A Little Reminder: Take Care of Yourself

This is a short little blog post to remind you to take care of yourself. Get enough sleep, eat healthy stuff, get some exercise. The writers’ life is pretty sedentary, and while writing keeps your brain acute, it doesn’t do much for the rest of the body. In Winnipeg, we’re still waiting for spring to arrive, so we can get out and enjoy the real world, but for those of you who already have some warmer weather and sunshine, get out and enjoy. Work up a sweat, drink lots of water and, for goodness’ sake, lay off the sugar. I'm talking to myself as much as anyone else. I'm ready to shake off winter and my extra layer of insulation. Wishing you all a spring time full of good health and great stories!

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Melinda Marshall Friesen writes novels for teens and when it's time to get off her duff, she enjoys running, biking and tennis. She's not fast or good at any of them but finds them fun.

The Marriage of Exercise and Creative Thought

Did you know that exercising actually increases blood flow to the brain and helps a person to focus?

It's true. 

Brain research shows a correlation between physical activity and the development of brain connections. In 2010, the journal Pediatrics released a study showing that children with as little as 15 minutes of recess each day exhibited better behavior and attention spans than their peers who did not have recess. The Journal of Attention Disorders even states that walks outdoors that normally are associated with recess appear to improve attention and concentration scores of students with ADHD. -The Effect of Recess on Academics

 Not only does physical activity spur the development of brain connections, but it may result in clearer thinking and organizational ability, as research has shown an improvement in recall:

Recess provides a break that allows the brain to "regroup," and research has shown that recall is improved when learning is spaced out rather than condensed. After recess, children are more likely to learn because they are less tense and more invigorated. Even adults are given breaks during their work day, which allows for better production and clearer thinking.

Maybe you don't have time for "recess" in your busy day. Whether you're surrounded by kids or surrounded by other adults, it can be difficult to step out and get some physical exercise without somebody needing you. Yet we know that a break to watch TV and eat chocolate isn't going to have the same brain-clearing effects as physical exercise. It's worthwhile to carve out time in your day to exercise.

Personally, I get a lot of story ideas while running.

One of the scenic places I run by when I'm brainstorming

But I know some people prefer Zumba or UFC, or even Spartan obstacle course racing. I have a crazy brother who does the latter and is a certified Spartan trainer. Someday I'll be that awesome. They jump over freakin' FIRE at the finish line!

Anyway, back to how exercise improves clarity of thought. How are you doing on your plotting? Characterization? Ever get stuck? A quick rise in blood flow to your brain might be just the thing...

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy your plotting, on and off the treadmill. 

Characterization exercises

Happy Friday, everyone. I hope that you and your loved ones are all okay. It's been a tough week for a lot of people, and if you guys could use a distraction as much as I could, you've come to the right place.

EDIT: And I scheduled this post last night, before the current situation developed, so I'd like to stress the above words in the strongest possible terms: I hope you and yours are okay. Praying that this situation in my beloved hometown of Boston is resolved very soon.

To me, characterization is one of the most exciting parts of writing. I mean, who doesn't like creating people from scratch? Some characters just show up in your brain, fully formed, and have voices that just gush from your fingertips. But sometimes, those characters are a little harder to get to know, and it takes several drafts to figure out who these people are.

In my recent review of Nova Ren Suma's 17 & GONE, I talked a little about why I loved her characterization so much, even for characters who were only there for a couple paragraphs. It was the specificity - even the most mundane details weren't the kind of generic statements that could apply to any stock character. You could tell that she knew all of these characters so well.

And one of my favorite ways to get to that place with my own cast? Character sheets, baby.

My first writing partner gave me these - a fairly basic but still comprehensive one, and an extremely detailed one that's perfect for your protagonists, or even your awesome villain. They're a bit long, so I set each of them up in a Google doc for you to play around with.

The basic one

The detailed one

I hope you guys enjoy these - they always make me smile! And it's a great way to work out some interesting, specific tidbits, even if you never use them in the story.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Tone. Revise. Tone.

One of my new things this year is to try (note the emphasis on try) to do regular exercise. I eat okay (cookies and chocolate are a food group, right?), but I figure toning the old butt wouldn't hurt, right?

Wrong. When you go from exercising four times a week to, um, not much, your body kind of wants to hit you over the head with hand weights. But we start slow. I mean, I'm not that insane I'd run a marathon after one training session. I'm pretty sure I'd fall over. Once, twice a week is a good base. Then three times, but you get the idea.

The point is, it's hard at first. There are moments when your abs are quivering from crunches. Your thighs can't take another climb on the elliptical. But you push through.

Where am I going with this?

Practice builds strength. You improve. Learning the moves makes your performance more efficient. That gives better results. It still hurts sometimes, but you can see the benefits. You keep going.

It's the same for revisions.

We all want a tight, toned manuscript. It's the aim of revision. We revise until our eyes bleed, shut the manuscript feeling mentally, physically and emotionally drained. We don't want to see the stupid thing again.

But we go back. Why? Because as much as it can hurt, it works. We work our base strength with plot, strengthen our core with by deleting passive writing. We get our cardio in on line edits.

After weeks/months of hard work, we sit back and see the benefits. A toned body and a toned MS? I can live with that.

So who's with me?

Shameless Lindsay post promotion time: Next week I have an awesome post -- an interview with the amazing Beth Revis. I'll also be giving away 2 copies of her brilliant debut novel, Across the Universe.