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How You Can Balance Writing & Exercise

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balancing writing and exercise via wit and travesty

I started working out regularly in high school because it seemed like that’s what everyone else did. Nearly all of my kids did a sport of some kind, and both of my parents have always been super active, so I fell in line.

What used to be an activity I did out of fear, I now do it out of fun and fulfillment. Can you say the same? I’m writing this post because I imagine each of you have one good habit nailed down and you wish you could add more good habits. For me, I am much more diligent with exercising than writing. Going without movement for a week sounds terrible to me, but pretty normal in regards to writing.

So while I’m reading your posts about setting a good writing regimen, I’ve got some ideas for how to add more exercise into your life. This goes out to anyone who feels like they have zero time for exercise—or they do make time for it and hate it.

Set your own expectations

As you might’ve guessed, every body is different. Thus everyone should have their own unique expectations for what is considered “healthy” for your body and your schedule. I want you to think about your expectations down to the bare basics: what do you want exercise to do for you? Try to eliminate as much outside bias as possible. Don’t work out because you think it’s what you’re supposed to do or you have to be a certain weight. Scratch all of that; otherwise you’ll be spending a lot of time and money reaching someone else’s goals.

Here are some examples of some goals my friends have in regards to exercise:

  • The ability to do a head stand
  • Do a proper plank
  • Live longer
  • Have more gratitude
  • Be strong enough for pole dancing
  • Eat whatever they want
  • To have more fun with their kids
  • Participate in competitions
  • Avoid hereditary setbacks
  • Have a moment for themselves
  • Be more flexible

Ultimately, your goals and expectations should be exciting and motivating. What’s a form of movement that you would actually look forward to: swimming, martial arts, dancing, yoga, playing Pokemon Go? Could you see yourself doing any of these activities for the rest of your life and feel happy?

Follow your own definition of health

Once you have a goal, it’s time to change more than just your schedule. Exercise may come with a lot of baggage. We all have different ideas of what constitutes “health” and for a long time I tried desperately to fit into other people’s ideas and definitions of “healthy.” Can anyone else relate? After working with a personal trainer for the past six months, I’ve learned better, correct, and healthy ways of gauging my progress. It took a lot of unlearning stuff that I just assumed about working out.

I hope the same for you. If you’ve avoided exercise because of bullying, negative body image, or whatever life has thrown at you, it’s possible to give yourself a fresh start by having a healthy outlook on health.

Still, don’t be surprised that it’s still hard and frustrating. I have good gym days and rotten ones. Some days I feel like I’m putting out the maximum effort and yet I still feel bad about myself. Some days I just hug my body and think the best things and other days I can’t look at myself. Just like writing, you’ll have your ups and downs but if you remember why you wanted to exercise, it could motivate you to keep going and keep trying.

Use the same drive you have to write to exercise

If you already have a good writing schedule, then you likely already know how hard it is to consistently do an activity that no one is making you do. Writing and exercising are both activities that I plan on doing for the rest of my life regardless of the outcome. Since they’re both a lifestyle for me, I use my prioritizing skills for writing and exercising to ensure they both get adequate attention in my weekly schedule.

As a refresher, here are a few tips to help you fit exercise in your week without pushing other things out:

  • Work out on the days/hours of the day that you have energy
  • Don’t let other things take away from your exercise time
  • Exercise with other friends—specifically friends that have similar lifestyle goals
  • Let your body rest when you’re sick

I’m not sure if you use guilt or shame as a motivation to write (“I’m not a good writer if I skip a day”) but I’m just gonna go ahead and say that guilt and shame will get you in the gym but you won’t love it. Thus, I’d strongly recommend that you ease into your lifestyle goals rather than have the mentality of “starting Monday I’m going to do XYZ.” If you’re only exercising because you feel unnecessary and unsound pressure, then don’t. Only exercise if you enjoy it or you know you have the drive to reach a certain goal.

Let exercise help your writing

I know it’s probably unwise to suggest multitasking, but if you are strapped for time in a day, then you might be able to fit in some writing or researching time as you workout. Depending on what you do, you could use the time to think about a scene.

