Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Celebrate Your Successes

We hope that for you, this marathon has been a month of going deeper, and finding meaning and inspiration from your work. 

Whether you've finished the full marathon, or instead found yourself running a half marathon or 5K, take a moment as the month ends to look at what went well with your writing or illustrating this month, and to evaluate whether you could continue it on an ongoing basis. Could you do mini-marathon weekends every other month? Or keep a notebook with you to record ideas before they slip away? Figure out what worked, and run with it. 

One of the most helpful things about the marathon is idea generation, but, as Jean said this week, the marathon puts those ideas to the test. You get to see if you can actually make them work. And if they don't work one day, maybe they'll work the next. Or maybe you find, after a week of coming at it from different directions, it's time to move on. If it's still an idea that keeps nibbling at the edges of your consciousness though, you might find that your brain eventually figures out how to make it work. So don't pitch those files or notebooks quite yet.

We'd like to thank Will Strong once again for the great marathon logo. Thanks also to all of you who have run with us this month. Take a moment to let everyone know how your marathon month went in the comments section of the blog (I noticed a few already on the last post). While you may feel that it's time for a break after marathon madness, it will soon be time to March into revisions. We wish you the best of luck, and look forward to next year!

10 comments:

  1. I finished the last manuscript today, completing it just under the wire. lol! This was a lot of fun and generated some new ideas for me. :)

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  2. This was my first marathon, and I doubted I could come up with one PB, let alone 26! But I'm happy and surprised to say I have 26 new PBs. Thank you for doing this, and for the encouragement.

    Now comes the work of "what's next..." :)

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  3. Moonduster congratulations. I only did half as many as I should have. Have lots of excuses, but none of them work. However, I am thrilled that I got so many new ideas to work on. I love doing the PBM and will participate next year. It definitely gets you to focus on what needs to be done, if you're a PB writer.

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  4. Well, if nothing else, the PBM gave me the inspiration for a couple of blog posts! (http://beblevins.blogspot.com/2012/02/slightly-inspired-by-artificial.html ) . I also now have a list of picture book ideas I'd never have come up with otherwise. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  5. The last week was a struggle for ideas. I am going to start keeping track all year! But I did all 26 and my critique group will have lots to work with, once the stories are tidied up! Thanks again for doing this! Robin

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  6. I MADE IT! 26 ideas AND illustrations! Some are in color, the rest to be colored in March, but ALL COMPETE! Check them ALL out at my BLOG:

    http://monisawa.blogspot.com/

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  7. Never thought I'd have to say I didn't complete all 26! I'm 8 short, but I guess I have to look at it as being 18 richer than if I hadn't tried. Meeting the goal last year was much more meaningful than I had expected, so I was really motivated to do it again this year. We have experienced quite a collection of family emergencies that have simply meant hours away this month. But everything can be the new impetus for a story, sooooo here goes! Thank you for organizing this and supporting it. This is a wonderful effort and a great thing for any writer to do! Thank you!

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  8. Woohoo! Finished all 26! I also finished my 12x12 in 12 manuscript. So, busy month. I'll be looking forward to some 'time off' to work on them. Hoping to get a blog posted tomorrow with more details!

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  9. Can I still get a mug with Will's logo at Cafe press? Is there a link?

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  10. I'm sort of stunned that so many of you guys were able to get 26. I hit 13 complete or partial first drafts, and am proud of it! A half marathon is not a marathon, but it's a LOT more than I would have written in a normal month, so I'm still pretty satisfied with the experience.

    One of the best unexpected elements of it? I really had to look at my schedule in earnest, and began to make a regular writing schedule more of a habit. It's something I hope to carry forward with. It also helped me get over the need to only produce quality work. I just kept plowing forward with different stuff, and figured some would come into its own and some would need to wait. And that's what happened.

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