Ann Dee: I’m in

I am all for some kind of marathon.

And especially if there’s some kind of reward at the end. Other than having written a book or written all day or written at all.

I would say we should all go out to eat but I think we are spread across the country. maybe we could all go get Pad Thai at the exact same time and video eat out.

The only problem I have with the all day thing is the kids. I don’t know how that would work. I think it would have to be more like the NaNoWr (whatever the abbreviation is) thing. Like a certain amount of words. Or a certain amount of pages, time, etc.

The past few days I haven’t felt like a writer. I don’t really feel like a writer now. I have been 100% immersed in family, in cooking, in outings, in home projects. And the thing that worries me is that it’s been so nice. So nice. Sometimes I wonder if I really am a writer because lots of times, when I don’t write, I don’t miss it.

Then I finally get on the internet again and I see Carol’s post and I think, I need to be writing. A writing marathon would be good. Then I think, maybe I’m not a writer. I don’t ache to be writing every day.

A writing marathon is good. How should we do it?

Carol: A Writing Marathon

mar⋅a⋅thon [mar-uh-thon, -thuhn]
–noun
1. a foot race over a course measuring 26 mi. 385 yd. (42 km 195 m).
2. any long-distance race.
3. any contest, event, or the like, of great, or greater than normal, length or duration or requiring exceptional endurance: a dance marathon; a sales marathon.

Origin:
1895–1900; allusion to Pheidippides’ 26-mi. (42-km) run from Marathon to Athens to carry news of the Greek victory over the Persians in 490 b.c.
(definition taken from Dictionary.com)

So did you ever watch that movie, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? I saw it when I was a kid and I still remember parts of it. Kind of this dark, tragic show about a dance-a-thon in the Twenties (I think).

There are all kinds of marathons, right? The running kind. Dancing, like in that old movie. Haircutting marathons for barbers. Bercethons–which happen to be rocking chair contests, pianothons (at least 27 hours of playing, straight), and poolathons, too. There’s something for everyone. Crazy, huh?

Marathons have been on my mind. No, I’m not a runner. But yesterday, I held a mini-marathon for myself. I had lots of housework and laundry to get done. And I have this novel I needed to work on. So I gave myself thirty-minute intervals to write and clean up. I even announced it on Facebook–like for motivation. Weird thing? It worked for me.  I mean, I wrote and cleaned for several hours. I’m trying it again today (Monday, February 17), hoping for that same kind of success. Not so much cleaning, as that’s  done (now I have packing to do.). But those bite-size pieces of writing were successful and another few hours can only help.

I started thinking here on Throwing Up Words, we could have a writing marathon, and people might even want to participate. I know for many, especially those of you with young children or full-time jobs or both, this might be difficult. But we could start small, try it once, and if it’s successful, have a marathon day every once in a while.

We can talk about this, if people are interested. We could set the marathon day up in advance, so everyone knows when, how long, the time to start and etc. We could ‘sign up’ on this blog, keep in touch here, see how we’re all doing. You know, motivate each other. If we want, those of us who are close could meet . . . or we could all do our writing in our separate places–cleaning every other thirty-minute block.

So that’s the suggestion. What do you think? I’m including a few links I found online about writing marathons. Some you already know about. There’s a good article by Mette Ivie Harrison listed, too, called 50 Miles of Writing. Mette is a triathlete and well-published. You might enjoy what she has to offer about writing and running.

Let me know what you think. And Ann Dee, are you game?

NaNoWriMo (November) http://www.nanowrimo.org/
Picture book a day (February) writers@picturebookmarathon.org
NCTE’s National Day of Writing (October)  www.galleryofwriting.org
3-day Novel Contest (September) http://www.3daynovel.com/
Hints for writing marathons http://hubpages.com/hub/Five-Tips-for-Speed-Writing
50 Miles of Writing http://www.metteivieharrison.com/50miles.htmlC