For over a year, I’ve had this writing idea in my head – a personal essay about moving to the Midwest, at midlife, and finding myself through running. I have a pitch and little pieces of the bigger essay written, but I struggle with the whole.
Last month, I took a “Mini Memoir” writing class with Jena Schwartz and I used the assigned exercises to write parts of my story. At the end of the class, Jena and I had a coaching phone call where I explained my writing anxiety always stems from the same thing: I can’t “see” the inside of the story. Ironically, I struggle with middles. I don’t know how it “should” look or how to string the pieces together.
Jena encouraged me to visually map out the components, like I would map out a run. That idea sparked something and I started mapping my writing with notes, arrows and what not. It finally took a form and I could “see” it.
As I mapped my writing, I remembered something many of my ultra runner friends told me when I was training for the Indiana Trail 100K run. They said not to think about running 62 miles, because that’s overwhelming. Instead, think of the journey as running “aid station to aid station.” In ultra races, aid stations are typically 5 – 10 miles apart. So instead of thinking that I need to run a 20-mile loop, I should think of it as running five miles to the first aid station. Then another 5 to the next.
That perspective was key to helping me in my ultra running pursuits and long runs. And it helped me so much with visualizing my writing. I can’t look at this as a full, long-form essay or book because that’s overwhelming. I have to look at it as writing one small story and then another – from aid station to aid station. And eventually, I’ll cross the finish line.
*Sorry if the redacted parts of the map are annoying. I can’t give away all my CONTENT; need to save some for you all to read.*