For example, if you’re on a treadmill, you can sort of let your mind wander and fill that time with some thoughts about your novel. If you bring paper and a pencil, you can record your thoughts. This is kind of like getting really good writing ideas while you’re in the shower except hopefully you’re not too wet from working out.

Exercise could also indirectly help you ensure your writing is realistic. Even if your character is in a fantasy setting, they’ll eventually break a sweat, right? Consider weightlifting. After a while, you’ll recognize how heavy 20, 50, or 70 pounds will feel. That might come in handy for something in any novel. You naturally learn a lot about the human body as you take care of yours, so you could learn other things such as what it feels like to pull a muscle, sustain an injury, or push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Well, I hope you don’t injure yourself in the gym for novel research!

But most importantly, let exercise free your brain. Your writing can often encompass a lot of your bandwidth. For me, I spend all day on a computer. After a full day of writing and editing, I often would rather do just about anything than write or read another word. That’s probably why I love exercising so much; it gives my brain a break and I genuinely feel happy after a good workout.

Satisfy your budget and schedule

Depending on your weekly schedule, exercise will likely only take up 3-5 extra hours in your week. I’d like to help you figure out how to make exercise work as much as possible with your budget or lifestyle.

If you don’t know where to begin, you can always get a trainer at a local gym. Like a therapist, you should pair up with someone who understands your goals and has an agreeable personality. I use a Health Savings Account (HSA) to cover my costs. If you have this kind of budget, it’s totally appropriate to use it to pay for personal training!

If you prefer to work out at your own pace, then you have a ton of resources online—anything from YouTube videos, workout videos, Just Dance, Pokemon Go, workout apps, and more.

You can even try one of those TV/movie workouts where you do a certain exercise every time a character does a very typical thing. An example would be doing 5 pushups anytime someone performs a spell in a Harry Potter movie, or 10 crunches anytime Malfoy uses the word “Mudblood.” That way you’re multitasking during an upcoming binge fest! You can find a lot of these on Pinterest if you’re not feeling particularly creative.

balancing writing and exercise via wit and travesty

So that’s what I’ve got for today! I hope these tips help my fellow writers get more excited about exercise. If you have personal questions for me, hop over into the comments or on Instagram and I’ll help however I can.

Also, if you’d like to get more behind-the-scenes content, updates, and more, be sure to sign up for the Wit & Travesty newsletter! Click here or the image below to start getting monthly doses of self-care, writing advice, and friendship!

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My 5 Tips for Keeping a Regular Journal

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tips for keeping a regular journal via wit and travesty

You may not know this about me, but I keep a regular journal. I actually started journaling in middle school because we moved to Okinawa, Japan and I thought it would be important to document my experiences there. I probably didn’t record a lot of nuance or interesting things like I predicted, but it started an amazing habit that I’ve kept up for seventeen years. That’s a lot of notebooks filled up with my thoughts!

If you’d like to start a journal or you’d like to be better at it, here’s just a few ways I journal and stick with it.

1. I Set an Established Pattern

Rather than journaling every day, I write every Sunday. Simply put, I write about the previous week and transition throughout the week with phrases like “Wednesday was better,” to signify which day I’m talking about. Since I’m fairly busy, it’s reasonable and easy to just stick with weekly recordings. I’m less likely to fall behind and less likely to forget what actually happened.

I choose to write something about every day because I happen to find interesting things to say about each day; it happens when you plan a pretty packed week, right? If you feel like you live a pretty routine life, you don’t have to talk about those days. If you’re starting a fresh journal, you could detail what a normal day looks like for you, then you could start a new entry when you want to share a specific memory or event.

You’ll notice that I specifically picked Sunday. It’s a slow, relaxed day for me, it’s considered the start of a calendar week for the majority of people, and the pattern is ingrained enough that I always set aside time for it. Maybe Monday is a better day for you; the point is to be consistent to give yourself a chance to succeed.

