The Wall
I go running. Not so much in the past month, but since February this year I have been running on a regular basis.
There is a phenomenon that all runners encouter, and which you might have heard of called “The Wall”. The Wall is both physical and psychological. It hits marathon runners the most, usually about the 20 mile mark. In terms of physiology, The Wall occurs because you have burned up all your reserves of glycogen, and you aren’t getting enough oxygen to burn fat to provide the energy for the remaining few miles. You physically lack the energy to carry on. In terms of psychology, The Wall is a result of the full spectrum of emotions you go through whilst running. The euphoria, the despair. When the despair hits just as you run out of energy, you wind up thinking that you are a failure. You can’t go on. You are a failure and you might as well give up.
How do you avoid The Wall? Train to run the distance you are going to run. There is no point trying to run for 26 miles if you only train to run for 20 miles. Eat well. Make sure you have the fuel to get you from start to finish. All very sensible. But none of this will help you with the psychological aspects of The Wall. How do you get past it?
The best advice I have ever seen is this:
Keep running.
The Wall in your mind. It tells you that you have no energy left. It won’t let you acknowledge your second wind. It tells you that you are a failure. It won’t let you see how far you have come. But a wall is stationary. If you run, it can’t follow. Keep running, and you break through, you get past the wall. And you will get to the end of the race.
What has this got to do with writing?
In the past, I have likened NaNoWriMo to a marathon. A long endurance race for writers. For some of us, the finish line was 30 November 2007. But not for me. I knew that my story would not be told in 50,000 words, and would not be written in 30 days. It would need December, and possibly January, to finish it.
So I set off at a reasonable pace, taking my time. 30 November was not my finish line. But it has become my Wall.
I hit the 50,000 word mark on 30 November this year, then I stopped. I promised myself I would take a short break, only a couple of days, then get back to writing. But I haven’t, not yet. And every time I go to start writing, I find an excuse to leave it. A voice in my head tells me “you’re tired. You can’t write any more. Not yet. Take a break. You have no ideas left. Give up. Walk away…”
It is a voice I have heard before. It is The Wall.
When you are a runner, the only way to get past The Wall is to keep running.
When you are a writer, then just like a runner, you know what you have to do. In order to beat The Wall you have to do what you do best.
Keep writing.
As a kid I hit that wall doing my cycling and everytime I would slow down until I was dead at my door.
I changed my route once and never again did that route but I do have to say the 4 chiuauas and shitzu that chase me like a pack of hell hounds got me past the wall and it was exhilerating in the end. A second time around I was sure I would get off and beat the crap out of them.
Should find me some writing hell hounds. Thanks for the tip!
I had never thought of my ‘block’ at a Wall but I guess that was what it was. The night before NaNo was to end in my corner of the world and with a mere 2553 words I sat down to finish and I hit a huge creative block – which I realise was my Wall.
Mine is self sabotage – but this time, despite the crap week I had had, I was not going to allow myself to self sabotage and I forced my way through the wall – taking it apart block by block – word by word.
I too have had a rather long sojourn from my NaNo novel – I haven’t written any of it since 30 Nov – but I’m getting the spirit back again.
Thanks again for sharing your insights and sparking others to share their walls.