P is for Practice

Another day with many options. I almost went with Play because it's fun to play outside and do activities that also are fitness, but in the ended decided on something else. Make sure to check out other blogs here.


Both fiction writing and fitness require some levels of practice. While there are some activities when can jump into feet first with no base, there are many  others where practice will give much better results. And even on some of the easy stuff to get started, there can still be improvement from practicing or doing the activity often with different measures to show improvement.

Fiction

Each draft in a way is practice. However, some are more practice than others. Many writers will say that their very first novel (or several) were more of practice novels and ones that are best left in the dark trunk hidden from daylight. While the first novel I ever finished a draft of, during nanowrimo nonetheless, is still one I may consider publishing, it definitely was practice. I have learned a lot from each attempt at finishing a first draft. The same goes with each rewrite and edit. Every stage of the writing process has involved learning and practicing the skills on short stories and novels helps improve my skills each step of the way.

Practice writing. Do flash fiction, short stories and genres that may not be your strongest or even one you plan to publish. They all have elements that can help you improve the skills for the one you want to get to the readers. Give things a try and you might be surprised were they take you.

Fitness

Many things can be practiced in fitness. Playing sports is an obvious ones because they even call the times taken in preparation as practice. I used to go to practice for many different sports when I was younger, like volleyball and basketball. While playing the games were a part of them, there were other elements involved that were geared towards helping improve our abilities for the game. Even in the gym now, at times, doing a practice can help. I first worked on learning form, which is in essence practicing a move at a really light weight in order to get the motion down before working on lifting heavier. Between stages of New Rules of Lifting for Women, I did also do a couple practice sessions in order to practice the new set of lifts to see what they were like and where I'd need to go in my gym to find the required equipment. Even the couch to 5k training I'm doing is practice, helping me learn to jog so one day I can jog just over 3 miles. Practice is good for our fitness and along the way, we get better because we took the time to work on our skills.


How do you practice?