A few years ago I interviewed comics writer Brian Michael Bendis, one of the biggest names in the business these days with a whole string of Marvel titles to his name.  At the time he was an indie kid, known for his crime stories Jinx and Goldfish, and just launching Powers, a police procedural cum superhero title.  I asked him when things had started to turn around in his writing, and he was very clear about the difference that made the difference.  The turnabout started when he took to cycling.  Every day, he’d spend a few hours on his bike doing the shopping and a little socialising, and when he came back home he’d find that, somehow, all the writing problems he’d had before he left the house had disappeared.  Hmm.

Bendis isn’t the only creator to note the importance of exercise in their process.  Walking was central to Charle Darwin’s routine, and I can report that when I lived in the country for a few months and took a bracing constitutional every day, that I’d come back with all kinds of writing nuggets, albeit no contributions to evolutionary biology.  William Wordsworth was another rambling writer: the title is the giveaway in Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, and part of what Blake was getting up to in his walks in Lakelands (no, not the kitchenware shop) was seeking – and finding – inspiration.

All of which is to say that mind and body are indeed one, and that writing is something that happens neck down as well as shoulders up.  Start paying attention to these things and you might notice that you breathe differently when you’re coming up with ideas.  That people often look up and make big gestures when they’re verbally painting the grand scheme of things, and peer down as if at a stamp collection when it’s details that are under scrutiny.  That there are consistent patterns to where you look when you’re referring to particular ideas.  And so on.

All very well, but even if this is the case, how can it help?  This is something I’ve been discussing of late with award winning science fiction writer John Meaney - there’s a link to his website somewhere round here.  And in the course of our conversation, we’ve uncovered a lot of clues about how John comes up with his particular brand of ideas.  More to the point, there are ideas that we can teach to other people, that I’ve already introduced to others with success in fact, based on John’s strategy for coming up with concepts.  Ideas which draw in part from John’s experience of martial arts. 

Anyone who’s done aikido or learned other disciplines will tell you that the business of centering yourself on the body’s natural centre of gravity has applications not only in the dojo, but in boosting confidence for everyday life.  If you don’t believe me, ask Penry, the mild-mannered janitor in Hong Kong Phooey.  Only, he’s a  dog.  In a cartoon.  So maybe he’s not the best source.  But have I ever let you down?  Before you consider that question too deeply, let me continue the advertorial.  John Meaney and I have come up with some Cool Stuff we want to share with you about how you can come up with ideas the way he does.  They work.  And they’ll be featured here, soon.