One of the lessons I learned early in life was that participating in one sport, helped you in another. Volleyball and basketball were the first ones that I saw an improvement in my playing and abilities. The term crossing training hadn’t been invented yet, or I hadn’t heard of it. The skills that seemed to synergize were shooting the basketball, and setting the volleyball.

While not traditional in the crosstraining, the two skills are very different.

Cross-training refers to an athlete training in sports other than the one that athlete competes in with a goal of improving overall performance. It takes advantage of the particular effectiveness of each training method, while at the same time attempting to negate the shortcomings of that method by combining it with other methods that address its weaknesses. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-training ]

In today’s blog I want to share some cross training ideas that I came across that I will try and use when I am writing.

One of the ideas is clearly presented in this Ted Talk by Amy Cuddy

http://new.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are

This ted talk needs to be watched to the end, don’t assume you know the conclusion. Think of it as training yourself to do something, like maybe writing everyday.

The other idea about cross-training I want to suggest is that you write off-genre. What I am trying to do is write a “Romance” piece for a mini contest. Writing off-genre will strengthen the other parts of your brain. Perhaps even help my Valentine’s Day plan…

I thought of it this way:

1) Writing has a variety of genres; Sci-Fi, Memoirs, Crime Stories etc. Each of these is unique in their own right.

2) At the same time they have a number of  common elements, Characters, Point Of View, Plot.

3) Therefore by writing in a different genre you may in fact be helping in one of the common areas for your primary genre.

The third type of cross training for writing that is interesting me is writing that is different length. Going into this I always dreamed I would only write multi-book series. What I am going to try and do is write a variety of lengths; short story and flash fiction, in particular, to help with me be focused and more concise for writing THE NOVEL.

Lots for me to think about and try out.

Next time, my meeting with a writing coach and how one hour has helped me immensely. As always

Be Well – dcd