By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I mentioned a couple of months ago that I’d been going to physical therapy since July for a back issue I’d been having (from sitting. Don’t believe that writing isn’t dangerous).
I’ve been an extremely good patient, if I do say so myself. I’ve done my daily stretches and other exercises. I attended all of my PT appointments.
The only time I balked was early last month when my physical therapist asked me to start going to the gym to use the weight machines. As soon as Carol finished her sentence, I was ready with excuses. I have no time. I’m on a deadline. I don’t enjoy being around large groups of people. I don’t enjoy exercising. I don’t understand the exercise machines. I’m a clumsy person. I don’t have an appropriate workout wardrobe.
Carol, to her credit, steadily watched and listened as I explained my obstacles. Then she asked, “Do you have a gym membership?”
“Yes,” I answered miserably.
“The staff will be happy to explain how the machines work,” she said.
“I know they will. I have to ask them every time I go in there,” I admitted. “I can’t ever seem to get the knack of it.”
And here was the key: “Elizabeth, I only want you to go one day a week. For twenty minutes.”
Oh, the relief. I’d thought she was going to ask me to go three days a week. Surely I could manage one day, even on a busy week. And twenty minutes wasn’t very long.
So I took my husband with me and he showed me how to use the weight machines again. I took pictures of the machines that my therapist had asked me to use. My husband took pictures of me using them so that I could remember how to correctly exercise. I made a small investment in some workout clothes and tennis shoes since my casual clothes were really just for yard work.
And I found that by setting the bar really low, I did go to the gym once a week. I discovered that doing the exercises only took 15 minutes, not even the 20 that Carol indicated. The exercises helped my back so much that I started going twice a week (most weeks). I still didn’t like it. I still didn’t want to drive over there, wait for the machines, deal with crowds, or exercise. But I liked the results.
Whenever I’m asked in any kind of interview or panel what advice I have for new writers, I say “set the bar low.” If I’m at a panel, this makes the audience laugh. But I’m not going for laughs, I’m totally serious.
Set a completely accessible goal. I’ve set a temporary one as low as 5 minutes a day before when life escalated out of control on the busy scale. You can do more in 5 minutes than you think…especially if you make a note at the end of each session explaining where you left off and what you want to accomplish for the next session. The point is that you’re setting aside time for your story. You’re keeping a habit. In many ways I think the habit becomes more important than the word count. I read an interesting post on the importance of the writing habit a couple of years ago on writer Karen Woodward’s blog: “How To Write Every Day: Jerry Seinfeld And The Chain Method.” This is a method where you self-motivate by marking an X on the calendar for each day you meet your goal.
In the past several years, I’ve found that 3 double-spaced pages was workable. But my writing goal originally started out as a page a day back when I had a toddler in the house and only about 15 minutes to write.
Whatever we put down on paper can be fixed later. A series of “wins” where we meet daily goals can motivate us to continue our writing habit.
It may be difficult to find that time. We may not like it. But we’ll like the results.
How do you stay motivated to write? What’s been your approach to developing a writing habit?
Image: MorgueFile: Madlyn
Set the bar low – that made me chuckle. I can do that though!
I can also ramp it up when I really need to.
Glad you figured out how to use the gym equipment.
Alex–Me too! It took a while. Like….2 years. :)
A scene. That’s my bar. A scene.
About fifty make a first draft novel ( works out to about thirty of the right ones and twenty duds). Five or six do the job for a short.
Last year was the year of realistic expectations. My yardstick is the scene. It is how I see a story. It is how I write. It is the day-in day-out effort even when things are going poorly.
You should have “set the bar low” postcards to hand out at instructional workshops. Brilliant.
Hemingway wrote about 350 words a day when writing seriously. He did however claim they were the correct 350 words. Lucky him.
Love this blog post. Hope all is well. I’m in love with my varidesk.
Jack–I like that. A scene is easy to plan for, easy to write, a good pace for a book. I see my books in scenes, too. Mysteries are sort of built that way: the getting-to-know-the-suspects, the various interviews, the big reveal.
