Writing Marathon - Day One
Today is my first day of Writing Marathon for ANY OTHER FLAME. (For those of you unfamiliar with the practice: When I am under tight writing deadlines, I take a week of vacation from the day job and stay home to write. My goal is to complete (draft and edit) a minimum of 5000 words a day. With a good Marathon pace, I can complete 5000 words and draft (or edit) another 5000. I usually start on a Saturday and end on the Sunday a week later, generating approximately 50,000 new words.)
Alas, this is an abbreviated Marathon - we spent last weekend down in Charlottesville at the Virginia Festival of the Book. (Good time was had by all - my panel went swimmingly, I sold some books, left tons of signed stock in the local Barnes and Noble, and attended some amazing panels on topics as varied as "23 Amendments We Should Make to the Constitution" and "Nice Jewish Boys Gone Wild.") I have about a zillion new books on my to-be-read list.
Marathon was further abbreviated by our attending Opening Night at the Nationals new stadium here in DC. Despite the fact that baseball should never be played when the high temperature for the day is 44 degrees (er, Fahrenheit, if there was ever any doubt :-) ), we had a wonderful time. The game was storybook perfect (23-year-old team hero gets a walk-off home run after the game was tied up at the top of the ninth.) I provided a lap and chatter to my five-year-old neighbor when his mother went to find hot dogs in the fourth inning - I decided to accept with non-committal uh-huhs his statements that his first baseball game was when the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the World Series, that the Blue Jays had won back to back World Series in 1921 and 1922, and that he had seen Ty Cobb hit a home run that flew as far as the Capitol. All new meaning to Fantasy Baseball :-)
In any case - I have 5000 words under my Marathon belt, and I'm in a good place for tomorrow's writing session. If you're a writer, how do you handle your deadlines? Are you a tortoise or a hare? A sneaker-of-time-from-the-day-job or a setter-of-priorities-and-that-means-writ
Mindy, ready to decompress with dinner and Tivo
Alas, this is an abbreviated Marathon - we spent last weekend down in Charlottesville at the Virginia Festival of the Book. (Good time was had by all - my panel went swimmingly, I sold some books, left tons of signed stock in the local Barnes and Noble, and attended some amazing panels on topics as varied as "23 Amendments We Should Make to the Constitution" and "Nice Jewish Boys Gone Wild.") I have about a zillion new books on my to-be-read list.
Marathon was further abbreviated by our attending Opening Night at the Nationals new stadium here in DC. Despite the fact that baseball should never be played when the high temperature for the day is 44 degrees (er, Fahrenheit, if there was ever any doubt :-) ), we had a wonderful time. The game was storybook perfect (23-year-old team hero gets a walk-off home run after the game was tied up at the top of the ninth.) I provided a lap and chatter to my five-year-old neighbor when his mother went to find hot dogs in the fourth inning - I decided to accept with non-committal uh-huhs his statements that his first baseball game was when the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the World Series, that the Blue Jays had won back to back World Series in 1921 and 1922, and that he had seen Ty Cobb hit a home run that flew as far as the Capitol. All new meaning to Fantasy Baseball :-)
In any case - I have 5000 words under my Marathon belt, and I'm in a good place for tomorrow's writing session. If you're a writer, how do you handle your deadlines? Are you a tortoise or a hare? A sneaker-of-time-from-the-day-job or a setter-of-priorities-and-that-means-writ
Mindy, ready to decompress with dinner and Tivo
(Anonymous)
I'm a tortoise. I'm plugging along a bit at a time. Going for the steady daily word count. Someday I'll be able to devote time to a book like you do. I did for my first draft and loved being able to make 5-7000 words of progress in a day.
Adrianne
(Anonymous)
Adrianne