Writing Is Like Skiing

The other day I took a ski lesson.

Call it a successful check-off on my long list of bucket list items.

I had been on skis before, but only a few times to do some cross-country skiing.

I wasn’t sure quite what would happen if I attempted to go down a hill.

I’m not a young man, and I have a trick knee from a long-ago football injury.

I was apprehensive, to say the least. I didn’t want to tear up my knee, break my bones, or perhaps kill myself.

To sum up, I did okay – aside from getting off that stupid ski lift.

Alright, I admit, I managed to go from the top of a snow-covered gentle rise to the bottom – the beginner’s slope.

Our teacher stood below us, yelling out instructions, pointing his hand one way and then the other.

And really, that’s all there was to it. Like a bandleader conducting his musicians, he led us zigzagging down that hill.  

I was in this rhythm descending that incline.

Good writing is like that.

When you get into a rhythm, the words flow.

That rhythm comes from writing every day, preferably the same time every day, sitting down at the computer or before that tablet and just letting the words come.

The good news is if you continue writing, if you don’t give up, you’ll become more proficient at it, just as if I continue with skiing, I’ll become better.

You may stumble in your writing, just as I am sure to stumble and even fall if I continue with skiing and even take on bigger hills to descend. Heck, I’ll probably fall flat on my face a few more times just getting off the ski lift.

Practice makes perfect, to borrow a time-worn cliché. But of course, it’s true.

Find your rhythm and the writing comes more easily, like snowflakes gently falling from the sky.

Mike Reuther is a longtime author with a number of books on writing. His works can be found at https://www.amazon.com/Books-Mike-Reuther/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AMike+Reuther