Regular Write-A-Thons

I participated in a write-a-thon sponsored by Precision Editing Group last Thursday and after a fitful start was able to finish with almost 5,500 words in 4 hours. It made me realize how valuable that writing time is, sharing it with other people and knowing you're not a lone. I did two things they didn't suggest, but I found helped a heck of a lot in the process. First, I found am MP3 of a person typing. I put it on repeat and let it play while I worked so every time I would stop I'd hear that keyboard typing away and it would remind me I wasn't alone and I needed to keep going. Second, I wrote with a friend. We opened up a chat window between us and updated each other on our progress. Simple things like, "Just hit 2,000 words" or "Just finished chapter 3." Occasionally we would stop and take a few minutes and say "I'm really struggling" or "This is really fun!" Whatever we did, we just kept on writing, and it made me excited to do it again.

Rather than wait for someone else to sponsor a write-a-thon, I'm going to sponsor my own. Unfortunately at this time I don't have any prizes to motivate people to participate, but perhaps eventually, or maybe quarterly, we can do something like that. In the meantime, you'll have the pleasure of knowing you're not only working on your books, but you are not alone.

So here's what I'm going to do. On Mondays from 10 am - 2 pm, and Thursdays from 8pm - 12 am I will be on Windows live messenger. My user name is writingpal AT live.com (insert @ symbol) and I am available for any serious writer. If you just want to chat with a writer, save that for another time and keep it clean. But if you want to write and have a pal to write with, open a chat window with me and let me know you are there and we'll write together for a few hours.

The second thing I'm going to do is post the typing MP3 in a player in my sidebar separate from my usual writing music player. That way, if you need the audible reminder that you really aren't alone, you can play that like I do. It makes it feel like someone is in the room writing with you. It really helps, trust me!

I'll keep doing this weekly, even if I'm doing it alone, but I do hope that some of you will join me now and then. I can hardly wait to meet you and write with you. If, for some reason, I am unable to be there on those particular dates, say because I'm on book tour or something, I'll let you know ahead of time, so you won't log on looking for me.

Hope y'all will join me!