Half-Marathon of Words: THE WINNERS! and what we can all learn from them

THE RACE CONTINUES
EVEN THOUGH IT'S BEEN WON
CLICK FOR INFO ON HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Michael (gideon86) was the first to cross the finish line after only one week of writing.  He finished at 21,068 words.  We were amazed at his motivation and stamina! 

Patricia Timms crossed the finish line at 21, 283 words-- only hours after Michael.

Both writers blew my expectations for this competition
out of the water!

While only expected to "write in" their word counts weekly, both emailed me their accomplishments daily (or should I say nightly?  both tended to write until midnight and beyond!).  And what a successful strategy that was for them! 

LESSON? 
DAILY GOALS, PEOPLE!  AND MAKE SURE SOMEONE IS HOLDING YOU ACCOUNTABLE!

So, while I rearranged my schedule to write at 5:00 in the morning, rather than run or do a class at the neighborhood YMCA (okay, I tended to get up closer to 5:30.  i might as well just be honest or we all know erica will just "edit" this later and add that i'm lying!) to elevate my daily word count (goal of 1,000 words) from its usual count of zero.  I'd wake up every morning to one, two or maybe three emails updating Patricia's and Michael's words counts from over night. 

(They averaged 3,000 words per day.  Of course, math whizzes that I'm sure you all are, you had THAT figured out a LONG time ago (hello, 21,000 words divided by 7 days).)

I tended to get about 500 done before I showered each morning.

Anyway 5-ish AM came, I turned on the fireplace, poured a cup of coffee, sat in my barstool as carefully as possilbe while holding my breath so as not to wake up either child fearful that the pitter patter of little feet would only lead to demands for an early breakfast and therefore another ZERO words,  *takes deep breath*, opened my email to check in with erica and read emails like this:

day 1ish

Patricia:  "My word count for today is 1,736. This competition is giving me a pretty good indication of what NaNo is going to be like. I’m tired, but eager to fit my writing in whenever I can now."

Erica:  "I woke up and wrote about 350."

day 3 ish

Patricia:  "My total word count for this weekend is 4,762."

Erica:  "Okay, I'm up. Coffee made. Fireplace on. Fingers ready. It took me 1/2 hour to get this far. :)"


day 4 ish

Patricia:  "I tried to go to sleep early last night but I just laid there awake thinking of my story. I had to get up and write. Here’s what I managed to get down in words, 2,285. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it through the
day without a nap now."

Michael:  "I think I wrote a lot today. Ten hours. So I wrote over 6100 words."

Erica: "I think I just figured out my problem in this marathon. I've only ever been a sprinter. Nothing longer than the 400 meter."

day 6 ish


Michael:  "I made it to the 10.5k ... well a bit over. I still have another 10.5k to go. How does anyone do it without collapsing?  I still have another hour to work on it before I need to go."

(At this point I had no advice to offer him since I was at about 4,000 words.)

day 7 ish


Michael:  "I crossed the finish line! I just did my last count and I made it! YEAH! I'm exhausted, the sweat is pouring down my face and I can barely see."

Patricia:  "I started my story at 28,758 words and ended at 50,041"


"This was too much fun. I have a pretty good idea of what NaNo is going to be like now and I’m even more excited as a result. I didn’t know I could be such a fierce competitor in writing. My family had a fun time watching me pound out the words, get anxious, and eat a lot of mini sized Snickers bars. Wrappers everywhere, that’s all I have to say about that. Yesterday I was working so hard to get the words in that my left bicep started twitching. The twitching lasted from morning until I went to bed that night."

"My writing group has been cheering me on the whole way and demanding posts of more than 2,000 words per day throughout the week. That was a big motivating factor for sure."

LESSON?
SUPPORTIVE FAMILY, SNICKERS, WRITING GROUP, TEN HOURS OF NON-STOP WRITING, PEOPLE! 

oh and this:  WRITE. WRITE. WRITE.

and midnight vs. 5 am appeared to be more productive according to this little "study"

CONGRATULATIONS MICHAEL AND PATRICIA!

thank you both for competing and i'm so glad you had each other to make the race an actual race

to me, you are both winners

and thanks for the motivation

this is a much better kick in the butt than we gave over the weekend

now we all know IT CAN BE DONE

WE CAN WRITE AS MANY WORDS AS WE SET OUR MINDS TO

GOOD LUCK TO ALL YOU NANO PARTICIPANTS

keep in touch with michael and patricia via their blogs for motivation

patricia has some great nano footage planned, btw

this medal belongs to our first place winner
michael (gideon 86)! 



this medal belongs to all race participants:
jamie, dl curran, rach, and
our second place finisher:
patricia timms



We're also super excited to introduce you to Michael's NEW BLOG:  In Time...click on his name under his virtual gold medal to visit him!

Our other competitors have superior blogs also.  Click on their names under their virtual silver medal to pay them a visit.

Patricia:  Simplicity in Volumes

Jamie:  Writers Write, Right?

DL Curran:  words 'n' whimsy

Rach:  Rach Writes...

whew. this blog was enough writing for me.

i'll start my daily WORD GOAL again tomorrow.

promise.

just check my sidebar to be sure.

you can yell at me if it doesn't go up.

to 10k by sunday night.

that's right.

i'm challenging myself.

to 21k.

or maybe 42k.