Wednesday writing wire: soccer girl edition
What I'm reading
I'm currently reading Intervention: Course Corrections for the Athlete and Trainer, by strength and conditioning coach, All-American discus thrower, and religious studies professor Dan John. Like the title says, this is a book for athletes, and for coaches and trainers. If you are not getting the results that you want, it could be that your training plan does not match your goal. The title refers to taking the time to stop and reevaluate your approach. First by asking questions to figure out who and where you are (Point A) and where you are trying to get to (Point B), and then by focusing on core principles which you might have forgotten or never learned properly or at all, then by coming up with a program to help you reach your goals. He talks about the fundamental human movements, and how important strength is in athletic training because if you improve strength, you improve everything else. He covers proper techniques for Olympic lifting, powerlifting and throwing (I haven't gotten this far in the book yet). I know this might sound like a book mainly for fitness dorks, but as I read I keep thinking that Dan John's back-to-basics, no-fluff approach makes a lot of sense not just for lifting but for life in general. As he says, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there!
What I'm writing
I'm still working on my outline for The Free City. But I've made it to Part 3, so the end is in sight!
As I've talked about before, I'm working from an existing shitty first draft. Reading through Parts 2 & 3, I became a little dismayed at the amount of the story that consists of well, politics. And because I've now removed not one, but two giant unnecessary digressions, that leaves me with proportionally even more politics! I kinda started to wonder (a) what the hell was wrong with me, and (b) if readers would find this an utter snore =D
But nah, I'm not that worried. There are ways to make the politics more interesting. After all, it's conflict between people, right? I've got four different countries all butting heads, to say nothing about the "yelling, fighting fuss" (as one of my characters describes it) within each country. The more I think about it, the more I'm glad that at least I don't have the opposite problem. Y'know, "Star Trek planet"-itis, where the whole planet has a monoculture. Not a problem here. (And that's not a dig against Star Trek. I *love* Star Trek!)
What else I've been doing
The usual ninja training (my term for my physical fitness pursuits). Thinking about whether or not to drop $1000 to attend a Crossfit Level 1 certification class, and if so, which bank to rob. Cleaning out the basement (decluttering FTW!)
What's inspiring me right now
I was going to write something big & profound here but then I remembered something smaller that nonetheless made me stoked & inspired. I was running laps around the neighborhood park (once around is a half-mile) & I kept going by the mini-soccer field area that's enclosed by a fence. Inside there was a group of kids that were maybe about 10 years old playing soccer. I mean practicing, there was a coach who was teaching & drilling them. It was a co-ed group, and I noticed there were a couple of meek little girls who clearly didn't want to be there, & were just going through the motions. I couldn't help thinking that what was inevitably going to happen was that all the boys would push all the girls out of the way & they would get marginalized--that's how it usually ended up back when I was a kid, back when girls were taught to be meek. But as I kept passing by, I started noticing that there were some other little girls in there who were being energetic and aggressive and anything but meek. You could almost see the thought balloons over their heads: "I want the ball. I want the ball. I'm gonna get the fucking ball!" Yeah. That made me really happy!