2. I Reference My Daily Planner

Since there is a lot of different things going on that I want to record, I tend to summarize my day in my planner. Yes, I keep a print planner, so I can write down my to-do lists and list out what I did that day, current events worth noting, or even some small victories or miracles. I like writing positive things because it keeps me grateful and it helps me avoid negative thought spirals.

Then, at each Sunday, I just look back at my mini lists (usually phrases or keywords to help me remember) and record each memory in order. This is really nifty if you don’t want to write every day. It’s also helpful if you want to record honestly.

For example, it’s normal for married couples to fight, and I feel like I should be honest in how I record fights I have with Travis. I think  it helps me process what actually happened but also remind myself it’s normal and how we mend hurt feelings. If I didn’t write those notes, I could easily forget what we were even fighting about!

I also want to remember small things that Travis does every day (like how we sing parodies of songs but put each other’s names in and on the spot talk about how cute they are) so the scope is balanced. My journal isn’t just recording my anxiety episodes or only recording my victories like my Insta feed. It’s a mixture of both, and I like that.

3. I Have a “Target Audience”

I know that’s such an SEO/marketing term, but it’s basically what we all do when we write, anyway. We usually write with a specific reader in mind. So who do you write to in your journal? I think the audience has changed over time but I tend to write to someone who wants to know the real me. That audience tends to be people who a) are interested in family history and b) my future kids or grandkids. It’s kind of weird to think that far ahead, but if I imagine a curious kid trying to sneak a peek in my journal, what would I want them to know about me? Simply, I would want them to know that I was just like them as a kid: flawed, naive, happy, sad, determined, creative, curious, and simple.

You don’t have to start off with “dear reader” or ever reference the reader. But like most writing goals, it’s easier to be consistent and genuine when you can feel like you’re writing to a real person. Even if your target audience is literally just yourself.

4. I Journal Differently After Vacations

Depending on how long my vacations are, I tend to treat those entries so much differently. During normal weeks, I talk about Monday, then Tuesday, and so forth. For vacation entries, I just have one big entry where I list out memories in no particular order. To me, it’s easier to get the sweetest and most interesting stories or memories down when I break my own rules for just a bit. It becomes more of a free-write because I’m referring to a list of things from my planner (if I look at it at all during the vacation) but just recording things as the memories come back to me. I like to include everything from small details I noticed about my vacation spot, to activities I enjoyed, to stories about random twists and turns. It could even just be a description of something that a photo couldn’t fully capture.

I’m also a perfectionist, and writing a list is easier to check off the journaling task rather than going through every single day of that trip like I normally do. If the vacation is longer than a week, it’s very easy for me to be behind, and there’s nothing worse that being behind on journaling!

I used to take my journal with me when I went on vacation but that ended up being unrealistic; I hardly write anything while on vacation (since that’s all I do for work and free-time at home), so I ended up bringing it for nothing. Now I don’t let it “nag” me until I get home and I pick up my usual schedule.

5. I Don’t Edit Myself

As an editor, that’s not a normal thing to say, but in my journal, I hardly proofread. If I write the wrong word or present something inaccurately, I will scribble it out and write the correct word down, but I don’t go back and proofread what I just wrote. I also let myself use slang, fragmented sentences, and everything in between. It’s fun to look back at the weird slang I’ve used over the years. When I lived in Germany as a missionary, my slang was CRAZY. It was a mix of German, English, and missionary lingo. In a few years I might not even know what I’m saying. Or, seeing that could take me right back to those memories.

This also feels very genuine to me; if I want to portray the real me, then I’ll keep the words I actually use. This might take some pressure off of you; I think we all journal like someone’s gonna find it and publish it like Anne Frank’s diary. That could seem pretty intimidating! So if you feel a bit awkward or formal as you sit down to journal, just free write and tell your own story on your own terms.

So that’s it on my end. Do you keep a journal? How many have you filled up? Let’s talk journaling on social media or in the comments.

