The ‘Triathlete Approach’ to writing
How thinking like a triathlete can turbo-charge your creativity and productivity
Goooooooooooood morning, afternoon, or evening, wherever you might happen to be!
I don’t talk about this a lot, but I really enjoy triathlons.
I’ve only completed four, one of which was an indoor event organised by my former gym in London. So I’m not sure I’d qualify as a ‘triathlete’ (or, well, anything else involving the word ‘athlete’—many thanks to
for making me look like one in the illustration for this week’s post!). But I’ve done the whole swim-bike-run thing, and I love it.Here’s why.
It’s a great challenge
I love a challenge! I love setting myself a big goal and working hard to achieve it, even when I fall a little short. And triathlons are definitely a challenge.
They’re three sports rolled into one!
They require endurance!
They require training!
They require confidence on a bicycle, which I do not have!
But I’m in.
The cross-training is built in
When elite runners and cyclists reach A Certain Age, many of them transition to triathlons. It makes sense: the repetitive motion and strain of sports like running and cycling can take a major toll on the body. Plus, after A Certain Point in Life, it’s hard to stay competitive. Triathlons offer these athletes new physical challenges and a new sport at which to excel.
It’s a great community
As with any sport, the ‘atmosphere’ and ‘vibes’ of triathlons vary from place to place. But because it’s just that little bit more specialized, it’s made up of a pretty cool community of enthusiasts trying to learn everything they can from one another about how to get that extra edge.
So what do triathlons have to do with juggling multiple projects?
One of the reasons I got into triathlons in the first place was that I have a bad right knee.
Like, really bad.
For a long time, I thought about doing a marathon, so when I was recovering from knee surgery I asked my physio whether I might ever be able to attempt one. He just crossed his arms and glared at me.
Okay, okay…message received.
But triathlons are a great way of pushing yourself physically without straining yourself too much. Running 26.2 miles would be murder on my joints—it hurts just thinking about it. But because you’re switching up muscles and movements in a triathlon, you’re less likely to end up with nasty wear and tear. In fact, you may even find yourself doing better at each of the sports in question because you’re cross-training the whole time!
I like to adopt a very similar approach in my writing.
Write like a triathlete
As long-time PBP subscribers will know, I’m always juggling multiple writing projects. I’m writing books (sometimes more than one at a time). I’m editing books. I’m writing articles and book chapters and book reviews and—on good days—short humour. Oh yeah: and I’m also writing Page by Page. And approaching these projects with the mindset of a triathlete is what makes all this possible.
Here’s what I mean:
I embrace variety. I avoid working on things that are too similar to one another in terms of type, scale, or scope. Sometimes I’m co-authoring or co-editing. When I am working on two of the same thing (e.g. two books), I try to ensure that they’re for different audiences, or that they’re different types of books (edited volume, single-authored academic book, public-facing book, or a scholarly ‘minigraph’ of 20,000-30,000 words). By embracing variety, I write more without getting overwhelmed.
I stagger publication schedules. All my writing projects are at slightly different stages (e.g. drafting, editing, proofs, proposals, etc.), something Carissa Harris also recommended in our last ‘How to Write a Book’ workshop on ‘Managing Multiple Projects’. Staggering my writing and publication schedules helps me avoid getting slammed with, say, two book proofs at once! Sometimes it means telling somebody I can’t write or edit something…for now. But it’s worth it!
I treat each project as ‘recovery time’ from the others. Swimming, cycling, and running each put stress on different parts of the body. By switching between these activities, triathletes give different parts of the body a little recovery time. I adopt a similar approach in my writing. Every good writer needs to take a break from a project in order to be able to come back to it with clear eyes and fresh ideas. Just because it’s recovery time doesn’t mean nothing is happening—we’re all familiar with the way that ideas for a particular project can pop into our minds when we’re in the middle of doing something else, whether it’s walking the dog, watching TV, or working on a totally different project. So why not use multiple projects to build that time in?
What you can look forward to
These are just some of the things I’ve noticed since I started writing like a triathlete:
I’m producing more writing than I ever have in my life.
Switching gears and moving between projects has made me a better writer.
I’m discovering wonderful writing communities, from my inspiring academic colleagues (hi, guys!) to humour writers (*waves enthusiastically*).
I’m indulging more of my curiosity and pursuing more of my interests.
Did I mention I’m more productive than ever?
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VB,
M
Hi Mary, this is an interesting approach to writing, less juggling and more mindful. I am wondering if you could comment more on the “micrograph” and where something of this length can be published?