Creative Synergy: The Deep End

We Wrimos do amazing things when we set ourselves to writing a novel in a month. For many of us, however, our creative energy goes into more than one passion. Writer A. J. Graz explores the connections between his loves of swimming and writing, both which inspired him to persevere through challenges and discover a supportive community. 

You swim—cold, barely clothed—and gasp for air.  Your hand, sore from writing seven pages this morning, draws blood against the poolside grout.  The clock reads 4:55 am. 

A half-empty notebook rests on the aluminum bleacher.  The wrinkled towel tempts you with the hot shower waiting behind the sweating locker room door.
Three eyeless figures slip out of the water next to you, wearing hard-mirror goggles and snap-tight caps. Five more ghosts rise out of the next lane. No one splutters and gasps like you do.

The woman in the faded Chicago cap says, “50,000 free, decreasing. Go.” That’s an impossible distance, but no one acknowledges it. They simply kick off the wall, one after the other. No one looks back for you.

You gulp oxygen and lurch back into the frigid water, pushing off just one more time. 

It’s 20 days into NaNoWriMo and you have no idea how to hit 50,000 words. The story villain naps. The plot tangles like discount yarn. Snickering students will mock your rotten grammar for decades. Worst of all, you posted your name and NaNo goal in every neighborhood of the internet. With 25,000 words left, it might be wiser to fake a scooter crash.

Every regret in life nips at your heels as you slew in, chest heaving, to the end of the swim set. Your cheeks burn in shame. Then you glance at the clock, which must be broken, and check it against your swim watch. It reads 950 yards further than ever before.

The woman in the faded Chicago cap leans down and pulls off her goggles. Unforgiving glass reveals a mother’s tired eyes, ringed after a week of overtime and racing from softball to travel soccer. She smiles, drops a hand to fist bump, and says, “You tore it up today.  I don’t know how you do it—I was so tired that I almost went home.”

We Wrimos don’t always talk. We may not even acknowledge that we’re in the same pool. But we are there. Swimming, alone, in the dark, all together. Scribbling into leather journals next to cold cups of coffee. Typing furtively in the empty conference room at lunchtime. We fellow Wrimos are with you. And whether you know it or not, we’re tired too, and you’re inspiring us. Your writing, your idea, your creativity. We can’t wait to read your book, your poem, your memoir. Your story.

A. J. Graz is an engineer who lives in the Midwest and writes science fiction about karate, lasers, and treachery.

Top photo by Airman Magazine on Flickr.