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5 Things I’ve Learned from Publishing My Debut Novel

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publishing experience via wit and travesty

Is it really true that I’ve learned this much in just a month’s time? Oh my days, yes. I’ve been going on a roller coaster of emotions from the day I accidentally published my debut novel to this present moment.

I’m sharing these thoughts as a way for me to process everything that has happened, but also to continually be real and honest about the process. I feel like a younger, unpublished version of myself would’ve appreciated a post like this when writing or editing got tough, so I hope this helps at least one person out there.

Without further ado, welcome to my real, honest, emotional thoughts on self publishing.

People Really Care About My Success

So many people have been cheering me on and I’m overwhelmed by the positivity and love. As a perfectionist and someone with anxiety, it took a lot of guts to move forward with this goal. Mainly because I didn’t know what would happen after I reached the other side. Will it open up new doors for me? How long do I celebrate? How many variations of “thank you” can I create in response to all these compliments?

I’ve written before that it’s often difficult to receive compliments, especially a wave of them. I feel awkward when someone is really nice or continually nice; I think it’s because I want to say something meaningful in return but I’m often at a loss for words. So when I end up with just a simple “thank you” for a reply, it feels wrong.

Well,  y’all certainly gave me a lot of practice in accepting compliments, because I continually get messages from family members, high school friends, colleagues, internet friends, and even other brands/senpais that I didn’t think were noticing me! Ugh, it’s a lot but honestly, I’ll keep writing books if it means that I get to be surrounded by all this positivity.

There’s No Right or Wrong Way to Self-Publish

Your experience will be different based on your genre, goals, and how much you put in the process. But I think a lot of us want things to happen perfectly and in the right order. Or we want our publishing experience to be just as good as someone else’s. Was I supposed to publish in June? Should I have undone the accidental early publication so that we’d be full steam ahead for August?

Sometimes I wish I could undo everything and start when I felt prepared, but my book is out there now and I’ve been able to really observe what works and what doesn’t work for me. And that’s something I’d encourage for you: observe what other writers have done, do diligent research, then go with your gut on whatever tactics work for you and your book.

That’s ultimately the beauty of self-publishing: whether you want to accomplish the base goal of publishing a book all the way up to making a certain amount of profits, there is a path for you and I know you’ll find it.

There’s Still So Much to Learn

I thought I knew the publishing process, but it’s totally different once you make the plunge yourself. And I think that’s true for everyone in this business. I’ve been told many times that you usually have to write or publish multiple books before you “make it big.” And to be honest, being a huge superstar would’ve been nice but that wasn’t the goal.

The goal was to finally claim the title of “published author.” And I did it, y’all! But I still want to get my book out there and make some waves. That’s something I need to figure out on my own and work towards that goal. Publishing without much of a goal is really tough; it makes it fairly easy to get discouraged. If there’s no finish line, how will you know you made it?

Also, I didn’t anticipate other steps that would’ve helped me avoid some pitfalls. I should’ve spent more time in the final review process to catch grammar errors. I also didn’t know it was normal for writers to release an update edition of their books to fix those errors and provide a better reading experience. I thought that was a sign of failure, but it’s not as rare as I initially thought. Phew!

I do still want to learn and improve my writing and my marketing abilities. As my dad put it, it’s like being an 8th grader getting a C in a 11th grade chemistry class. He likely used this analogy because I’ve never taken Chemistry! It did make me feel better when I started getting less-than-stellar feedback on my book.

It’s Still Hard to Separate My Worth from the Reviews

This was probably the hardest section to write because I’m still learning and relearning this lesson. I had no idea that reviews would affect me as much as they do. I wanted to check and see if my ARC readers had chimed in with their reviews and I was shocked. Honestly, anything less than a 4 or 5 crushed me. I definitely wished I could wipe everyone’s memory, take all the books back and only return them once I had fix everything “wrong” with my novel.

Ultimately, I wanted to fix the book so everyone would be happy—not just proofreading errors but storytelling elements, too. Maybe a 3-star review isn’t all that bad but that didn’t stop the imposter syndrome from creeping up my back and into my brain. I had a lot of anxiety knowing that my book signing is coming up and I wasn’t confident that people would want to buy a signed-but-flawed novel.