Sometimes my 350 (more like 750 for me each day) aren’t the right ones, but Hemingway really *did* set the bar high on the brilliance scale. :)
That varidesk sounds like a good investment.
Elizabeth – I’m glad you found that it wasn’t as bad as you’d feared to get to the gym and help your back heal. And you’re absolutely right about goals. Small, manageable daily and weekly goals help you stay positive and keep moving forward. I tell my students that too. A long paper can be intimidating; a page is less so.
Margot–Good advice for students, too!
Elizabeth, you always write about something I’m dealing with at the moment! Setting an attainable daily goal has always helped me get going, but I’ve lately gotten off track. I needed the reminder that I don’t have to be a champion pole vaulter.
Jeanne–I’m so glad! Hope it helps you get back on track.
If I set the goal at 1k words for a day, I may or may not hit it, but if I set it for 100 words, I probably will hit 1k words or more. :)
Carradee–Me too! The trick is that the next day I still hit the 100 word goal and not shortchange myself because I went *over* the goal on the previous day.
LOL! I’m sure that does get some laughs. But it’s about setting goals we can hit. That gives us confidence.
Diane–Can’t beat confidence and momentum!
How did you know that this topic is perfect for where I am now in my life? Just the strategy I need to use to get through the work on my plate–writing and otherwise!
So glad to hear that you’re making progress with your back issues, too. Good for you for sticking with the gym.
Heather–Oh good! Hope this helps. Sometimes it’s so easy to feel snowed.
The progress has been slow and steady on the back issues–tough for an impatient person! But it’s so much better than it was, thanks.
Man, that DOES help. Setting the bar low… I can typically be a bit more focused on my writing stuff, but I need to do some strengthening stuff and I bet that would help a LOT.
Hart–In my *head* it was a much bigger hassle than it actually ended up being. If the machines are all full, I just get on the treadmill for a few minutes (which was the only reason I had the gym membership to begin with–the treadmill). Then when they open up, I hop on the machines. I only do the leg curls, extensions, triceps, and biceps. I wouldn’t have thought those things would help a back, but they do…supposed to strengthen the core?
Setting the bar low is my mantra, too!!! I usually do more than I set but that way I feel like such a winner. Except for cleaning. It seems I do all or nothing.
This is something I need to remember. “Whatever we put down on paper can be fixed later.” Sometimes I pick at my writing the first time through. Not cool or productive.
Teresa–I’m with you on the cleaning. Unless it’s something like a closet…then I’ll definitely break it down.
Some people really love editing as they go, but it makes me feel really insecure about the story so I just leave it until the next draft. :)
I have a bad back, too (one leg is shorter than the other), and the chiropractor had a field day with me. I discovered the wonders of the exercise ball. I had an exercise video to go with it, and learned all kinds of things to do to ease the tension in my low back.
I set the bar low, too! I have four kids plus an extra one five days a week, and I challenge myself to write a sentence every day. Often I write more than that! But that way there’s always forward momentum. And it does add up. :-)
Kessie–That was another thing the PT person said! Exercise ball. Every time I think about getting one, though, I’m just not really sure if I want something that big in my house! Maybe in the closet under the stairs…
A sentence a day is good …especial with 5 kids around!
When my clients are really really REALLY stuck, I give them the One Minute Low Bar:
Every day, at the same time, sit down at your computer with a stopwatch, ready to write.
And sit there for one minute. 60 seconds. I don’t care if you write or not. You’re not working on story structure right now, you’re creating the habit of showing up.
And for crying out loud do NOT write for 3 hours, burn out, mess up your schedule, and then refuse to show up tomorrow.
One single 60-second minute.
A bar so low you cannot possibly fail is the only way to begin. In a world filled with overachievers, the power of small wins is forgotten, and yet it is the single best way to develop habits and overcome resistance.
Joel–I like that you say they don’t even have to *write*. Showing up is half the battle. I’ve heard writers say that they felt they accomplished a lot by simply opening up the Word doc.
Small wins are key to so much. And burnout is such a setback.
Good for you! Hope the back is getting better every day!
