Exercise Your Writing Muscles

by Cathy Fyock @CathyFyock

If you wanted to run a marathon, would you ever just strap on a pair of tennis shoes and go out to run 26 miles without any prior training? Probably not. If I did that I would likely kill or injure myself, and long before the end I’d probably swear never to run again.

In much the same way, I hear about prospective authors who want to write a book sitting down and trying the write the whole thing, all at once from scratch. It’s no wonder that they become discouraged and disillusioned with the experience. They haven’t been exercising their writing muscles!

It’s important to begin training before we even think about writing an entire book. We need to consider how we get our writing muscles exercised so that we are able to go the full distance.

Blog posts are a perfect way to exercise our writing muscles. They are relatively short at 350 to 800 words, and they can help us hone our daily craft before we launch into the multi-week production of the 35,000-or-so words it takes to fill a 100-page book.

What are other ways to prepare for the marathon that is writing a book?

Exercise your writing muscles every day. Have you developed good daily writing habits? I believe you’ll be better able to write the book if you’ve been writing regularly. See Chapter 29 for more information.

Blog posts are a perfect way to exercise our writing muscles.  #Blog2Book

Know your productivity. Just as runners who are in training know how far and how fast they’ve run, writers who are preparing to write books should know how their own productivity is. How many words can you write in an hour? And perhaps even more importantly, do you write best in the morning, or evening, or some other time of day? Where do you do your best writing—in the quiet cave or in the busy Starbucks? And do you do best with a large block of writing time, or can you chunk it out in bite-sized blocks of time?

Join a writing group or group coaching practice, or participate in writing workshops and retreats. When I work with my coaching clients, either individually or in a group setting, I always spend time leading writing exercises. It’s not enough to talk about the writing experience; we need to practice. Similar to training for a marathon, we can be educated about the best strategies for keeping healthy, but it’s another thing to actually do the jumping jacks, leg stretches, and deep knee bends. As writers, it is important that we not stop at reading about writing or talking about writing—we need to actually write!

Activity: Do a timed writing and determine your writing productivity. How many words do you typically write in a one-hour sitting? Do you know if your productivity is higher at a certain time of day or in certain circumstances? Do you know if you do best when writing for short, 20 minute bursts or in one or two hour chunks?

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Blog posts are a perfect way to exercise our writing muscles - @CathyFyock (Click to Tweet) 

Use #blogging as a way to grow as a writer - @CathyFyock (Click to Tweet)

Cathy Fyock is The Business Book Strategist, and works with professionals and thought leaders who want to write a book as a business growth strategy. She is the author of eight books, including Blog2Book (from which this post is excerpted). Contact Cathy at Cathy@CathyFyock.com.