It took a lot of crying, a lot of talking, and a lot of doing-anything-else-but-writing to clear my head. With all of that, I got a lot of feedback from writers, readers, friends, and family—and that really meant a lot to me. Like, I’ve got tears in my eyes thinking about the words and feelings you sent my way. I still have a tendency towards pleasing people but again, I’m relearning the lessons that so many have tried to teach me:

  • Not everyone will be my ideal reader
  • Give your book a chance
  • You can only improve from here
  • Your work is not tied to your value as a human

I set out to write a book that was unlike any other, and now I have to deal with the consequences. Still, I was really hoping that people would like this long-term project. I’ve literally been working on it for half of my life, friends! And with that, I’ve carried 15 years of expectations. That’s a lot of unlearning to do, but I know you will help me when I trip myself up.

I Wrote This for Myself & I’ll Continue to Write for Myself

Whenever someone asks me why I write, I always think back to a younger me picking up Shannon Hale’s Goose Girl and thinking, “I want to inspire someone like me. I want to be someone’s Shannon Hale.” Don’t worry, I stalk her appropriately on Twitter without making a fool of myself.

But I’ve always wanted to lift others up and I’ve always wanted to write the books I wanted to see on the bookshelf. Like, Destiny Seeker has so many female characters. I wanted a book where things were reversed; there were guy sidekicks this time, more women in power, and more girls finding courage within themselves.

So now my continuing mantra is “I’m writing for myself.” At the end of the day, this book is a 5-star gem to me. I can’t make anyone else fall in love with my writing. Hopefully I write enough and learn enough that this perfectionist-friendly task gets easier, but as for now, I’m writing my kind of fiction. This post will serve as some kind of time capsule for when I’m discouraged in the future. You’re writing for yourself, honey. Everyone is writing for themselves. And I just have to work towards accepting that not everyone will love my work or honor the effort it took to get here.

So yeah! That’s what I’ve got for you so far! And I would love to hear your thoughts on publishing whether or not you’ve achieved your goals yet. Also, let me know if you want to see more posts like this one. I’ll likely share more lessons learned as I’ve had more time to learn them!

If you’d like to get more behind-the-scenes content, updates, and more, be sure to sign up for the Wit & Travesty newsletter! Click here or the image below to start getting monthly doses of self-care, writing advice, and friendship!

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TESTIMONIALS

Whitney did a copy-edit on my third novel, Checkmate. She was a pleasure to work with, and helped me give my novel that final polish that it needed before publication. Put her on your list for editors that help your work shine!
Angelika Offenwanger
Whitney helped me with two short projects written for children, and she was very pleasant to work with. She has an eye for detail, helping me with small grammar errors as well as insights about adding scenes that would enhance my story. Her turnaround time was extremely quick, which I really appreciated when on a deadline!
Brittany Olsen
Whitney McGruder has created a vast and imaginative world in Destiny Seeker with surprises to delight the reader at every turn. Readers can settle in to devour the diverse and ingenious magic Destiny Seeker has to offer. I highly recommend it.
Jessica Frazier
Whitney and I worked together in a writing feedback group some years ago and have remained in touch since then. From the beginning, I was struck by her absolute responsibility as an editor. Even in the capacity of a group member, not even being employed or contracted by me to edit my work, Whitney was unerringly punctual, thorough, and accurate with her feedback. Her advice is genuinely insightful and I believe the marketability of my work was noticeably increased due to her guidance. I so value her skills that I still turn to her as a resource after three years of working with her in-person have passed.
Jonathan Baker
I won a contest via Wit & Travesty in the summer of 2017. The prize was a professional edit of the first 100 pages of a WIP. My middle grade fantasy was only 90 pages, so she read the entire manuscript. She was communicative and positive about the project. Her edits markedly polished up my manuscript and were easy to understand.
Rachel Barnard
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