by Jean Sidden

Created on: May 18, 2010

Endurance in a physical endeavor is something we train for. Over a period of time we become stronger and better able to sustain an activity for a greater period of time at a higher rate of performance. The same is true in writing. Due to the sedentary, yet mental, nature of writing it is often a strain to stay put and give your work the best you can. Endurance is something that will fuel your writing both from a physical and a mental standpoint.

Endurance is an attribute that can help us stay the course with any writing project we undertake. It is easy to set the novel aside for long periods of time, put the article off until the last minute or keep ourselves in a state of denial about all the rewrites we have to do. Endurance will help us keep an open mind to the hard fact that any good piece of writing takes time.

We will always have go back and re-do and rewrite time after time before we get a work that an editor will pass on as finished. Being adept at enduring the day in and day out rigor of the writing process will keep us from allowing frustration to take over. As time goes on, and we build our endurance, it will become more natural to simply go back to work each day until our job is done.

Endurance is the foundation for patience in writing. A patient writer is one that takes all the time necessary to flesh out an action to give it depth and detail. In the present time of technology and word processing writing has the potential to be swift and slapdash. As we see the words and pages build and build over the course of a short period of time we may become impatient even with the slightest slow down to unpack and embellish an idea. Endurance helps to keep us patient and meticulous about exploring every nuance.

Endurance may be compared with stamina. Sitting in the same place, in the same position for long hours in intense focus and concentration while making sure we attend to each detail is exhausting. Our necks get stiff, our hands grow cold and numb and our eyes tear up. This may be a sedentary activity but it is also a physical one. Our stamina to work through the physical stress and stay focused on our writing can be grueling. We must build our endurance to pace ourselves, take breaks to relieve our tired eyes and bodies and still come right back to continue our work.

A writing project can be like running a marathon. You wouldn't undertake a marathon without training first and likewise your endurance is trained as you continue to write. Be easy on yourself at first and realize that as you stick with your writing your endurance for the work will build and grow.

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