"It's like riding a bike!"

[athelind]

"It's like riding a bike!" is an old cliche to describe a skill that doesn't atrophy significantly when left unused. If you learn to ride a bicycle, you'll always know -- you'll always have the reflexes and kinesthetic knowledge. If you go a few years without riding, you may wobble a little for a few minutes when you get back on, but it won't take long for everything to come back to you.

Writing is not like riding a bike.

Writing is like body building.

If you let the discipline drop for too long, all that hard-earned muscle turns to fat.
And not in a good way.

I'm not sure that's the best analogy, either, though. I spent far too much of the last few months unable to assemble a coherent paragraph, but when everything finally clicked, I was, if not at the top of my game, a good ways up the slope.

Still, I plan to keep writing on a regular basis after this paper's done. Work on some freelance RPG projects; script my Magnum Opus Web Comic; at the very least, try to get one decent-sized LJ post in every other day.

Comments

[drleo.livejournal.com]

If you let the discipline drop for too long, all that hard-earned muscle turns to fat.

That's a bit of an old wives' tale. It's a bit more complicated. But part of it is not that hard-earned muscle turns to fat, but rather your body just burns off all that hard-earned muscle since it doesn't need it anymore. Which, I think, is an even more apropos analogy for this. You stop using it -- it goes away.

[lynn-onyx.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. I need to write more.

No, scratch that.

I need want to write more.

(I am having problems accepting that I might actually want to do things, and that my desires are legitimate. So I'm working on it.)

[pavel-lishin.livejournal.com]

at the very least, try to get one decent-sized LJ post in every other day.

I tried to do that. But then school got in the way, and my friends list turned boring, and was totally empty of any sort of inspiration. :(

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

script my Magnum Opus Web Comic

You're gonna do a strip about an ammo-packin' penguin?

*exit, stage right, dodging fruit all the way*

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

You know, I found exactly the same thing. For years, I had stopped thinking of myself as a writer. Writing fiction, in particular, was something I had done as a child and a teenager but had stopped doing as an adult. I always meant to get back to it, but never quite did.

Then Piet introduced me to lj, and in the eight months since that happened, I've begun and nearly finished an entire novel in a genre I'd hardly looked at before. I'm not going to let myself stop writing again. THis has been too good for my soul. I need this creative outlet. I need to be a crafter of stories. A part of me had shrivelled up, and has now unfurled and is growing like mad once more.

So I know what you mean.

[stalbon.livejournal.com]

Hrm, that depends, I suppose. I write serious projects for myself probably at the rate of one per year, but of course I still do college papers every month and I roleplay online just about everyday, all of which helps to keep my writing 'wits' about me, I suppose. If all I did was write actual stories at the rate I do now, I wouldn't be able to say how easily it would come, given how I'd let myself deteriorate. Still, writing is most certainly a skill you need to keep sharp. I'm really glad I can still write well and keep things I started over a year ago interesting for me, but I'm not sure I can make a career out of it, given my sporadic bursts of writing. Blah, I dunno.