(While you read this, you should know that I'm back at work. It's my first day back since going on maternity leave. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. It's only for the morning. Part of me is glad to get back to a schedule. Part of me is scared to go back to a classroom with a student who recently tried to smack my sub and had to be sent home. I'm more nervous than the night before the first day of school. Plus, I had an amazing sub, so I have some big shoes to fill in taking my classroom back. Luck and prayers. I need 'em both!)
WHAT WOULD WRITING BE WITHOUT RUNNING AND MUSIC?
Whew. I started running again. It's going to help me lose twenty pounds of stubborn baby weight. It's also already helped me with my WIP (if I can call it that since it's nowhere).
Last week I posted that in order to feel inspiration for a project I need to know my characters. Well, while on the treadmill during my first real run (I could lift my thighs without pain. I didn't feel like a bag of rocks was tied around my stomach.) the music I listened to gave me two characters and the situations they'll be in in the novel. With that, I also felt my protagonist, how she will feel about and react to these characters and situations.
Score!
This character masks his fear with arrogance. He's lived life keeping everyone at a distance. He has a great capacity to love, but his emotions and actions are so warped with a lifetime of anger and bitterness and hopelessness. He's the one person my protagonist can count on when everything in life is about to be lost. In trusting him, in going to him, she loses the next character that I got to know while running.
This character has been a part of my protagonist's life for a long time. He's reliable, he's loving, but he can't do for the protagonist what the other character can. He can't even begin to fathom why he's not enough, and my protagonist is not allowed to explain. They are torn apart, but it's for the good of many. He may never understand.
So right now I'm up to two miles. Ha! Today I have a four miler scheduled in. I signed up for a half marathon in May. So, I need to run 10 in April. I'll be keeping you posted on my goals. And I'll be begging for support and some pushing!
The more I run, the more I'll write. I know it!
Wow, ambitious! Good luck with your running and writing! I have a hard enough time making myself do Just Dance for a workout, and it doesn't leave me brain space to think about characters. I'm partial to sitting on the couch, staring into space, and talking to myself about characters. Too bad that won't keep me in physical shape!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your first day back!
I have now taken to reading submissions on the treadmill. Otherwise, I would literally never move. My body is so grateful for it. But I still need silence. Not a music girl, I guess. Unless my husband is playing to me on his guitar:)
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome stuff! Hope the ease back into work isn't as hard as you imagine! (and I definitely read a student tried to smack your "stub" and couldn't figure out how having a baby gave you a stub to smack. In my defense, I didn't sleep well and I think my brain is making up letters as I read...)
ReplyDeleteGlad running and ipods are getting you somewhere more than fit! I love a good song that really IS a character. That's wonderful!
Yay for running! And writing! What half are you signed up for?
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