by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I read an interesting article by writer Victoria Griffin called “Writing Gains are Made on Rep Days.”
Griffin explains rep days for weightlifters:
“For lifters, rep days mean loading light weights on the bar and repping it out until you’re entirely sick of whatever exercise you’re doing…For example, hip contact is important to a good snatch. I’ll spend days doing nothing but hip contact drills until I’m black and blue. It’s not fun, and it’s not glamorous. But guess what? Next time I do snatches, my form is better and I lift heavier weight.”
She then makes the writing analogy:
“For writerly folk, rep days may be big word count days. Or they may be those days when we just don’t want to do it. For whatever reason, we don’t feel like writing, but we sit down and do it anyway. Writing on those days strengthens our writing “muscles” so that on the days we do feel like writing, when the words are flowing, we’re able to write more and better than we would have otherwise.”
I liked what Griffin was saying. I agree with her that there is a sort of ‘writing muscle’ that atrophies when we don’t work it out enough. It’s always harder to jump back into a story after taking a long break…the characters aren’t as familiar to us, we have to get reacquainted with the story world, and it’s easier to make continuity errors.
I’ll take it a step farther and say that it gives a tremendous boost to our overall confidence as writers to write on those days when we have to push ourselves through it. I know that most days out of the week, I’m not feeling inspired as I sit down to write. As I go, I get more into my story and into the flow of writing. I show up. I’m not one of those who says writers have to write every single day, but it sure helps if you can write for most of them.
Writer Teresa Frohock put this well in her post “Writing When You’re Uninspired“:
“By forcing myself to write, even when I don’t feel like it, I build on the self-discipline that I will need to get me through those deadlines when I must write.”
If we know we can tackle our project on the toughest days, it can give us the motivation to power through most days. Also, having a string of successful days of working in a row can help us to build confidence in our ability to keep making progress on a story. Writer Karen Woodward’s post, “How to Write Everyday: Jerry Seinfeld and the Chain Method,” explains how we can gain motivation by marking off writing days on our calendar.
While I don’t feel like it’s necessary to write every day (I’ll miss a day several days out of the month, if not more), I do feel it can help to write most days–and that there’s a special benefit to pushing forward with our writing on some of the more challenging days, if possible.
What if you have gone a while without writing, but you want to pick it up again? Read this helpful article by Daphne Gray-Grant, “How to Get Back Into Writing After a Break.”
Do you write on the tough days? What keeps you motivated, as a writer?
'Rep Days' for Writers: Click To TweetPhoto on Visualhunt.com
There are days it just doesn’t want to happen. I go back and read a bit to put me back into the groove.
There are rep days with playing music as well.
That helps me, sometimes, too (I just fight the urge to edit).
I can imagine that music is that way. I remember my daughter and her piano lessons. You could always tell when she hadn’t practiced much!
I don’t write regularly yet for myself, but I have to force myself to write many days for my job when I’m not in the mood. Once I pull up my planning article and the research, I just getting going. And once I start, I’m okay. Hopefully that will help me with my own writing as I get into it more.
It’s always the starting that’s the hardest part!
I’m glad you brought this up, Elizabeth. Writing when you are in the mood is one thing. Disciplining yourself to write when you don’t want to is really hard. I admit there are times I don’ t always do a good job of it. What I’ve found is that on my ‘I don’t want to write’ days, I can still be productive by varying my routine a bit. I might sketch out a character instead of writing a scene. Or, I might go back and revise instead of starting a new scene. As long as I’m doing something, it pays off.
You’re right–there are plenty of writing-related tasks that we can do to still make progress on the book even on the days when we don’t feel like creating.
Awesome post. For me, right now, it’s editing. Forcing myself to edit when I don’t feel like it so I can hit these deadlines I’ve imposed on myself. Speaking of which, I should go do that instead of reading blogs. ;o)
I know what you mean! Sometimes I almost enjoy editing (because I know I’m almost ready to publish), but if I need to do any major revision…it’s just a real chore.
Perseverance is part of discipline which means doing something whether you feel it or not.
And that’s really the word, isn’t it? Discipline. It doesn’t sound like something we enjoy should come under that, but it really does if it’s going to happen at all.
“Continuity errors” – ugh, the bane of writers! Happens to me whenever I take a long break from writing (which usually isn’t on purpose, but hey, life happens). And then there’s guilt for not writing or not writing enough, and that makes it hard to get back to it as well.
Thanks for a helpful post, Elizabeth!
It can happen to me after a break or even if I’ve had to pick up and put down the manuscript a lot in one day!
Hope you have a great week, Kathy!
Love this! For me, working on that 2nd draft and fixing the biggies is the most difficult. I’m definitely going to think of them as rep days from now on! :)
It’s a good analogy, isn’t it? :)
Hi, Elisabeth, I think it’s the first time I’m commenting here. I find when I don’t want to write, after I get started I’m fine. It’s that initial push that’s needed. And, as a writer and ghostwriter I have to give myself that push. Not writing isn’t an option!
And, thanks so much for using my articles in your Twitterific posts!
You’re so right about the diving in being the hardest part! Things go better once we’re half a page in or so. :)
And you’re very welcome! Great post, as always.
As I told my daughter, I write approximately 300 days a year. It’s really more, but I’ll call it that. For me it’s like breathing. I have to do it. :) But I’m a slow writer and have ADD. Do I get anything completed to my perfect standards? No! But, I still write.
:) “It’s like breathing.” I know what you mean!
I tried to stop and take a break for a little while last year…felt a bit burned out. Only made it 3 days. :)