Killing The Dreamer
Sep. 4th, 2013 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madwriterI'm one of those writers who believes that writing and exercise go hand in hand - though I'm not always that good about acting on that belief. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I have two bad habits when it comes to exercise: (1) Given a choice between writing and exercise I'll choose writing, all else being equal, and (2) when I'm deep at work on a book I tend to become a lot more reclusive, and have to remind myself to...well, go outside for any reason. I've seen the results of all work and no workouts in others, but it's still something I have to beat into my head.
I don't know why this is so hard to get through my skull. I feel better physically and mentally after exercising, even after just a single workout. Physically I get more energetic and the usual lower backache I get when I'm only writing and reading disappears. Mentally I'm sharper; even if Tucker the Big Dog didn't want out first thing in the morning, before I write, I'd still make it a pre-writing habit because even that half-mile of walking unclogs my brain's fuel injector.
I can't speak for creative types in general, but I've known quite a few others besides me whose work and general lives get a lot better with some regular exercise thrown in.
My plan to resume regular workouts this summer didn't pan out, so I shifted it to resuming them before work now that I'm back on an evening schedule with the start of the new school year. Right now I don't go in to work until 4 p.m., which is ideal for me - late morning and early afternoon are my best times for writing and exercise, and going in that late means I can do both the same day instead of having to alternate days. So yesterday I started solo walks around campus, and today I did my first workout in ages. It wasn't anything like the zealous action-packed ones I did through 2009 and early '10, but it was a good 45 minute start: 1.5 miles on an elliptical mostly at 5-6 miles per hour (in 2009 I averaged 7-9 mph), 15 minutes on weight machines set to 7-8 out of 12 (in 2009 I was at the point where 12 was no longer a challenge), and 1.7 miles on a stationary bike mostly at 100 RPM.
The soundtrack for both days was the soundtrack to the original new Star Trek, which was also the lion's share of my workout music in 2009-10. Using it again wasn't just for old time's sake, but because I rediscovered two important facts about it: (1) Most of the music has the same tempo as my exercising, and (2) the soundtrack's length is almost exactly the same amount of time to the minute as it takes me to circumnavigate campus and walk home.
Something I well remembered was that going into the campus' old fitness center, even the renovated version that is now a YMCA, would make me melancholy, remembering how I worked out on the ellipticals on and off through 2009 with my friend Jess before her death that November. And I did get melancholy, especially when I realized I might be on one of the same machines we used then. I told her I missed her and got on with the exercising. I would, however, like to hear her tease me one more time about me considering going straight to the cafeteria for lunch right after the workout.
I didn't actually write today, but I did do a fair bit yesterday, which finished off the current chapter, so I'll record that now.
PROGRESS REPORT FOR 9/3/13
New Words: 2050 on chapter 2 ("The Winnowing, 1874") of Copper Heart. The army comes to arrest the prophet Noche-del-klinne, aka the Dreamer, accusing him of doing a Ghost Dance. He surrenders peacefully but ends up being executed on the order of General Eugene Carr, commander of Fort Apache. My version interweaves the story as told by Apache from San Carlos; they say that he was gunned down initially by the sergeant ordered to guard him--on orders of the Tucson Ring, which manipulated the Apache for their own profit--but was killed with an axe later when it was determined that he was still alive.
Total Words: 91350.
Reason For Stopping: Finished the chapter.
Book Year: 1881.
Mammalian Assistance: None.
Exercise: A neighborhood walk with Tucker; then around the campus a few hours later.
Stimulants: None.
Today's Opening Passage(s): Kaywaykla’s eyes had stayed sharp amid the weight of his years, so he was the one who counted the soldiers now gathered at Cibecue Creek to arrest the Dreamer. “Almost one-hundred and twenty,” he told Goyaklay, Lozen, and the dozen other warriors camped with them nearby. He didn’t include the Dineh who betrayed their own people—the ones scouting for the army. They weren’t worth counting.
Apparently the soldiers thought the same. None of the scouts were armed.
Darling Du Jour: General Eugene Carr of Fort Apache—under orders from Agent Tiffany to arrest or kill the Dreamer or both—had sent Dineh scouts twice asking the Dreamer to come meet with him. The prophet refused. Now soldiers marched to Cibecue Creek led by Carr himself, and whatever skepticism remained in Goyaklay dissolved in the face of the white general recognizing that he would need so many soldiers to bring in the Dreamer at the apex of his Power.
The dancing stopped.
Lozen made the first surprised protest; others followed, but Goyaklay just watched darkly as the Dreamer’s body stilled like rocks settling after a landslide before crossing the creek to the waiting soldiers. He went as meekly as Goyaklay once accused him of being, and now his slight frame seemed to shrink even farther against the wall of white riders surrounding him.
“The dance is ended,” Goyaklay said.
“Where do we go now?” Kaywaykla asked.
“Now we follow the Dreamer.”
