13 Aug

Pinspiration & perspiration – the overlap between novel writing and triathlon training

Like, Lord of the Rings epic.

A few months ago, I joined Pinterest to see what the fuss was about. After unsubscribing from the generica I got for checking too many boxes for my supposed “interests” (i.e. arts, travel, food) I looked for pinboards on my more specific actual interests: snarky pro-women politics, martial arts, pulp novel covers, and so on. At the same time, I registered for my first triathlon, and continued working on my first novel. I started looking at what people post on their boards under ‘triathlon’ and ‘writing inspiration.’

Funny thing — they’re not that different. If you want to write a book, you gotta start writing a little every day, believe that you’ll make progress, and keep going. If you want to get fit and compete athletically, you gotta start working out a little every day, believe that you’ll make progress, and keep going.

So here’s a little quiz! Which of these inspirational quotes was pinned for writing, and which for fitness? The first one is a freebie, since the fitness inspiration ones have a frightening tendency to feature ladies in their sports bras looking prettier than you, but I think some of the others are not so easy. Answer key at the end!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

Answer key
#1 Fitness
#2 Fitness
#3 Writing
#4 Fitness & Writing (I’ve seen several versions of this pinned both ways)
#5 Writing
#6 Fitness
#7 Writing

Are you inspired? Another day I’ll post some of the obvious ones which can be switched by changing “writing” to “running” or vice versa. Right now, though, I need to go get epic.