How Do You Maintain The Writerly Temple?

/ March 4, 2016

body templeEveryone knows we feel better overall if we eat healthy foods and exercise. Or as Chuck Wendig said somewhere, we would do well to treat ourselves better than we would treat a bathroom at Wendy’s.

Turns out there’s a reason for that advice.

I’ve been admittedly lazy the past several months. For a little while I was making donations to the gym rather than utilizing my membership, and the only exercise I got was the short walk to and from school to drop off/pick up my kids. I’d go to a class here and there, but nothing regular like I once did, when…let me just say I liked what I had going on. I wish I had a better reason for the break than “I don’t wanna.”

My most recent hiatus ended after a particularly crappy crappy weekend. I wasn’t feeling good about myself, and I thought maybe a trip to the gym was in order. The morning I considered this, a message from a friend was waiting for me on my phone – go work out! You’ll feel better. Because endorphins. Since I was already thinking of going, I took the message as a sign.

photo (6)

I figure the fact that my manicure needs retouched is offset by the kickass weighted glove.

Know what? It worked. I went to an hour-long weight class, and since I hadn’t been in a while I was sore for the next couple of days, but the next week, after a few more classes (I like weights and a MMA class), I was hardly sore at all. And my mood improved. And my writing picked up. I started eating better. After the MMA class today, I was asking myself why I stopped, because I love it.

Side note: if you ever want to feel like a badass, learn how to roundhouse kick someone in the head, especially if they’re significantly taller than you.

So I thought, since many of us here are writers (though non-writers are certainly welcome to play), we could share what we do to keep from turning into a pile of unwashed writer mush. It doesn’t have to just be about exercise – think nutrition, socialization, or other creative outlets (like I goof around on the piano occasionally). Let’s hear what you’ve got in the comment section. 

Alternately, if you don’t leave your house or…you know, move, maybe you’ll get some ideas here. Maintaining the temple = more productive writer.

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20 thoughts on “How Do You Maintain The Writerly Temple?”

  1. It’s hard for me to share my own piece of advice as I think I have recently turned into an unwashed writer mush. That’s despite working out regularly and striving to eat healthy and going for walks and, as of recently, moving to Paris… I think it’s time for a self-pep talk!

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  2. Count me in as another fan of the long walk. I try to do one every morning. I find that I’m more likely to get out the door if I think of it not as exercise, but as, “Oh good, I get to go walk around in the fresh air and just *think* about my story/chapter for an hour with no distractions, won’t that be fun!”

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      • Thanks — your blog looks great!

        I’ve been away from the Midwest long enough to forget that other people have to wait until spring. I figure that here in CA, I’m already paying for the perfect weather, I might as well go out and *use* it. It’s not just the lack of distractions, though. It’s forcing myself to think through the whole thing before I start writing anything down. That way I don’t start typing and end up feeling committed to those words before I have a better idea where the chapter or story has to go.

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  4. Creative writers need some sort bodily of exercise to keep themselves fit. It will also help us to write better and relieves us from stress. I am glad that your writing picked up after the workout in the Gym.

    I walk for an hour every morning in the stadium. The best part of the place is, it has lots of neem trees surrounding it and across the trail. Enough morning fresh air. I feel energetic throughout the day without back pain so that I can work on my craft and play with my two lovely daughters.

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  7. I turn to other forms of creativity when the words won’t come… Doodling/drawing/painting… pic monkey to create new images for my blog. If the weather’s nice and I’m well enough to get out, I walk in the sun armed with camera is a favorite un-mush of mine 🙂

    I’m glad you got back to the gym… a little motivation (whether physical, as in your case… or less so, as in mine) goes a long way 🙂

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