5.1 Walk and talk
When you’re sitting frozen in front of the keyboard and you’re stuck, get up and get in motion.
When I’m slipping into the doldrums, I grab my digital recorder and jump up and walk around my apartment, talking to myself, talking to my readers, talking to the world, talking to the air, whatever. Being in motion generates emotion. It breaks the spell of stuckness.
In fact, don’t wait till you’re shutting, give this a try as a part of your writing routine to see if it works for you.
I do a twenty–minute zone two walk first thing every morning. I take my recorder and talk into it as I’m walking down the street, past the library, along the lake with all the different birds, passing all kinds of different characters on the path in the park.
All of these sights and sounds and happenings, are not distractions. They take me deeper into myself. And this precious time wakes up my writing impulses and gets them playing, not working, but playing.
Same thing in the evening. I do a twenty–minute zone three walk with intervals. I talk into my recorder even while I’m huffing and puffing.
My walks are almost always productive time. Some of my best ideas come when I’m in motion.
You know that writing advice, “Get your butt in the seat!” Sometimes that’s useful. But I also like the advice, “Get your butt out of the seat!”
