Showing posts with label jpg writes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jpg writes. Show all posts

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Thoughts on the Write All Night experiment

Congrats to Jim and Mike. They didn't make it until dawn, but they were both productive, so I'm calling last night's/this morning's experiment a success. I didn't last as long as they did, but I still got some crucial work done.

Some random thoughts from my end:

  • I regularly checked my email (for comments on my posts), my statcounter, and the other participating blogs. That proved a small distraction but a useful one. When my energy dissipated, I'd find Jim's energy still going. Jealousy and fellow-feeling prodded me back to work.
  • I hadn't been writing in the couple of weeks preceding the experiment (life managed to get in the way), so I faced the double difficulty of not only writing completely counter to my preference (I work best just after waking) but also getting back on the horse. Still, I was so enthused by the prospect of the Write All Night project that I got back into writing relatively easily. Now that Write All Night is over, I feel the fire under me again to work each day. We'll see how long that lasts.
  • I usually don't caffinate after mid-afternoon, so the cups of tea made it tough to go to bed at three a.m. After lying there thinking about the novel (and realizing something about a character), I convinced myself that if I didn't fall asleep soon, I'd get back up like Hulk Hogan always managed to do after getting "beat up." (Sorry, I'm channeling Bill Simmons.) But then I felt myself snap awake after drifting off and decided, yes, thankfully, I could fall asleep.
  • Waking up this morning was tough, but I felt clearer headed this morning than usual, even if this post doesn't necessarily reflect it. That's a nice change after the last couple of weeks.
  • Head over to JPG Writes and One Toe In to see their progress. Mike, as usual, outpaced us, but Jim and I are making ourselves feel better by mercilessly mocking Mike in back-and-forth emails. (Not true; I actually doubt Jim is awake yet.)

Thursday, February 08, 2007

It's me, Thomas Pynchon!

Actually, no, I'm not Thomas Pynchon. Not even close. However, I will be taking part in the most famous midnight ride since Paul Revere's:

This challenge we'll call Write All Night and it's too take place in the wee hours as March 3rd fades and March 4 begins. There's one rule. Start at midnight and go as long as you can, till dawn if possible. If you crap out, you crap out, but at least you tried. I'm going to do it and I'm going to post an entry every couple hours that night/morning just so you know you're not alone.

Feeling the funk? Join in. I'm looking at you, Wanda.

I wonder if Pynchon ever types his name into Google.