Issue 93: On warm-ups and creative coaching

Nicole Zhu -

When I was younger, I played piano. My teacher wanted me to practice three times a week. The first chunk of each hour was dedicated to scales, which I always wanted to skip. But under the watchful eye of my mom, I’d take out my Hanon book and do at least three passes on the selected exercises. The scales were typically for the relevant major or minor key of the current pieces I was learning, allowing me to get used to the sharps and flats I needed to navigate. By the end of those exercises, my fingers skated rather than stumbled over the keys.

I don’t play piano anymore (apart from the few songs I still know from memory, which includes 100 Years by Five for Fighting), but since 2018, I’ve been going to dance classes. Similarly, the first twenty minutes of each ninety minute class is dedicated to stretching and grueling situps set to an EDM track. Only after my nonexistent abs have expired do we begin to learn choreography.

So many art forms require warm-ups. You can’t just dive straight into the thing. You need to get into the right headspace, or in the case of dance and other physical activities, prevent injuries. When it comes to writing, there’s the concept of morning pages, which involves a stream of consciousness writing that fills three pieces of paper. But I’ve always seen it as more tied to journaling than to creative writing. For years, I’ve wondered what could be my equivalent to a writing warm-up, something that both acts as a moment of creative transition but also primes me to sink into my current project.

Last month, I met Kara Cutruzzula on Zoom for the first time (after many years of newsletter and writing admiration) for one of her Open Sky Days. These were “15-minute mini sessions for creative thinkers, writers, and anyone who wants a quick spark of clarity,” exactly the jolt of inspiration and light creative coaching I was looking for.

I told Kara about how I had preemptively set expectations for myself this year that, between a full-time job and planning a wedding, I would write less. But in practice, it was much harder to accept. I didn’t want to overcommit and be burnt out, but I also didn’t love feeling alienated from such an important part of myself.

“Start with being realistic,” Kara advised.

She asked me what would feel achievable to do between now and the wedding in September (helpfully pointing out that this isn’t forever). With only ~4000 words currently in my next novel draft, being in intense writing mode didn’t seem realistic. Instead, I said that I’d like to “touch the project weekly.”

“Where is your container going to be?” she asked.

Translated: how will I make this concrete? Her suggestion was that I work on my book twice a week and decide each week where those one hour slots—the “containers”—will go. This way, it wouldn’t feel like I’m never doing enough or that it hangs over my head.

Since my chat with Kara, I’ve been doing a few things differently. First, I’m scheduling writing into my calendar, which I shockingly have never done despite the fact that GCal Rules Everything Around Me. Second, I’ve developed a writing warm-up routine of sorts. I’m a big fan of the podcast Writing Excuses, whose tagline is, “Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.” I listen to an episode, ideally before I write, and jot down notes in a listening log. This is a container of sorts too. There’s never any confusion when I need to transition from my warm-up into writing. (“You're out of excuses, now go write!”)

Some of my favorite episodes so far:

Lastly, I’ve been stepping back from drafting and instead, I’ve been using the prompts that conclude every Writing Excuses episode as my way of keeping the world of my novel fresh. One that I’ve been enjoying is figuring out who a character is by writing a monologue. I’ve been doing this exercise for my two main characters, and the words and ideas have been flowing with an ease that I haven’t experienced in a long time. I’m making choices and exploring the implications. I’m finding their voices and their quirks, and even if very little makes it into the actual story, it will inform their behaviors and emotions.

In a way, this is all one big warm-up for actually writing the novel. It’s helping me get into the heads of my characters, to understand their relationships, and to live in the world. Rather than staring at the blank page, the writing equivalent of stiff joints, I can move more fluidly and feel grounded in the work.

In my last newsletter, I shared Oliver Burkeman’s thoughts on what it would mean to be done for the day. Containers, I think, are part of the answer. I’ve reflected often on the uses and limitations of constraints, and while similar, the idea of containers feels different. Constraints can stoke creativity. Containers make creativity sustainable.

via @whotfisjovana

Creative resources

Recent reads & other media

“What happens to young people is a precursor to what happens to everybody else.” This is why The Second Coming by Carter Sherman is such a crucial read right now. It’s an insightful exploration of the ways education, politics, and the internet have shaped how Gen Z engages with sex—and what it means for our collective future. I’ve known Carter since college and have seen years of her on the ground reporting on reproductive health and justice, much of which has informed this book. Not only does she thoroughly explore both sides of what she calls “sexual conservatism” and “sexual progressivism,” but also weaves in cultural criticism (thanks for writing about fanfiction and Tumblr) and the voices of many Gen Zers.

I’m currently reading Five-Star Stranger by Kat Tang, which draws on the concept of Japanese Rent-a-Family agencies, examining isolation and the commodification of relationships. I went to Julie Soto’s book launch for Rose in Chains and finished it over the course of a few days, though it was a much slower burn than I anticipated.

My sister, E, and I have been watching summer alien blockbusters, including Nope and Men in Black (side note: 90s and 2000s movies had so much goop in them). I, like many others, took stock of NYT’s 100 Best Movies of the Century, which finally got me to watch Adaptation (very meta and thought-provoking about storytelling). In other movies, I enjoyed the hopefulness of Superman even if it was a little overstuffed, and I was really moved by Sorry, Baby and what it had to say about the non-linear nature of recovery and support.

Last month, my sister got us tickets to see Ramy Youssef’s comedy show at The Beacon Theatre, and to our surprise, he brought out Zohran Mamdani and Mahmoud Khalil! Hanif Abdurraqib wrote a really moving essay about this night:

I love the Hadith about a collective body because it is not just about pain—it is about sharing the full spectrum of human feeling. I am not drawn to action only because people have suffered or are suffering; I am drawn to action because I am distinctly aware of every inch of humanity from which suffering keeps people.

Some friends and I did movie-themed hangouts, including a Mamma Mia movie night (Greek food of course) and a Holes book and movie club (featuring peaches, pudding “dirt,” and a raw onion). E and I finished the first season of Andor, and I loved going back and reading Emily St. James’s recaps in her excellent paid newsletter.

Recently read short stories: “Mexican Goodbyes” by Dino Enrique Piacentini, “Cava Vena” by Weike Wang, “Find Me in the Light” by Priyanka Bose

Note: Book links are connected to my Bookshop affiliate page. If you purchase a book from there, you'll be supporting my work and local independent bookstores!

~ meme myself and i ~

Why movies aren’t as good as they used to be. Cat vs. printer. That scene in Sinners reenacted by Labubus. Impeccable summer vibes. I love the wedding lineup trend. When your brain doesn’t work quickly enough.

via @BioavailableNd