is natural. Your brain will tell you that you can’t do it, or shouldn’t do it, or that it’s not worth it. In the end, once all of those voices have been conquered and you’ve put words to paper, you’ll be able to step away with a feeling of accomplishment, and your brain will be more aligned with the need to write more!
Reading is your warrior fuel!
Could you imagine exercising on an empty stomach? Its the same as writing without a foundation of reading underneath it. Reading shows us how the flow of words and ideas allow ourselves as observers to see the world created by the author. This is when we see how worlds and characters are described, how they think, how pace changes, how emotions are conveyed, how action or internal dialogue is represented, and everything in between. The better the nutrition, the more productive the workout!
If this all still seems like a bit on the nose, you’re not wrong. The things that heroes may not think are so glamorous about training are the same things many of us hate about writing.
And yet, we know its a necessary part of being that writing hero! It’s in our blood. Somewhere, long ago, we got a taste for what it is like to create things; stories, characters, worlds, drama, and epic levels of euphoria in that power of creation.
Getting in the zone with writing is the same force, and voice that drives everyone from artists to bodybuilders to superheroes.
STOCK IMAGE CREDITS:
brgfx and yurlik – Featured Image | Zac Durant – Sunshine Bath | Miguel Bruna – 2018 When We Come
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