Thoughts on Running

When I worked on my first book Running Shoes Are a Girl's Best Friend I did an exercise aimed at defining its key theme. Using a stream-of-consciousness clustering approach I typed the following list:

Running is fun
Running is joy
Running is cool
Running is special
Running is simple
Running is natural
Running is new friends
Running is achievement
Running is health
Running is ability
Running is determination
Running is yours to take
Running is creativity
Running is passion
Running is willpower
Running is a choice
Running is exploration
Running is discovery
Running is liberating
Running is mental
Running is crazy
Running is wild
Running is self-awareness
Running is nature/natural
Running is universal
Running is dedication
Running is challenging your beliefs
Running is trust
Running is amazing
Running is control
Running is freedom
Running is unlimited
Running is tough
Running is easy
Running is character
Running is laughter/funny
Running is weird
Running is feet
Running is legs
Running is lungs
Running is desire
Running is peace
Running is silence
Running is deep
Running is philosophy
Running is a way of life

A collection of poems

Yesterday I finished my fourth book, a collection of poems. Most of the 28 poems in this 64-page paperback titled Sunshine on a wooden floor I wrote between 2004 and 2006. Topics include love, family, writing, running and immigration. They were written without the intention to publish them. Rereading them now, I think that I am ready for some of these to be read. I am waiting for a proof copy of this book which I expect to be available in June.


As I describe in my third book A Work in Progress: Exercises in Writing, I began writing poetry in university. Here's Chapter nine, titled Aspiring:

My first published stories I wrote in the early 1990s for an alumni magazine—all were non-fiction. I remember feeling very excited about writing them and seeing them published with my byline.
    My first writing I did in diaries. Many of those, mostly haphazard, entries have disappeared during my many moves. One diary that survived is of the first year after I moved away from home at the age of 19 to rent a house with two fellow students. The first entry was on August 23, 1989 and the last one, on the final page of the journal, was on April 23, 1990. It’s the longest continuous diary I’ve kept and that’s probably the best thing about it: the writing is bad.
    One of my roommates and I also began writing poetry then. We’d take a bottle of wine and a few blankets to the local river in the early evenings and sat along the shore with our notepads, pens, blankets, snacks and cigarettes or roll-your-owns to write. The building of which we rented the top two floors was dilapidated. We spruced up a few walls by adding poetry, including our own, to them with waterproof markers.
    When I joined the board of the literary group Gheraert Leeu in Gouda in 1994 some of the poems I wrote in university were printed in a home-made bundle along with those by other board members. We read our respective poems at one of the monthly gatherings our group organised, typically for published Dutch authors to discuss their work.
    Invited authors usually brought some of their books to sell. I still have the ones I bought. My favourite inscription is from the late J. van de Walle in a hard-cover copy of a 574-page collection of novels and stories because it reminds me that my choice to take the path I am on now started developing then. Van de Walle, who was in his early 80s then, wrote: “For Margreet, the first girl with an interest in Dada - Breton - Magritte.”
    I wrote poetry throughout the 1990s. Most revolved around understanding my place in the world and the direction I was headed in. Writing my poems helped me clear my mind by organising my thoughts on paper.
    Exercise: Describe the first time you acted as a writer, even if you were not conscious of it then. Write about feelings, imagination and/or daily occurrences. Detail what you wrote, dreamt or thought about back then, why, and how it made you feel.

(End excerpt)

Good4Sports blog

I met Bob Babinski while we were both working as journalists for VANOC's Olympic News Service at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games at Whistler Olympic Park (apologies for all the caps, but it's VANOC ONS style).

Bob is a freelance producer/director and a part-time journalism instructor who does much of his work with CBC-TV Sports. He also runs a fantastic blog, good4sports, and I am honoured to be featured on it:

OLYMPIC TRADE-OFF
Would you put your quest for a sub-3-hour marathon on hold in exchange for a chance to work as a reporter at the Olympics? Read the Good4Sports Q+A with marathoner Margreet Dietz, and leave your comment.

One of the benefits of working at the Ski Jumping venue at the Vancouver Olympics was that I met a remarkable number of interesting people, many of them journalists. One of them is Margreet Dietz, a Squamish, B.C. writer and editor who worked the “mix zone” interviewing athletes.

What Margreet, 39, didn’t tell us at the time is that she is runner, and she was getting ready to complete her 12-th marathon (her PR is 3:07) – in Rotterdam in April. Turns out she’s also competed in Ironman races. Between the triathlons and the road races, she has more than a 100 competitions under her belt. [Read more]

NEW: A Work in Progress: Exercises in Writing

My third book A Work in Progress: Exercises in Writing is available as of today! After writing the first draft in April 2009, I have worked incredibly hard in the past four months to bring it into the shape it is now. It's a very personal account of writing, running and life with 33 exercises intended to inspire and encourage budding or blocked writers. 

A Work in Progress

Exercises in Writing

Authored by Margreet Dietz


A writer will do anything to avoid the act of writing, William Zinsser wrote in his classic On Writing Well. To improve as writers we have to hone our skills by putting words on the page, consistently. The 33 exercises in this book will help you do just that. In the process, you will produce a draft for your own book and decide to complete that other manuscript you have been wrestling with. A Work in Progress: Exercises in Writing started as a personal challenge that helped me win the struggle with my first book Running Shoes Are a Girl's Best Friend. Combining advice and encouragement from my favourite books on writing I committed to producing 2000 words a day for 10 consecutive days. I wrote for quantity and found the result had potential quality. This is my third book. Let's get started on yours!

Publication Date: May 02 2010

ISBN/EAN13: 1450541690 / 9781450541695

Page Count: 160

Binding Type: US Trade Paper

Trim Size: 5" x 8"

Language: English

Color: Black and White

Related Categories: Self-Help / Creativity