It is unsustainable, the forever writing. Fanny in chair, write till you drop – advice we were all given in our first year of literary apprenticeship. You must maintain your body or there will be no art. I’ve learned that the hard way. The fingers are tingling, the back stings hot under my scapula, there’s a wire shorting out.
Starting the day with stretching or cardio is not avoiding writing, it is a writerly thing, so long as it is distraction free. That means no emails on the bike, avoiding the CNBC reports of the crashing Euro, not taking the newspaper to the orbital. Peaceful spiritual yoga like exercise. Even though your day is not bolloxed up yet with other’s ideas and demands, even though you do not need, yet, the peace and quiet, keep the just-up-from-bed freshness through your exercise, then use it for a day of drafting.
