Let's Start at the very Beginning

Well, it is a very good place to start.

If you'll notice, the name of my blog is Novel Writing or Kung Fu Fighting. I write all sorts of fun fiction, and I train in Shaolin Kempo. Neither of these activities could be, in any sense of the word, labeled easy. Unless you put quitting in there somewhere. But I'm the stubborn sort, and haven't quit either yet. There have been delays, injuries, months without a fresh idea for writing and years where I wondered if I would ever get better at either venture, but I keep going. It took me a while to come up with the reasoning behind my stubborn persistence, and I think it comes down to one simple truth. I'm a bit crazy.

Most writers are.

And most martial arts students are at least crazy enough to let other people try to hit them in the face on a regular basis.

I wonder if doing both balances out the crazy or just makes it worse.

I have different reasons for sticking with each of these activities. My goals for writing and my goals for Kempo are very different, but the two combined make for a very interesting learning perspective.

Kempo and I shouldn't get along. I'm short, getting old, overweight, fight with one extra bad knee and have never been good at anything physical. (Unless mouthing off can be considered physical.) I don't jump, run, do back handsprings or climb up walls, but I can throw a mean combination when I spar, and my right jab is pretty quick. Our style of Kempo is awesome for me, because if it works on a short guy and not a tall guy, I get the chance to figure out how to make it work on the tall guy. Okay, I usually just look helpless and ask Sensei for advise, but the point is that he is willing to do that, and I can get creative when I need to.

Writing and I get along great. Our relationship started with reading. Ah, reading. It's easy to read and think, “hey, I can write something better than that!” Doing it, however, is a different story. If not for the years and years of Kempo, I might have quit writing a long time ago because I like to get things right the first go around. That never happens with Kempo, and it taught me a lot of patience, which I then applied to writing. The first time I had to re-write a novel I would have quit for sure. Don't get me wrong, I still don't like to re-write anything, but I understand that a better story is a better story, and I want to put out the best that I can give.

So I've got all of these lessons that I've learned. In an attempt to not forget them, and to maybe help someone else out, I'm going to put them here. Once a week you'll get a dose of Novel Writing vs Kung Fu Fighting.

It'll be fun, I promise!