If you’ve made it through my series of posts this far, you know I’m blogging about the sixth of seven principles put forth in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, by Michael J. Gelb. I’ve been relating each of the principles to the activity I love—writing fiction.
Today’s principle is Corporalita, the cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise. These aren’t attributes we normally associate with Leonardo, but it turns out the maestro was quite the he-man, fitness buff, vegetarian, and dieter. Who knew?
Now you’re wondering how I’m going to relate this to the story-scribbling art. Well, not to put too fat a point on it, writing is a sedentary activity. A sedentary inactivity, really. Unlike hobbies such as running, weightlifting, or sports, writing won’t leave you in better shape. Worse shape, more likely.
If you’re not careful, writing will make you fat. It’s easy to consume your favorite snack while writing. If you do that once, you’ll form a habit that’s hard to quit. The more you write, the more you’ll eat. The more you eat without exercising…let’s just say you might write a book as good as Jules Verne’s Five Weeks in a Balloon, or you might become a balloon in five weeks.
If we reexamine that definition of Corporalita, we see it’s more than just fitness. It’s an enhancement of your body in many ways, including grace, ambidexterity, and poise. You can boost grace and poise by dance, tai chi, or yoga. Become more ambidextrous by using that ‘other’ hand for more and more things in your daily life. You don’t have to go to da Vinci’s extreme of writing with the other hand.
I’ve been talking about how to embrace the Corporalita principle. Here are some writing-related reasons why:
- Relate better to your characters. Most often, appealing characters are the young and fit ones. Even if not young, either the protagonist or sidekick should be able to engage in vigorous activity and to survive the hell you’re putting them through. The closer you relate to your characters, the better you’ll convey them to the reader.
- Have more to write about. I’ve mentioned some activities to improve Corporalita, including dancing, exercise, tai chi, and yoga. Engaging in these activities will expose you to more people (giving you character ideas), problems and skills (giving you plot ideas), and places (giving you setting ideas).
- Get a better attitude. Your self-image has a lot to do with your attitude. As you improve your fitness, lose weight, become more poised, and gain ambidexterity, you’ll feel better about yourself; those positive feelings of confidence will come through in your prose.
- Write without tiring. You might think you’d be too tired to write after vigorous exercise. Strangely, it’s the opposite. As you improve your body’s health, you’re sharpening your brain as well. You’ll find yourself able to write longer without drowsiness.
- Appeal to readers. If you go to conferences and book signings, potential readers will see you. Yes, they choose you primarily for your books, not your looks. But if your great physique happens to attract more readers and you make a few more sales, what’s wrong with that? Also, the more fit you are, the easier it is to endure a long conference.
- Write more books. Here’s the best reason. If your body’s in good shape, you’ll live longer. If you live longer, you’ll have a lengthier writing career and will produce more output.
If you want to think like Leonardo, work on your grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise. Still working on my own Corporalita, I’m—
Poseidon’s Scribe