E.A. Brady

The last time I did any one-on-one kickboxing training was about 10 or 11 weeks ago. The last time I put on my gear and sparred with my trainer was at least a month before that.

So, it was no surprise that when we sparred this morning, I was more than a little bit rusty. Being totally honest – I felt like I’d never even done it before! It sucked.

The sparring didn’t suck – that’s always a blast.

What sucked was forgetting how to throw combinations, and how to defend myself from the barrage of attacks my trainer was insistent on throwing at me despite the previously mentioned time gap between sessions.

But by the end of our time together, I had started to hit my groove a little bit. I managed to catch one of his kicks and knock him to the ground (although I’m pretty sure he felt bad for me and didn’t put up much of a fight – ha!) and then I did manage to legitimately land an uppercut to his liver. Yay, me!

I know it will sound weird, but what struck me on the drive back home was how similar it felt to coming back to a writing work in progress when I’ve been away from it for too long. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve done that.

Just this week I came back to a project that I’d only been away from for a few days, and it had that same feeling of floundering and ceaseless questioning of every move I made. The overwhelming feeling of, “This sucks.”

Please tell me I’m not the only one this happens to! Please?!

Just like with sparring, eventually I hit my writing groove again and the words started to flow. As the project stands now, I’m hovering right around 65,000 words out of a hoped-for 85,000.

Another week or two and I should be ready to put it aside (to edit later) and pick up the next WIP that I abandoned at some point and try to hit my groove and get that one finished too.

If only it was as easy as landing a liver shot!