A to Z Challenge: E for Excitement and Endurance

A to Z Challenge
Theme: Creativity Toolbox

E = Excitement and Endurance

Excitement for a new project, for a new idea, for a creative way of looking at the world often jumps starts any creative project, whether writing or art, or cooking or photography, or music . . .

Endurance keeps us moving forward when the excitement has worn off, when the new project hits a snag, when the writing seems stale, the art feels empty, the cooking experiment has the wrong texture, the photo comes out blurry, and the music just doesn't capture the mood.

Excitement and endurance work together to get us to the finish and beyond that into the next project. We need both.

Yesterday I skied the Peak to Creek run at Whistler Mountain, in Whistler, Canada. The Peak to Creek run is 6.8 miles (11km) and tests skier and boarder endurance.

The Peak Chair is on the right going up to the top. The last part of the chair ride goes up over a sheer rock cliff.
It started out with excitement, especially on a sunny, powdery-snow day like yesterday. Then somewhere in the middle, my leg muscles were screaming, knees were wobbling, and then I fell into a bank of powdery snow and wedged my ski and boot under three feet of snow.

It didn't just happen to me but a couple of other people with us on the run.

Excitement had worn off at that point. I almost wanted to just lay on the powdery snow and say, "dig me out in the spring" but I dug out my ski, watched my sister-in-law help a stranger dig out her ski, and then we went down to an easy cat track run and let our legs rest.

Excitement and endurance together made the day a great ski day for me. One wouldn't have been enough. Endurance wouldn't have been joyous enough, and excitement wouldn't have lasted long enough. Excitement and Endurance worked together.

In my writing life, my current WIP is under critique. I have sticky notes everywhere, plans to cut pages of material and add others. A week ago, all excitement was gone and I was just in endurance mode. To keep my writing moving forward I wrote short stories and poetry, and then marked up my novel with more ink. I wanted to finish it in a rush - get it done, move on, but I also want it be good. It's going to take another rewrite. I will plan that out this month, get my sticky notes in order, and then I'm going to do a 100 day revision starting May 1st. Endurance is key, but I am having a few moments of excitement in my revision planning so I hope that endurance and excitement will work together for me through the end of the 100 day revision.

Writing Excitement and Endurance Exercise:
1. Write something that fills you with the sense of excitement!
2. Give yourself endurance writing times - 10 minutes today, 30 tomorrow, an hour the next day, three hours the next. How long can you keep writing?