Submissions Sent Out In August: 13.
Submissions Out Right Now: 12 to magazines, 6 to agents.
Non-Research / Review Books In Progress: N.K. Jemisin; Lindsey Davis; Battle of Kings by M.K. Hume.
I don't know why this is so hard to get through my skull. I feel better physically and mentally after exercising, even after just a single workout. Physically I get more energetic and the usual lower backache I get when I'm only writing and reading disappears. Mentally I'm sharper; even if Tucker the Big Dog didn't want out first thing in the morning, before I write, I'd still make it a pre-writing habit because even that half-mile of walking unclogs my brain's fuel injector.
I can't speak for creative types in general, but I've known quite a few others besides me whose work and general lives get a lot better with some regular exercise thrown in.
My plan to resume regular workouts this summer didn't pan out, so I shifted it to resuming them before work now that I'm back on an evening schedule with the start of the new school year. Right now I don't go in to work until 4 p.m., which is ideal for me - late morning and early afternoon are my best times for writing and exercise, and going in that late means I can do both the same day instead of having to alternate days. So yesterday I started solo walks around campus, and today I did my first workout in ages. It wasn't anything like the zealous action-packed ones I did through 2009 and early '10, but it was a good 45 minute start: 1.5 miles on an elliptical mostly at 5-6 miles per hour (in 2009 I averaged 7-9 mph), 15 minutes on weight machines set to 7-8 out of 12 (in 2009 I was at the point where 12 was no longer a challenge), and 1.7 miles on a stationary bike mostly at 100 RPM.
The soundtrack for both days was the soundtrack to the original new Star Trek, which was also the lion's share of my workout music in 2009-10. Using it again wasn't just for old time's sake, but because I rediscovered two important facts about it: (1) Most of the music has the same tempo as my exercising, and (2) the soundtrack's length is almost exactly the same amount of time to the minute as it takes me to circumnavigate campus and walk home.
Something I well remembered was that going into the campus' old fitness center, even the renovated version that is now a YMCA, would make me melancholy, remembering how I worked out on the ellipticals on and off through 2009 with my friend Jess before her death that November. And I did get melancholy, especially when I realized I might be on one of the same machines we used then. I told her I missed her and got on with the exercising. I would, however, like to hear her tease me one more time about me considering going straight to the cafeteria for lunch right after the workout.
I didn't actually write today, but I did do a fair bit yesterday, which finished off the current chapter, so I'll record that now.
New Words: 2050 on chapter 2 ("The Winnowing, 1874") of Copper Heart. The army comes to arrest the prophet Noche-del-klinne, aka the Dreamer, accusing him of doing a Ghost Dance. He surrenders peacefully but ends up being executed on the order of General Eugene Carr, commander of Fort Apache. My version interweaves the story as told by Apache from San Carlos; they say that he was gunned down initially by the sergeant ordered to guard him--on orders of the Tucson Ring, which manipulated the Apache for their own profit--but was killed with an axe later when it was determined that he was still alive.
Total Words: 91350.
Reason For Stopping: Finished the chapter.
Book Year: 1881.
Mammalian Assistance: None.
Exercise: A neighborhood walk with Tucker; then around the campus a few hours later.
Stimulants: None.
Today's Opening Passage(s): Kaywaykla’s eyes had stayed sharp amid the weight of his years, so he was the one who counted the soldiers now gathered at Cibecue Creek to arrest the Dreamer. “Almost one-hundred and twenty,” he told Goyaklay, Lozen, and the dozen other warriors camped with them nearby. He didn’t include the Dineh who betrayed their own people—the ones scouting for the army. They weren’t worth counting.
Apparently the soldiers thought the same. None of the scouts were armed.
Darling Du Jour: General Eugene Carr of Fort Apache—under orders from Agent Tiffany to arrest or kill the Dreamer or both—had sent Dineh scouts twice asking the Dreamer to come meet with him. The prophet refused. Now soldiers marched to Cibecue Creek led by Carr himself, and whatever skepticism remained in Goyaklay dissolved in the face of the white general recognizing that he would need so many soldiers to bring in the Dreamer at the apex of his Power.
The dancing stopped.
Lozen made the first surprised protest; others followed, but Goyaklay just watched darkly as the Dreamer’s body stilled like rocks settling after a landslide before crossing the creek to the waiting soldiers. He went as meekly as Goyaklay once accused him of being, and now his slight frame seemed to shrink even farther against the wall of white riders surrounding him.
“The dance is ended,” Goyaklay said.
“Where do we go now?” Kaywaykla asked.
“Now we follow the Dreamer.”
Submissions Sent Out In August: 13.
Submissions Out Right Now: 12 to magazines, 6 to agents.
Non-Research / Review Books In Progress: N.K. Jemisin; Lindsey Davis; Battle of Kings by M.K. Hume.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-05 02:31 am (UTC)