WRITING LIFE
In the swim
There are parallels between writing and long-distance swimming as endurance sports, says author and tutor Lizzie Enfield, who has recently completely an epic swim
It’s 12km from Pelegrinska on the Eastern tip of Hvar Island, across a 3km channel of water to and around the coast of Palmizana island and I’m about to attempt to swim this distance. I’m taking part in UltraSwim 33.3, an open-water event that challenges swimmer to cover the distance of an English Channel swim, albeit over four days and in the distinctly more appetizing waters of Croatia’s Dalmatian Coast. Nevertheless, it’s a daunting prospect.
This may seem an odd way to start an article about writing. But as a novelist, podcaster, and creative writing tutor with Curtis Brown Creative, I’ve long told students that writing a novel is less like a flash of inspiration and more like running a marathon – or swimming the Channel. The comparison sounded good in theory. Now I’m putting my wetsuit where my mouth is.
I’ve written six novels (five of which are published), and regularly write scripts for The Spy Who, a podcast that climbs the charts even faster than I climb out of cold water. I know what it means to keep going when the going gets tough: when words are slow, when ideas seem stale, when finishing feels impossibly far off.