Life has exploded here recently and even finding that 5 minutes and emotional strength has been tough – but that’s been my aim: open the program, get at least 5 minutes in. Sometimes it makes it to 10 :)
Jemi–Hope life settles back down for you! I know with school being back in session that it makes life harder. Fingers crossed for you and your 5 minutes!
I love that advice. It totally works too. I find if I get out of the swing of things, it takes about a week to two of writing during the same hour each day, and by the end of that period I’m zipping through 1000 to 2000 words a day. You have to train yourself, just like you train your muscles.
Thanks for the great reminder!
Crystal–So true…it’s just like any muscle that needs to be worked out. Thanks for coming by!
And mine. See, I need an alternative where I can work out and write at the same time.
[…] Goals: On Setting the Bar Low – Elizabeth Spann Craig […]
I don’t like crowded gyms full of posers either. So I use the gym in the basement at work. It’s free, and there are a couple of nice colleagues I usually meet. Then we discuss social anthropology, German literature, and the meaning of life, while warming up at the treadmill >:)
CA–This never seems to happen to me when I go to the gym. :) If someone starting discussing German lit to me, I’d probably fall off the exercise machine…
but it would be a nice change!
The gym is full of mostly older and middle aged folk (it’s a YMCA), so at least that’s a good thing.
Setting the bar low is critical to getting started as a writer. It’s too easy to freeze up otherwise.
My low bar is to write in “chunks,” 200-2,000 words of a scene or part of a scene or conversation that I can easily picture in my head. I don’t worry about expanding them or sequencing them, I just get them written. After I’ve written fifteen or twenty of them, I fit them in where they are most likely to work in my outline or list of chapters, ready to flesh out when I get to that point. Then rinse, repeat. Not everything I write this way gets used, but most of it does. So even if I only have 30 minutes to write, something gets accomplished toward the larger project.
Meg–So true…this approach also helps us to prevent writer’s block.
I like that you picture the scene in your head first. My best scenes are written that way, but I don’t always use that method (need to use it more).
I wrote an entire book using the method you’re describing (out of sequence). My only problem was the transitions, but it didn’t take too long to smooth those out at the end.
Back issues are the worst!! Exercising at the gym is a great idea. And it helps promote strong bones which I somehow lack. I need to get to the gym! Good Luck Elizabeth!!!
Thanks so much, Cathrina!
Elizabeth–
“How low can you go?” was what we called out way way back, when people did the limbo. I like this whole set-the-bar-at-ground-level concept. Also what sounds like a completely in-character approach to an exercise machine by one of the more focused people on the Net, Elizabeth Spann Craig: photos of the machine, photos of self using the machine, charts, diagrams, reduction of time needed, etc.
But jokes aside, the lesson here is an important one: people who set the bar too high, for whatever reason, are setting in motion a plan to fail. Bad idea for writers or anyone else, including those with back problems.
Barry–Ha! Yes, a focused (or perhaps, a bit OCD) approach to exercise with photo illustrations for later reference. :) I must be more of a visual learner than I’d originally thought…those machines were a real challenge!
And–so true. If we’re too optimistic, too hopeful about our writing (or exercise, or weight-loss) and make unrealistic goals, we’re just setting ourselves up for a fall.
[…] Gold reminds us that slow progress is still progress nonetheless, Elizabeth S. Craig recommends setting the bar low for goals, and Neal Martin shows how to use your mistakes to achieve success as a […]
Hi Elizabeth – sounds like you’ve worked out how to improve your back and yes .. computing, writing and reading aren’t really compatible with the human spine – but we do it .. and need to keep that in balance too …
It’s good to hear you’re dealing with your back and life is improving in that direction .. cheers Hilary
Hilary–And we do so much computing, writing, and reading that we really need to do it ergonomically. Feet on the floor, computer at chest level, arms straight and supported in front of us. But this isn’t fun! I’m a believer now, though (as I write this at my tall kitchen counter while sitting very carefully).
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[…] Goals: On Setting the Bar Low is something I really agree with. It goes along with my mini habits post–and IT WORKS! […]