Your Writing Training Schedule (Michelle Intro) (10/26/2019)

Your Writing Training Schedule | The Weekly Atticus

October 26, 2019

This letter is a recap of the week at

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I’m running a half marathon this weekend that I’ve run a number of years now and always look forward to, but my last two longer training runs haven’t gone so well. I’ve felt more sluggish than usual, despite all the high intensity interval training that is supposedly making me faster and stronger. I was starting to feel discouraged by this, wondering if race day will be like this, too. If so, would I end up walking part of this race? (I have never ever walked part of a half marathon. The last few miles of marathons, yes, but not half marathons.) Writers probably recognize this kind of thinking. A couple of sluggish writing sessions can feel far more discouraging than rational thought should allow. It’s tempting to diagnose, as though subpar writing is a sign of dysfunction rather than simply what it is, a normal part of the process of writing. If I’m training regularly, whether we’re talking writing or running, the ratio of “bad” days to “good” days is lower than it is if I’m not training regularly, but always there are bad days. Sometimes bad days happen when I least expect them. Maybe I’ve been formulating a solution to a story problem I’m having and I’m so excited about this solution, I can’t wait to sit down and write it, but then I do and I realize my solution is woefully inadequate. But also, good days happen when I least expect them. Sometimes a random line scrawled on a sticky note blooms into a complete flash fiction in a matter of hours. Sometimes I sit at my computer at night after my kid goes to bed thinking I’m just going to pay my utility bills, and I end up finishing a story that I had put aside for months. Recently I read Huraki Murakami’s book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, and one thought of his that strongly resonated with me is this: …pain seems to be a precondition for this kind of sport. If pain weren’t involved, who in the world would ever go to the trouble of taking part in sports like the triathlon or the marathon, which demand such an investment of time and energy? It’s precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome the pain, that we can get the feeling, through this process, of really being alive—or at least a partial sense of it.Murakami’s point about pain seems applicable to writing, too. A great part of the satisfaction of writing is contingent on the difficulty and pain of writing. If there were never pain, writing would always be easy. If writing were always easy, if there were no challenges to overcome, why bother? Writing well wouldn’t feel like any accomplishment; it wouldn’t invigorate. In other words, without all the bad days, there wouldn’t really be any good days. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I don’t love writing or don’t find it joyful. I’m not saying writing is or should be agonizing. When other writers talk about writing as though it’s pure torture, I’m confused. Why the heck do they write? I wonder. Why not do something else? Here’s some more lines from Murakami’s memoir: Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself. … I think I’ve been able to run for more than twenty years for a simple reason: It suits me … Human beings naturally continue doing things they like, and they don’t continue what they don’t like.I think that distinction between pain and suffering is important—to avoid suffering, you have to like the thing that challenges you; it has to suit you somehow. Maybe come race day tomorrow, I’ll feel more energetic than I did on my last two long runs; or maybe I won’t. Either way, I’ll push through the pain and run because I like running; it suits me. I’ve been doing it as long as I’ve been writing.Thanks for reading. We’re glad you’re here. PS: I can't wait to read all your Flash for our contest. You only have until next weekend to submit.What are you waiting for?Michelle RossFiction Editor 

 

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THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

BOOK REVIEWFINDING A MOTHER TONGUEA Review of AFAKASI | HALF CASTE by Hali Sofala-JonesReview by Maximilian Heinegg  "The image of a child wanting to erase herself, literally, is poignant and terrible. Her response, like many people who are bullied, was not to lash out, but to turn on herself."GET THE BOOKREAD THE REVIEW

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POETRYHOW TO EXPLAIN THE BREAKUP TO YOUR OVERBEARING MOTHERby Mia Herman"That’s what loving him was like,Mama. Tell me you knowwhat that’s like."READ ON

CREATIVE NONFICTION2013by Tom McAllister"Home ownership demands the endless discussion of banalities, because it’s the leaky pipe, not Mothra or King Kong, that will destroy your home."READ ON

MIXED MEDIADARK PLACEA videopoem collaboration by Stevie Ronnie and Lucy English"Stevie’s use of animation brings this poem to life as the vibrant color becomes covered in black."This poem from the collection Book of Hours from Burning Eye Books.READ ON

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