Running Around Writing

Last week was very busy but I’m almost finished with The White Arrow rough draft – great news! It will soon be off to my editor as I make plans to put it into pre-order so look for that announcement soon.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I do some running around the neighborhood. Over a month ago, there was some road construction which required part of the road be closed. I found it humorous while running down that way that people ignored the closure signs and drove to the construction anyway. They all turned around and headed for the detour. It seems a lot of people just didn’t believe the road was closed.

Well, this week the road was paved and it looks quite nice. They even made sure the driveways had nice little ramps onto the road because the new pavement is much higher. But the other morning, I took a run and turned down my normal route ahead of that day’s paving area. There was a worker stopping traffic due to the paving and some people just took the previous detour. However, one car stopped and the driver asked to be let through. Again, I found that humorous that someone thought they would just stop all paving activity for one car.

Anyway, I’ve noticed an interesting correlation to my running and writing – one reason I’ve been so productive of late. Most days I run in the evening but the lingering heat and humidity have me changing schedule to run in the morning. I noticed that on the days of morning running, I often had lots of ideas about how to write upcoming scenes and chapters. In fact, for two days I ran in the evening and struggled to get much done on those days. The second day, I just threw up my hands in frustration and left for a nice long run and then came home with a head full of ideas. The exercise seemed to have “jogged” loose a lot of creativity.

I ran the next morning and then wrote a load of words that day based on all the ideas from the night before and some added during the morning run that day. Since then, if I’m going for a run, I’m trying to stick to a morning schedule because it really gets my writing day moving.

This effect from exercise is not unusual. Many creative people are known for getting some sort of exercise which helps them with creativity. It’s just that mine really gave me a noticeable supercharge of creativity. I’m working to keep my running schedule in the morning as much as possible.

Just a few quick notes about the animals. Minou, the cat, is interacting with everyone in some funny ways. He really likes playing with candy or cough drop wrappers. The other night, my wife and I were reading before going to sleep and the cat found a wrapped cough drop on the nightstand. He brought it to my wife as if to say, “Here, take this and give me the wrapper.” He played with the wrapper for several minutes after my wife took the cough drop with a good laugh.

The dogs are not escaping Minou’s presence either. Not only does he drink from their water bowl and eat on their schedule, but he’s quite protective of his food. Right now, his litter and food are in the large dog crate which is like a big cage. I rigged the door with a bungee cord so the cat can get in but the dogs cannot. One evening, our female dog nosed around the outside of the crate at Minou’s food dish, getting the odd piece that had fallen out of the crate. Minou noticed her at his food dish and charged across the room to protect his food. The dog trotted away and Minou thoroughly inspected his dish inside and out of the crate to make sure she couldn’t really get at his food. What’s funny is the dog is the protective one of her food bowl between our two dogs.

The cat hates being alone and we attribute that to being separated from his mother much too early so that he was a lonesome little stray. He tends to follow someone around very often. I’ve been writing at times while reclined to rest my bothersome neck. One day, Minou jumped onto the bed and started walking across my chest repeatedly, blocking my view of the laptop screen. I would nudge him out of the way. The cat got the picture and finally just sprawled across my chest and purred. Since I could see and keep typing I just kept going with a chuckle.

That’s all I have for today. Thanks for reading. Be sure to check back for news about The White Arrow. I’m continuing some other book projects while The White Arrow is with the editor so I’ll report on my progress with those.

PHS