Writing Warm Ups.

I rather like that phrase' loosen the ligaments',  it puts me rather in mind of what some musicians do when they're about to play the piano - finger stretches,  knuckle cracks hand flutters.  Or in the case of  the woodwind section, blowers making incoherent piping blasts before producing something a little more mellifluous. Or the artist who flings a bit of paint around in a haphazard before getting serious with his half inch brush.  So, why should writing be any different? Why should writers expect to sit down after making themselves ham sandwiches, or seeing the kids off to school, or putting on a dark wash and expect to immediately write sentences of great profundity or scintillating humour. The answer seems to be that they cannot.

One of my more regular physical exercises these days is the practice of throwing a medicine ball around. Strictly speaking I'm not throwing it around - I'm sure the neighbours, not to mention other inhabitants of my home would have something to say about that.  It's more of a regular hefting motion building in as many variations as is possible: lifting regularly from the side, through my legs, over the head in a circular motion - that kind of thing. All of which feels good and actually does feel as if it is physically effective in terms of exercise. But I have to be careful - not just of various mishaps waiting to happen: the odd table lamp toppled, a hanging ceiling light turned into a boxers speed ball,  the plasma TV screen waiting its firsts crack etc - but more my neck, my back, even my arms -  both bone and muscle. If I don't prepare myself for these little maneuvers I'm not just likely to feel painful twinges in my back and odd episodic stiff spasms in my neck both during and after exercise I'm not going to be able to the moves well, they will lack fluidity feel awkward.

Warming up is almost always necessary no matter what the skill. True you don't need to warm up prior to taking an engine out of a car or building a wall out of bricks - but that's not to say you shouldn't. I know, having completed similar tasks that often it's really difficult to make a start. Perhaps the reason why is because there is no conventional warm up leading to wielding trowels and spanners.  Arguably, things like that don't really require a warm up because they are neither not sustained actions like say running a marathon would be or an artistic skill like singing an aria. Singers are well known to sluice their vocal chords with a honey and lemon water concoction accompanied by maniac yodeling. And certainly athletes need to stretch their hamstrings before performing.  Certainly I need to warm up before I get my hands on that medicine ball.

It is with this in mind that I know that I need to do some warm up writing, any tripe will do - some people say that tripe is the better - the spilling of the subconscious which in many ways is what was behind that phrase about  ligament loosening.  So that's what I'm doing now. loosening my writing ligaments.