Running & Writing – Writing is Harder

After a back injury related to running 2 marathons, I am blessed to be able to train with running friends and run one year later in the Alameda Half Marathon on this Sat. June 8th. I’ve done slow training to get to a few 14 mile runs. I’ve had to retrain my running style, use the PT exercises and more. Plus now I’ve started the Duke (low carb) eating plan to drop a little weight (decrease that foot impact!). And so the same goes for my writing. I’ve been doing writing marathons for years. With 2 manuscripts complete, I’ve now been told that a re-start is necessary. Not a re-write for the upteenth time after the umteenth critique. But a total re-start.

So just like running, it’s starting all over. With careful exercises, slow preparation, slow development, and thoughtful progress, I’ll start writing my stories again. Because if I do the same thing again, I will get the same result. A flawed manuscript. A character with an incomplete journey in need of physical therapy and more.

I realize, as with any deep injury, both in my running and my writing, that the emotional attitude is the underlying driver and also the saboteur. But unlike running, writing for children is so much harder – because the stakes are so much higher – a product that mesmerizes the reader along the WHOLE path.

So off I go — entering re-start land. Wish me luck.