Weightlifting for Writers
An extension of your body and mind, a celebration of their enormous possibility. That’s what writing can feel like. It doesn’t every day, but every day it can.
I used to call it ‘laptop-racing’. Generally, there needed to be a lot of coffee. And at least one friend. Somewhere public, preferably with cake and a certain level of ambient busyness. ‘Laptop-racing wasn’t a race in the competitive sense, but that was what it reminded me of. Everyone doing their own thing, in their own lane, on their own track, but together at one café table. It solved multiple problems, laptop-racing did. Not just the obvious “I’ll just go and sort out that laundry/phone call/tax return” that was an intrinsic danger of writing at home but the ‘how to choose between asking a stranger to guard my laptop and just not going to the loo/getting another coffee for several hours and overthinking that went into making or not making the decision…"‘ no overthinking needed. You were a pack-animal. You were laptop racing.
I wasn’t a physical gym member when I started laptop-racing, or perhaps I’d have compared them sooner: the gym that exists predominantly for your body yet can be so helpful to your mind and the Writers’ Gym I now run; I certainly saw what being on your own machine among others on theirs does for your sense of community, motivation and productivity.
These days, I begin each working week with The Writing Room: a free space where Writers’ Gym members and anyone who isn’t a member but is on my mailing list can join us in our digital room. We’re each doing our own thing but in company. That communal presence, whether writing, sewing or ‘admin-ing’ or any of the other things I see every Monday is a visual reminder in itself that approaching work creatively does wonders for productivity, not just when it’s technically creative writing but when it’s problem solving, prioritising tasks or thinking and asking for the help or solutions we need. We chat for ten minutes at the end, and often I offer a small ‘weight-lifting’ exercise to boost creative confidence.
Tomorrow is our Writers’ Gym pub night, Write and Draw, Drink and Chat. Then, on 1 March from 12 noon to 1pm, we’re meeting for our Friday Writing Workout. It’s open to all, but free to members. However much or little writing you have in the world or in your work-in-progress, this is a chance to celebrate, challenge and enjoy what brought you to the page in the first place. It doesn’t feel like exercise. Not when it’s normal. It feels like an extension of your body and mind, a celebration of their enormous possibility. That’s what writing can feel like. It doesn’t every day, but every day it can.
Join the Friday Writing Workout here.
A Writers’ Gym membership trial is £40 per month including as many of our weekly workshops sessions and socials as you like, including Coffee & Creativity, Writing Room Extra and the Friday Writing Workout. To see if membership is right for you, arrange a short call here.