run

Whenever I need to find myself some motivation to write, I always find it helpful to go for a run. Running not your thing? Don't worry, it's not mine either, I promise. But when I actually stop complaining about it and get up and do it, it's excellent. Endorphins are the shit, a kind of morphine that is naturally injected into your body during exercise and other activities like eating spicy food, being in love and having an orgasm. Sounds like going for a run is a pretty good idea yeah? But there's more!

The best thing about running (or walking, for that matter) is that it clears your head. There's something very meditative about going for a run. Not on a treadmill in a gym, but through a park or along the beach, somewhere where the air is fresh and can cleanse your body. I think half the ideas I have about my writing are come up with on a run. And there's a way you can specify exactly what you think about without actually thinking... does that make sense? Let me reword it. There's a way you can still let the mediative aspect work, and let you subconscious tick along, but force it into thinking about a certain mood. Use music. I will always run with my iPod, it helps me completely escape into my head while I'm exercising. I've used classical music to help brainstorm ideas, but when I run I love listening to this:

Something epic!

How moving...

Thanks to Miss Canada Clements for helping my discover those tracks.

Now obviously I've just focused on huge sounds like this, and that's good for fiction; fantasy and adventure, but I have lots of different sounds to help me get in the mood and to get my imagination flowing. So give it a go! Get out and run or walk around a park, listening to something that will get you thinking.

I'll leave you with this, it's not really something to listen to when you run, but I'll come back to how CocoRosie helped me another time. Give some of their other songs a listen to, if you're game.

Candy Land